Miss Thriftway was an unlimited hydroplane in the 1950s and 1960s.
Ted Bowhay was the Seattle owner of the Miss Thriftway in the early 1960s. He was also known for having owned & raced the limited Hydroplane "Redskin."
With Bill Muncey driving, the boat won the 1956 and 1957 American Power Boat Association Gold Cup. [1] [2]
Hydroplane racing is a sport involving racing hydroplanes on lakes, rivers, and bays. It is a popular spectator sport in several countries.
Madison is a 2001 American sports drama film directed by William Bindley, about APBA hydroplane racing in the 1970s that is based on a true story. It stars Jim Caviezel as a driver who comes out of retirement to lead the Madison, Indiana, community-owned racing team.
Lee Edward "Chip" Hanauer is the third most successful Unlimited Hydroplane racer in history. He has won the APBA Gold Cup a record 11 times and was the driver of one of the most famous boats in APBA history, the Miss Budweiser, in the early to mid-1990s. He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1995 as their youngest inductee. In 2005, he was inducted into the International Motorized Vehicles Hall of Fame. In 1991, he temporarily left the waters for auto racing only to return a season later.
Miss Madison is an H1 Unlimited hydroplane team. It is the only community-owned Unlimited hydroplane in the world. It is based out of Madison, Indiana, a small town of 12,000 residents on the Ohio River which annually hosts the Madison Regatta. The story of the boat and city are the subject of the 2001 film Madison.
Tom D’Eath is an American hydroplane and racecar driver from Michigan.
William Edward Muncey was an American hydroplane racing legend from Detroit, Michigan. The International Motorsports Hall of Fame and hydroplane historian Dan Cowie described Muncey as "without question, the greatest hydroplane racer in history." Muncey was nicknamed "Mr. Unlimited" and won 62 races, which was the most races in the history of the sport until Dave Villwock broke his record in 2011.
The Rolls-Royce Merlin, although designed as an aero engine, was used in other applications both on land and at sea. A derivative called the Meteor was developed for use in tanks.
H1 Unlimited is an American Unlimited Hydroplane racing league that is sanctioned by the American Power Boat Association (APBA). Until 2009, the series was known as ABRA Unlimited Hydroplane, in turn renamed from APBA Unlimited Hydroplane in 2004. The H1 Unlimited season typically runs from July through September, consisting of five races.
The Detroit Hydrofest is a H1 Unlimited hydroplane boat race held in August on the Detroit River in Detroit, Michigan.
The Seafair Cup, is an H1 Unlimited hydroplane boat race held annually in late July and early August on Lake Washington in Seattle, Washington. The race is the main attraction of the annual Seafair festival. Seattle has hosted the Seafair Cup consecutively since 1951. The event was part of the APBA Gold Cup for the following years: 1951 to 1955, 1957 to 1959, 1962, 1965, 1967, 1974, 1981, and 1985.
The Oryx Cup is a hydroplane boat race in the H1 Unlimited season. The race was held in November in Doha Bay on the Persian Gulf in Doha, Ad Dawhah, Qatar. From 2009-2014, the Oryx Cup was designated as the host for the UIM World Championship.
Dean Alan Chenoweth was an American hydroplane racing pilot. Known for piloting the famous Miss Budweiser boat and the winner of four American Power Boat Association Gold Cups, he was killed at age 44 in a racing accident on the Columbia River.
The 2015 H1 Unlimited season is the sixtieth running of the H1 Unlimited series for unlimited hydroplanes, sanctioned by the APBA. It will be the first time since 2009 that the series will have no sanctioning from the UIM.
Terry Troxell was a hydroplane driver, known best for racing Unlimited Hydroplanes.
Ronald J. Musson was a hydroplane driver from Akron, Ohio. He is best known for driving the Unlimited Hydroplane Miss Bardahl to three American Power Boat Association Gold Cup championships in 1963, 1964 and 1965. Musson died on Sunday, June 19, 1966 on what became known as "Black Sunday", when three unlimited drivers were killed during the President's Cup race on the Potomac River in Washington, DC. Musson was driving Miss Bardahl at the time. Also killed were Rex Manchester, driving the Notre Dame hydroplane, and Don Wilson, driving Miss Budweiser. Musson was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1993.
Jack Beebe was an American boat builder and designer from Marine City, Michigan, who drove the Miss Detroit hydroplane to the 1915 American Power Boat Association Gold Cup victory after replacing the original driver of the boat who became seasick. Beebe's boats were known for their speed.
The Miss Detroit hydroplane, piloted by Jack Beebe, won the 1915 American Power Boat Association Gold Cup on Manhasset Bay, outside of New York City. As a result of the victory, Detroit Michigan won the right to host the Gold Cup race the following year (1916), thus thrusting the City of Detroit and the Detroit River into Gold Cup hydroplane racing and making Detroit a major venue for the sport.
Tahoe Miss was an unlimited hydroplane owned by casino owner Bill Harrah. It raced in the 1960s with Mira Slovak driving it in 1966 to both the National High Point Championship and an American Power Boat Association Gold Cup victory on the Detroit River.
The 2016 H1 Unlimited season is the sixty-first running of the H1 Unlimited series for unlimited hydroplanes, sanctioned by the APBA.
The 2021 H1 Unlimited season is the sixty-fifth running of the H1 Unlimited series for unlimited hydroplanes, sanctioned by the APBA. The 2020 season would have been the sixty-fifth running but that season was cancelled because of COVID-19.