News from April, 2003! X-Man Vince
Xaudaro Interviewed on KONA Below is the interview conducted on KONA 610AM Tri-Cities WA this morning. The interviewer is Michael McDonnal, Morning Host and Sports Director of KONA. The guest is Vince "X-Man" Xaudaro, owner-driver of the UL-929 MICROSOFT OFFICE SHAREPOINT PORTAL SERVER 2003. Vince talks about the first ever Unlimited Light Spring Training, scheduled on the Columbia Cup course on Friday & Saturday, May 9 & 10. Vince is the only driver in Unlimited Light or Unlimited hydroplane competition that is a native of the Tri-Cities area; graduating from Kamiakin High School in Kennewick WA. He finished 3rd at the Tri Cities race in 2002. Click
here to listen to the interview! A much
better look at the recent Microsoft display!
Click any photo for a better look at the full size shot!
Click here for more on the Microsoft sponsorships!
Bernie
Little, "King of Boats" Dies at Age 77 Little is survived by his wife, Jane; two sons, Bernie Little Jr. and Joe Little; a daughter, Becky Ham; a sister, Catherine Moore; and four grandchildren. Memorial Services will be held Tuesday, April 29 at First United Methodist Church in Lakeland, Fla. In lieu of flowers the family has requested that memorial contributions be made to the Lakeland Regional Medical foundation and Watson Clinic Foundation in Lakeland, Fla. Little was a colorful, passionate and dedicated racer of boats. His record is unsurpassed with 134 race victories, 22 World Championships and 14 APBA Gold Cups. Little had been the most successful team owner in the history of unlimited hydroplane racing. Little's teams were sponsored by Anheuser-Busch for more than 40 years, representing one of the most successful owner/sponsor relationships in the high-powered world of motorsports. A force in hydroplane racing since 1963, Little completed 40 consecutive seasons of competition after entering 354 Unlimited hydroplane races. Little's Miss Budweiser finished in the top three a total of 230 times. At the conclusion of the 2002 season, the Miss Budweiser team was presented with the first Bernie Little World High Points Championship Trophy, which was renamed in 2001 in Little's honor. A native of McComb, Ohio, Little was a resident of Lakeland, Fla. As a youth growing up in the Depression era of the 1930's, he operated a morning and evening newspaper route and found time to polish cars, shovel snow and caddie at the golf course on the weekends. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Little and his wife settled in Florida and began building a dynasty in aircraft and automobile sales. He opened an automobile dealership, and he performed as a stunt pilot with the "All-Miami Air Show." Later, Little started leasing airports and eventually selling and leasing airplanes. It was during this time that Little entered Unlimited hydroplane racing with his first boat, Tempo. In 1972, Little purchased his first Anheuser-Busch distributorship in Lakeland. He later purchased two additional distributorships and turned all three into major successes. In addition to Little's unprecedented racing accomplishments, he had received several honors both in and out of the sport of Unlimited hydroplane racing. The Unlimited Racing Commission (URC) honored Little in 1985 for his dedication to the sport with the inaugural Gar Wood Award. He was elected "Owner of the Year" 12 times by the URC; named to the Unlimited Hydroplane Hall of Fame in 1980 and the APBA Honor Squadron in 1981; and was inducted into the Hancock County (Ohio) Hall of Fame in 1988, the Florida Sports Hall of Fame in 1982, the Stan Sayres Hall of Fame in Seattle in 1980, and the Sun Dome Walk of Fame in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 1992. Little also was the recipient of the Unlimited Racing Commission's Historical Award in 1992; was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in Novi, Mich., in 1994. Little received the prestigious Horatio Alger Award in 1994. The Award is bestowed annually to ten outstanding Americans who have achieved success despite having to overcome difficult childhood circumstances and have become adults who exemplify hard work, honesty, and service to others. As a businessman, Little was awarded the Polk County, Fla., Top Manager of the Year Award in 1992, and was named a "Hometown Hero" by the City of Lakeland Advertising and Publicity Board in 1993. In 1987, Missouri Valley College honored Little by granting him an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree in recognition of his outstanding accomplishments and service to the community. In February 1996, Little was honored with a special achievement award from the prestigious APBA Hall of Champions. It marked the first time the Hall of Champions had ever honored anyone other than a driver in its 22-year history. For those who knew Bernie Little, he'll always be remembered as a hard charging, dedicated individual.
