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New Rule Helps Muncey To World Hydro Title |
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Muncey Unlimited Champ |
1969 UIM World Championship
Muncey Unlimited Champ
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Bill Muncey in Miss U.S. won the World's Championship for unlimited hydroplanes of the Detroit River June 29 when a new rule was applied to break a point tie with Dean Chenoweth in Myr's Special. Muncey and Chenoweth were tied with 1,100 points after the final heat, and in other years the tie would have been decided in favor of the boat with the fastest elapsed time, but this year the unlimited commission of the APBA had changed the rule, making the winner of the final heat the champion in the event of a tie.
The veteran Muncey said he figured it that way. He went into the final with 700 points, while Chenoweth and Fred Alter in Miss Schweppes were ahead with 800 points each. In that heat, Miss Schweppes (ex-Gale's Roostertail) and Myr's Special (ex-Smirnoff), both out of the W. D. Gale "stable," had sick engines simultaneously on the third lap and Muncey rocketed on to win the title he was defending. His speed for the final oil the rough three-mile course was 99.410 m.p.h. Myr's Special made it in 93.750; Miss Madison, driven by Jim McCormick, was third at 84.772; Atlas Van Lines, with Earl Wham, was fourth at 84.772; and Miss Schweppes was last at 79.132.
—George E. Van
(Reprinted from Yachting, September 1969, pp. 205-206)
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