“Hey, Joe Clark and Clay Lacy… do you remember that time when Chuck flew around the world with you in just 37 hours?”.

      Yup. And, in a “borrowed” 747 from United Airlines, to boot. Set a world speed record in the process. Walter Mitty had NOTHING on Chuck Lyford.

      But now, those stories will never be properly told. Instead, select groups of friends will gather in the paddock at Pacific Raceways, or the pits at Seafair, or on the ramp at some airshow around the country. Everyone will have an adult beverage in their hands and they will all be smiling and laughing and eventually someone will say, “Hey, remember that time when Chuck.....?” And, there will be an endless supply of adventures to finish that question—complete with hand gestures and four-letter words—and everyone will
nod knowingly.

Chuck Lyford at 2016 Tri-Cities H1 testing session.

“Hey D.J. Haskin....do you remember that time when Chuck let you drive his motorized reclining-chair racer?”

     The man was competitive at everything he did. Like most motorsports people, there is spill-over. You might be a “car guy,” but you also have a hand in race boats. Or a “hydroplane guy” also plays with airplanes at Reno, because, well... a Merlin is a Merlin, right? 

      Chuck seemed to have his fingers—and friends—in all forms of it. That urge to be competitive and have fun while doing it was I think what got him out of bed every morning. One day, Chuck called me at work and asked if I wanted to meet him for lunch. Sure. So I walk down to the Metropolitan Grill and in rolls Chuck in a wheel chair with casts on both legs. 

     What the hell? “Well,” he says, with that sly grin and laugh of his, “Pam and I were over in Sun Valley. We were watching the Olympics and I saw those skiers who were doing the aerobatics off the moguls. I figured if they could do it, so could I.”

     Ruptured both Achilles tendons. The only hurdle this seemed to cause for our intrepid hero is that he couldn’t walk up the long steep driveway at the house to get the mail every day. So, what does someone in this pickle do?

Jim and Pamela Lyford pose in front of their 1938 Chevy Fangio coupe, which they used to win the Rally of the Incas.

Chuck Lyford was the project manager for the U-95, the first turbine-powered unlimited hydroplane to compete in a race. Powered by a pair of Lycoming T-53's, the boat was owned by Jim Clapp, designed by Ron Jones, and driven by Leif Borgersen. The U-95 tested in September 1973, but Clapp died the following winter. His widow, Pamela, then campaigned the boat in 1974, until it sank during that year’s Gold Cup race in Seattle. She and Chuck Lyford were married in 1991.

     I remember him telling me
once that when he asked Pam Clapp to marry him, her only requirement was that “he not work so that they could have fun together.” And, that is the Chuck Lyford I will remember. Everything done with that same
smile and laugh. “My only job  in life is to keep Pam happy,” he told me another time. Shouldn’t EVERY man treat the woman in his life that way?

     My brother once described him as a real life League of
Extraordinary Gentlemen, sort of

Cup for the PA system while only 14 years old. While he was there to call the action for many hydroplane races, his contribution to the sport became most prominent when he organized the Unlimited Radio Network in 1972. His voice became familiar to hydro fans from coast to coast as he called the final heat action live across the country.

     He also used his talents to promote the sport through television, calling the action on programs such as the CBS Sports Spectacular, ABC’s Wide World of Sports, and on ESPN. He also became a spokesman for Anheuser-Busch, and broadcasted offshore powerboat races as well as SCCA Trans Am auto races. Along the way, he played nine different musical instruments, performed in nightclubs with a group called the Four Scores, and would perform with stars such as Sammy Davis, Jr., Sarah Vaughan, and Vic Damone.
     In 2005, he decided to retire to Lakeland, Florida, but soon after joined the on-air staff of WONN Radio, where he had a regular morning program that featured music of the Big Band Era and other American standards. He suffered a severe fall in the parking lot of the radio station in July 2016, washospitalized and forced to go on a medical leave. He would never return to the microphone.

The 1964 Elva Mk. 7 that Lyford was driving when he had his fatal accident in Spokane, Washington.

July 2017

     “Hey Randy Haskin...do you remember that time when Chuck let us drive the Cigarette boat on Lake Washington at sunset?”

      Chuck loved his toys and adventures. In 1969, he decided to be a mercenary pilot in El Salvador with his friends Bob Love and Ben Hall—an honest-to-God, modern day gunslinger. Under the name Carlos Molina, he was a colonel in the Salvadorian Air Force flying P-51 Mustangs in the Soccer War. WHO DOES THAT KIND OF STUFF ???

     They motorize a lounge chair,
of course, so that they can drive up to get the mail. And, while we’re up there, we might as well drive on the street. But, that’s okay, because the local police chief is a friend of Chuck’s and he thinks that’s pretty neat. And, because all of Chuck’s friends are competitive too, they see the chair and think that’s pretty cool. But, they can do better. Only
Chuck Lyford could spawn a
competitive motorized LoungeChair Racing League, running at Pacific Raceways.