Anheuser-Busch sponsors the three time ULHRA champion UL-72
Budweiser / Pocket Check out the new
2003 Valleyfield race logo!
Starting May 1st 2003,
you will be able to buy your tickets directly on the Valleyfield website, www.regates.ca
Make you plans to join us in Valleyfield today! Meet Shockwave
team’s Rick and Shawn Bridgeman
I was there to interview Rick and Shawn in their brand new space in Tumwater, WA.
“No . . . neither one of us had ever even been to a boat race. After we got married June 11, 1977 (Rick made a point of knowing the date) we bought property and built a home on Black Lake. We couldn’t help but watch the races. Here we were on this lake and we started talking about buying a pleasure boat or a race boat. “We ended up buying our first race boat in 1990. It was a really beat-up 5 Litre, but the worst part was that it was too small! I couldn’t fit in it and, besides, I got beat by everybody. Sooo we went out and bought the (first) “Flyin’ Hawaiian” and renamed it “Shockwave”.
Far from watersports, Rick starred in football, basketball and track at Tumwater High School, then raced motorcycles (GP and Hare Scrambles). Shawn, who grew up on Black Lake, was a champion waterskier, as well as a member of the Tumwater High School swim team. She taught Rick to enjoy the water. Rick seemed headed for a career in law
enforcement, and even worked for awhile with the Sheriff’s Office until his
path took an altogether different turn. He was offered a position with Ted’s
Red Apple Markets in Shawn owns a day care center, managing a dozen children. She is also Commodore of the Olympia Power Boat Association (for 6 years) AND she is Race Director for the Columbus Park/Black Lake Inboard Race. They recently hosted a race kickoff party for 75 guests. Rick and Shawn watch their daughter Stacy compete at fast-pitch; and are doting grandparents to daughter Shannon’s baby Chloe.
Congratulations to Jody Patton, Larry Zbeetnoff and the City of Kamsack. They are finalists for the annual Tourism Saskatchewan award of excellence, for “Thunder on the Duck”, 2002. Professor Ha Hasan, a former Seattle school
teacher and crew member for the late Doug McIntosh, is now at Waipu High,
Honolulu. He is using hydroplanes in a pilot program to give troubled kids a
good reason to come to school. “Everybody wants to be in his class,” says
one student. Click
here for the full story. "World's Fastest
Unlimited Light Hydroplane" offers a series of great web updates! A full UL-5 Freedom Racing
Team update! The team recently snatched up a blown motor Glen Davis had for sale on our for sale page and should have it in hand at this time. The engine was professionally built by George Woods and dyno tested by Performance Engine Development in Tacoma. This engine project was designed to explore the power levels of a supercharged big block and address the parity issue. This engine made 1100 hp with 10% overdrive at 6800 RPM. Talking with Kevin Braun via e-mail, Kevin explained, "There was a lot more work to be done than we thought because the center section of the boat, from the front of the engine to the transom, was delaminated. We had to repair that before we made the additions to the boat." Kevin kindly offered to send us a photo update! "The pictures I am sending you are: the last piece of the extension being glued in place, the part being vacuum bagged, a view of the extensions all in place and a picture of Kevin Aylesworth and Rich Aylesworth sanding the bottom of the boat so we can paint it." Kevin has our thanks for the following shots...
More on the new
Microsoft sponsorships! Big news announced in
today's Seattle Times business section...
Having trouble reading the text beneath the photo? Quoting the paper, "Microsoft roars into sports sponsorship with four unlimited light hydroplanes. The boats, displayed this week on the Microsoft campus, bear the names of new products such as SharePoint Portal Server. They'll race starting June 7 with an event on Lake Sammamish, then travel around the country on the hydro circuit, including Seafair." The boat pictured in the photo is Tom Eckenberg and John Tietz's UL-19 Spirit of Coeur d' Alene! The team finished fourth in both the 2002 Unlimited Light Owner and Driver High Point Standings. For more on the conference during which the boats were displayed, we turn to Micronews, Microsoft's employee newsletter... Hydroplanes were displayed in front of the Microsoft Conference Center from April 15 to 18 as part of the Accelerate with SharePoint Products and Technologies campaign, which was launched during a three-day developer conference hosted by the SharePoint team. "Acceleration is what SharePoint is all about—helping customers quickly deploy great portal and collaboration sites to increase individual and team collaboration,” said Kurt DelBene, corporate vice president of Authoring and Collaboration Services. “Developers are an important audience, as the SharePoint products are also platforms built on .NET technology that allow developers to bring in Web components." The conference provided about 450 developers from around the world with an opportunity to learn about Microsoft’s upcoming release of SharePoint Products and Technologies, including Windows SharePoint Services (formerly SharePoint Team Services), SharePoint Portal Server, Web Parts, Front Page, InfoPath, SQL Server, and Microsoft Office 2003. The focus was on the developer extensibility of these technologies. A great partnership and a
welcome addition to the Unlimited Lights family! Safety First!
