Jimmy Shane signs autographs for the Guntersville fans.

July 2017

      Some time after 1 p.m., the
U-55 was the first boat out, and this time, Bill Black made the Allison sing, making some good speed on the straightaways. There was a sense of déjà vu, watching a roundnose, front engined, mostly wooden boat making its way around a race course in 2017.

      Jimmy Shane next took the U-1 out for some more fast laps, staying fairly close to the buoy line. The vast difference in cornering speed compared to the Gale V was quite noticeable and highly remarkable, just a reminder of how far hydroplane technology has advanced in 60 years.

      There was a bit of a delay before the U-27 came out, and I’ll
admit the heat of the day was beginning to get to me. For some reason, the clouds were all passing to our east and the breeze was sporadic at best. I could see the Wiggins boat in the water, but it appeared from the
distance that Cal was having trouble getting it started.

     Once he did, he stayed to the outside of the course all the way around, in what I would think of as lane five, which gave the crowd on the levee a thrill. You could actually hear the roostertail water falling back into the creek. I hadn’t been that close to a hydroplane at speed since the 1981 race in Miami. 

      I figured it was all done on purpose, and that was confirmed by Charley Wiggins, who had been watching his boat from the levee and who I found as I began the long walk down the levee back to my car.

      The pit area was in a city park some distance south of the course, but not excessively so. It was also a
bit off-center, such that the north turn was not visible from the pits, though the roostertails of the boats were. The pit area was only accessible to essential personnel.   

     There were three boats present: the defending national champion U-1 Miss HomeStreet Bank from Madison, Indiana, (a six-hour drive, according to the crew); the U-27 Wiggins Racing from nearby Rainbow City, Alabama; and a pleasant surprise, a beautiful replica of the U-55 Gale V, the boat that took the Gold Cup away from Seattle in 1955. It was entered by Bill and Judy Black of Henderson, Arkansas.

     The course would be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., except for a lunch break from noon to 1 p.m. The boats went out one at a time and ran the equivalent of a typical heat race: a warmup lap, three laps at speed, and a cooldown lap. As the day transpired, the boats went out around 30 minutes apart, though the pace slowed down after lunch.

[Top] The hometown entry from nearby Rainbow City, Alabama, the U-27 owned by
Charlie Wiggins, as it is prepared for a test run in Guntersville.  
[Middle] The U-27 as it is being lowered to the surface of Lake Guntersville.
[Above[ The U-27 during its test run with Cal Phipps at the controls.

     At a little after 9 a.m., the U-27
became the first unlimited to hit the water of Lake Guntersville in 48 years. The water conditions looked ideal, with just enough wave action to keep the water from being too “sticky.” Cal Phipps claimed to have found some small rollers, which he thought were self-induced, but that was the only mention of less than ideal conditions all day. 

     To my eye, the two-mile course
looked to be wider than Madison
but narrower than Seattle. I wasn’t sure that it would be wide enough for six boats, but the teams seemed to think that it would be.

     Jimmy Shane then took the U-1
out and quickly got up to speed. I
think I heard him say that the boat’s on-board computer showed him touching 190 mph on the straight at least once. Any concern that water rebounding off the levee might roughen up conditions proved to be no problem, since the levee entered
the water as a slope and not a vertical wall.

      Bill Black then took the U-55
out to wake up the crowd with
some Allison thunder, and there
was a decent number of spectators appearing on the levee by this time. His first outing was a fairly relaxed one. When the boat was lifted off its trailer, I realized that I had forgotten how puny the skid fins of that era were. The boat made for a nice “bridge” between the old Guntersville races (whose boats closely resembled the Gale V in appearance) and the new one.

      Although it was around 3 p.m. and the course would remain open another hour, I decided that I had seen and photographed enough, and I began the 2-hour, 45-minute drive back to my home in Marietta,  Georgia. My path out of town took me close to the pit area and it appeared as I went by that the U-1 team had already removed the boat’s rear wing and folded the uprights, so I think I made a reasonable decision.

      It had been an enjoyable, if tiring day, and I am already looking
forward to next year’s race. From my vantage point, the organization of the session had been excellent and if the 2018 event is properly promoted (something which has shot down several other promising race sites in the past), the unlimiteds could be racing in Guntersville for years to come.

      Having seen all three boats operate from the pits, I hopped in my car and drove up the east side of the course, looking for other vantage points. I found one that had been recommended in the handout provided by the race committee at a place called the Pointe Marina, which was adjacent to several waterfront restaurants and about even with the exit buoy of the south turn. 

      The problem is that it was private property and several of us were shooed off by their security, though not before I got off several photos of the U-27 on its second run. I suggested that they could sell admissions to the site for next year’s race, but that idea seemed to be accepted rather coolly. Maybe the race committee can negotiate something with them for 2018?

     I got back in the car and continued driving north, a delightful drive that was hilly and curvy, but yielded no other viewing points. The obvious views that some of the homeowners had of the race course reminded me a bit of Seattle’s Mount Baker neighborhood. By this time, it was approaching noon, so I headed back through town and ate at a popular spot called Wintzell’s Oyster House, which was not far from the pits.

      After lunch, I headed to the levee on the west side of the course, where the sun angle had now become ideal for photography. I entered at the south end, adjacent to the Wyndham Garden hotel where I had spent the night, and walked about three-quarters of a mile up the levee, past the large crowd gathered near the central access point, to a deserted area just south of the exit buoy of the north turn.

[Top] Bill Black and his crew work on the Allison engine that powers the replica of the 1955 Gave V. [Above] The sound of an Allison engine returned to Guntersville, Alabama, when the replica of the Gale V, the boat that won the 1955 Gold Cup, roared onto the lake.

[Top] The defending national champion, the U-1 Miss HomeStreet Bank, as it sits in the
pit area on the banks of Lake Guntersville. [Above] The U-1 during its test run.

 continued... Return to Guntersville