Villwock thunders at Mead; Hydroplane victory made at windy lake

Monday, Sept. 28, 1998 | 12:32 p.m.

Having already wrapped up the drivers championship the week before, Dave Villwock set his sights on the Unlimited Hydroplane Racing Association's record book.

It didn't stand a chance.

Villwock thundered Miss Budweiser to a series-record ninth victory this season by easily winning the five-lap Las Vegas Cup final Sunday on a choppy, wind-swept Lake Mead. No other driver in the history of the sport had won more than eight finals in a single season.

"It's something somebody hasn't done before," Villwock said of the record.

"Just matching people like Bill Muncey and George Henley, people that I grew up (admiring), to be able to be put in the same sentence with them is real important to me."

It also was Villwock's 21st career victory as a driver, but his first on Lake Mead. And he hopes it isn't his last.

With rumors sailing about that title sponsor Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority may discontinue its backing of the series and this event, Villwock stressed the importance of the hydroplanes returning to Southern Nevada.

"I love Las Vegas -- I used to live here -- and it's my hope that we can come at a different time," Villwock said. "We have a swing that we run in Phoenix and we're talking about going to (Lake) Havasu and then coming up here, sort of having a spring tour and run here at that time of the year when ... we don't get the thermal winds that are traditional here in the desert.

"If we can do that, we'll do a couple of things that are positive: We'll be able to expand our race circuit to a different time of year and reach new fans that we haven't reached before in a market that we love to come to."

Las Vegan Kim Gregory, owner of KG Racing and the U-10 Wild Fire that finished fourth in Sunday's six-boat final, echoed Villwock's sentiments.

"I would really like to see the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spend their money (in this series)," Gregory said. "If you look at the TV time that we get and the spots they get and what they put into the program, it's a pretty valuable piece and money well spent.

"We're all coming up on a time here with new hotels opening up where it's going to be even more important (to promote Las Vegas). No longer are we the only game in the country. One of the most amazing things, as you drive across the country as I do, is that there are casinos in every town in the cotton-picking country now. We no longer have this hold on it (and) we've got to market harder and harder to keep our share (of tourists) in Las Vegas."

With people such as Gregory making the quantum leap into Unlimited Hydroplanes from Unlimited Lights, the future of the sport is bright, Villwock said.

"We've got a lot of great opportunities here and we've got to change our strategy to have a bigger happening than what we've done," he said. "Instead of just having a boat race ... we need to bring more things into the water so that we have a better show. I think our eyes are opened to a lot of new possibilities.

"Kim Gregory and his people ... are doing a lot of things not only for themselves, but they're also doing a lot of things for the sport right now in putting contacts together so that we can come here again and bring a bigger show, a better show that more people are happy with."

* ROOSTER TAILS: Miss Budweiser averaged 123.922 mph in winning the Las Vegas Cup final. The U-20 Appian Jeronimo, with Mitch Evans on board, took second and Jimmy King in Miss E-Lam Plus was third. ... Scott Gillman, who suffered a frightening blow-over during a practice run Friday and had to be airlifted to a local hospital, climbed back into his Italian-built Formula One powerboat on Sunday and won the 30-lap PROP Tour main event. Tim Seebold finished third in the final and clinched his first Formula One series championship. Gillman, who was trapped underwater in his cockpit for two minutes Friday and was unconscious for three before being sent to the UMC Trauma Center for observation, lapped all but two boats in the 18-boat final en route to his first win in the United States this year. "That was probably the hardest crash I've ever taken in 13 years," Gillman said of the incident. "My chest is still hurting and I was pretty uptight for the first (heat) race ... but in the main I felt pretty good." Fortunately for Gillman, racing was canceled Saturday due to wind, giving him an extra day to prepare for getting back into the boat. "I wasn't prepared to race on Saturday ... physically or mentally. Luckily for me, the wind blew on Saturday and blew it out." ... Preliminary estimates by the Nevada Park Service placed Sunday's crowd at 30,000 for a three-day total in excess of 56,000.