It's time for teams to check those seat belts...
A champion racer returns to racing! George Woods jr. is returning to hydroplane racing following a 10 year hiatus. But he's not coming back to what most race fans remember; Woods driving a turbine Unlimited. He's returning to his real love in racing....supercharged big block horsepower. He's returning with the real growth series in the American Power Boat Association. He'll be part of the Unlimited Lights; behind the wheel and tuning the supercharged power of the UL51. When last in a race boat, Woods was the victim of a blowover accident in Kansas City MO driving the turbine Unlimited U-8 Tide. The boat did a complete 360 and landed right side up. As a consequence, Woods sustained serious leg & back injuries from the compression his body endured as the craft slammed back into the water. It took Woods about 2 1/2 years worth of surgeries and rehab work before the Lake Tapps WA resident could walk again, normally. But still, returning to racing was out of the question. As Woods told this interviewer, even after all of the rehab he didn't have the upper body strength needed to drive a 200 mph 30 foot long turbine hydroplane. Fast forward to about 3 years ago, George underwent subsequent surgical efforts that helped him to regain much of his lost upper body strength. Yet, returning to racing turbine hydros didn't have a great appeal to him. George Woods is, and always has been a racer and a talented engine builder-tuner. For 30 years his greatest enjoyment in racing came from building, tuning, and racing supercharged race boats. His talent as a K-Boat racer or K Racing Runabout (KRR) is renowned, with numerous national and division titles and a Kilo straightaway record of better than 144 mph in the supercharged flat bottom runabout class. He set records in hydroplane classes including the former 266 class known as 5 liter hydroplane when Woods broke the competition record. The class is now called National Modified. Plus Woods has spent many of the past 30 years in circle track & drag racing, either as an engine builder, or tuner, or driver, or all three. As an Unlimited driver, ULHRA historian Fred Farley notes that prior to his career ending crash at Kansas City, " George Woods was one of power boat racing's most respected chauffeurs. George stepped up to the Unlimited category in 1987 and was Rookie of the Year with Jim Harvey's OH BOY! OBERTO team. His best season in Unlimiteds was 1988 when he won two races--Miami, FL, and San Diego, CA--with OH BOY! OBERTO. Woods scored his most popular win at Seattle, WA, in 1992. Driving THE TIDE for owner Bill Wurster, Woods staged a thrilling come-from-behind victory in the Final Heat of the Rainier Cup on his hometown Lake Washington race course. His highest finish in Unlimited National High Points was a second-place in 1992 with THE TIDE. He finished third in 1988 and 1989 with OH BOY! OBERTO, in 1990 with MR. PRINGLE'S, and in 1991 with ULTRA BOLD & DASH." So, what does George Woods jr. have to prove? Absolutely nothing, and he's not out to prove anything. He's a racer, and racers race. But this decision to take on the UL51 project with Joe Frauenheim and Phil Bononcini didn't come about immediately. The new owners acquired the current UL51 during the APBA National meeting in February in Detroit. The boat was built by Ron Jones sr. in 1981 as a Grand Prix hydroplane. It was basically, at least in outward appearance, a little brother to the famed Griffon Budweiser, also built by Jones a year earlier. The boat was worked on by Woods in helping to set up the boat for then owner Dave Sutton. It went on to win 3 races as a GP hull, but has sat idle for more than 10 years till acquired by Frauenheim & Bononcini. Woiods says the hull is in excellent shape. Frauenheim and Bononcini, the 3 time UL champion owners of the UL72 Budweiser Pocket Mechanic, acquired the UL 51 for the same reason they do many other things in the ULHRA; to better the sport and the series. They knew that Woods had some history with their new-old boat. They knew that Woods had a talented touch with and fondness for supercharged race boats. And they knew that George, along with Glen Davis, had built the "test bed" supercharger motor which was dyno'd this winter in order to draft new rules for "blowers" for the Unlimited Light series. That same motor will power the UL5 Team Freedom from San Diego, this summer. So they approached Woods with this idea. Could he help with the set-up of a UL approved supercharger