     One time, several years ago, I was on a shuttle bus at London’s Heathrow Airport driving out to a British Airways 747 for a long flight home to Seattle. As the bus gets to the plane, I turn around and am literally standing face-to-face with Chuck and Pam. With that same grin again he says, “I was wondering how long it would take you to figure out we were standing here. Yeah, Pam and I have been down on the Rivera for the last month just enjoying the sun.” Really? Five thousand miles away from home and we randomly bump into each other on a bus at Heathrow airport?
Only Chuck Lyford.

     Hendrick was born in Detroit, served as a batboy for his beloved Detroit Tigers, and attended Wayne State University before starting his radio career at WBRB-AM, where he would become sports director. He also spent time in the broadcast booth covering Tigers spring training games and was the play-by-play announcer for the Detroit Pistons in the 1960s.

     His career with the unlimiteds began in 1948 when he called the first turn of the Gold

     He was also confident enough in himself to walk away from the sport when he felt like he had accomplished what he wanted. Bernie Little asked him to race the first Miss Budweiser in 1964, an offer Chuck turned down. 

     Airplane racing? Yup, he did it, too. He bought a P-51 at the age of 19 and soon enough was racing it. In spectacular fashion, too. More remembered for a balls-out hard charging style and spectacularly blown engines in the Bardahl Special than for the races he won, he brought hydroplane racing technology to the Reno Air Races.

     “Hey, Pam Lyford…do you remember that time when Chuck said racing a 1938 Fangio coupe across South America might be a fun family vacation?” 

     Car racing? Oh sure, but that’s just a hobby. Isn’t that right? Isn’t vintage racing supposed to be a “Gentleman’s Sport”? From
Formula Fords, to his black Elva Mk. 7, to the Fangio that he and
Pam won the Rally of the Incas back-to-back in, I have never seen someone so determined to decimate the competition on the track and then host the best party in the paddock afterwards. But, that was Chuck.

Jim Hendrick: The voice
of unlimiteds passes away.

Jim Hendrick, widely recognized as the voice of unlimited hydroplane racing and the subject of an interview in the January/February 2016 issue of the Unlimited NewsJournal, passed away on June 16 at his home in Lakeland, Florida. He was 82 years old.

 continued... Remembering Chuck Lyford

Chuck Lyford was the pilot of the P-51 Bardahl Special when this picture was taken at Paine Field near Everett, Washington, in 1964. As his note says, the aircraft beside his was piloted by Mira Slovak, the champion hydroplane driver.

     “Hey Bruce McCaw…do you remember that time when Chuck convinced you to build guns for the CIA?”

     Chuck seemed to know everyone from all walks of life. I’m not really sure why Chuck and I became friends. My dad had some tie with building guns for Detonics in Central America in the late ‘60’s, but exactly what was never clear. Over the years, I dabbled in the airplane and hydroplane stuff—in fact, Chuck got me my first job in unlimited hydroplanes—but I was never really anyone of importance.

     That didn’t matter. He let me “in” and I never asked for anything in return. A lot of people say, Oh yeah, I’m friends with someone, and we never really know where that lies along the friendship scale. Lots of times, “I’m friends with” is more of an exaggeration for “I’ve met him before” or “I’m an acquaintance of.” But, I think once you became friends with Chuck, you were truly friends. I know personally, I felt that he considered me a friend of his, and that meant more than anything.

     “Hey Chip Hanauer…do you remember that time when Chuck wanted to race a Porsche in the 24-hours at Daytona with you?”

      For many years I hounded Chuck to let me write a book about his life. There were fantastic stories and a literal rouges-gallery of amazing people that were part of his life that we all heard snippets about:

      * Airshows with Ben Hall;
      * The road trip with Bill Stead during the APBA meetings in Ohio that started the Reno Air Races;
      * Smuggling P-51 propeller blades into El Salvador in ski bags (with customs agents failing to realize that there wasn’t any snow there);
      * Flying prosthetic limbs over the border to the victims of the war;
      * Winning races in the Bardahl Special;
      * Ad-libbing the aerobatic routine in Larry Blumer’s P-38 on the way to the airshow;
      * Gunther Balz begging him not to perform in the Bearcat because he was afraid Chuck would literally rip the wings off;

      * Being given a blank check by Jim Clapp to bring the experimental turbine-powered U-95 to fruition;
      * Driving in the 24 hours of Daytona with Team Seattle;
      * The latest (of many) speed-record projects with Craig Breedlove;
      * Sitting on a beach in Central America with Sid Woodcock and coming up with Detonics;
      * Trading Pete LaRock the U-95 if he’d build him a castle with the same dimensions of the boat;
      * Or, even restoring an F-1 engine from an Apollo rocket for the Museum of Flight.

      So much to talk about. But, every time I asked him, he’d say that there were still too many people alive that might not want to read about what he had to say. “We’ll do it someday,” he promised. 

a living Indiana Jones, but without the archaeology. For all I know, he did the archaeology thing, too. The more outrageous the story, the more likely it was to be true. “Sorry, Brad. Can’t do that tomorrow. Joe Clark, Clay Lacy and I are going to Canada to fly the Martin Mars.” THE MAN HAD A CASTLE BATTLEMENT ON HIS HOUSE. With a hot tub in it, mind you.

     Did you ever see Chuck and Pam dress up for a formal event? Looked properly appropriate on the outside, until it came time to “have fun,” and then some of the most outrageous outfits you ever saw came out.