motor for this ex Grand Prix hull? Further, could he help set up the boat, which will now sport an enclosed canopy cockpit for the first time? Woods said yes..And he felt up to taking a few laps in the 51 in order to get is right for racing. The more he thought about it, the more interested he became in trying competition one more time; not to win, but to compete in a competitive race boat again. It's that racer in George Woods returning to the surface. Woods has no illusions about the UL51. It's a 20 year old design....not up to current standards. But his career has seen Woods get the most out of rides, in preparation, testing, and in competition. And he fully expects the UL51 to be "competitive". Gary Pugh of Performance Engine Development of Tacoma WA is building the supercharged powerplant for the UL51. Pugh is also the builder for the UL72 Budweiser Pocket Mechanic and the UL929 of Vince Xaudaro. Both of those craft are "normally aspirated" or carburetor engines. The UL51 will be Pugh's second UL supercharger customer, along with the UL17 Miss Ted's Red Apple Market of Rick & Shawn Bridgeman. The Bridgeman's are also campaigning an ex GP hull. They made a brief debut last season but plan to be on the full circuit this summer. Woods knows from his 30 years of experience that nothing grabs an audience at a motor race more than the sound of a supercharged engine. Fire up the engine and people flock to see and hear. He's excited by the prospect of a half dozen or more supercharger boats competing on the circuit this summer, helping to grow the Unlimited Light series even more. But he also knows something more personal. That is how much he's missed the "camaraderie" of racing. When you've raced for 3 decades you make a lot of friends in a lot of areas around the country, and amongst your teams and those you compete against. As part of the UL51 team this summer, Woods hopes to revisit some of those friendships and the camaraderie. Will Woods race the UL51? That wasn't the original plan, but it is now. First, the Impact Racing shop of the UL51 and UL72 are busily installing the new cockpit and other updates in preparation for the arrival of the Gary Pugh P.E.D. powerplant. Then they'll go to Spring Training at the Tri Cities on May 9th & 10th. That's where George Woods will get a first hand feel for being behind the wheel again. It's where he'll learn first hand how well the changes the team is making have succeeded in revitalizing a 20 year old hull. And at age 53, he'll find out if his rebuilt body can take the pounding of a 150 mph Unlimited Light. If it can, then watch for George Woods jr. around the UL circuit this summer in the UL51. If his body isn't up to the task, George, and Joe & Phil will find another driver to take over while Woods continues to finesse the development of a successful 900 hp supercharged engine. As he says, that won't be easy. Making a 1200 horsepower engine run successfully at only 900 horsepower in a 3000 pound boat, is quite an assignment for any engine tuner. But finding a way to make it work, and finding a way to entertain thousands, and finding a way to "crank it up" with supercharged hydroplanes, is why George Woods jr. is back. In our discussion, I mentioned that the last time George raced, the Unlimiteds were using the flag start. In recalling George as one of the best "clock starters" in the business, I asked if that's something he'll enjoy in the Lights.....a return to clock starting. Over the phone you could hear the smile on his face. For when a racer in just a "competitive boat" knows how to clock start, sometimes that's all it takes. By weekday he's a successful Kenworth Truck Salesman. But once more, by race weekend fans around the U.S. and Canada will again get to view a true racer: We won't call him "Kotter", but we will get to Welcome Back, George Woods jr. John Lynch Click here for updates from March, 2003
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LAKELAND,
Fla, April 26, 2003 - One of the most recognizable faces in motorsports history,
Bernie Little, owner of the Miss Budweiser unlimited hydroplane team passed away
April 25 in Lakeland, Florida as a result of complications related to pneumonia.
He was 77.
Presented
for the first time in August 1938, the regattas have been making a yearly
appearance on Saint-François Bay every since. Even during the war, the
event didn't falter. Unable to use boats due to the lack of gasoline, the
organization compensated by presenting rowing competitions instead!
