MADISON, Ind. -- (AP) July 2, [1982] Chip Hanauer qualified for Sunday's Madison Regatta at a course-record 130.624 mph Friday, while former world record holder and defending champion Dean Chenoweth tried to solve a baffling series of engine failures.

Hanauer, 27, the youngest driver on the unlimited hydroplane circuit, piloted the Atlas Van Lines to the 2.5-mile Ohio River qualification record, breaking the former record of 130.058 mph by Chenoweth's Miss Budweiser last year.

"No, we're not interested in records, but we're interested in setting the boat up as fast as possible, in race situations," said Hanauer, who took over Atlas following the death last fall of veteran driver Bill Muncey, killed in a racing crash in Mexico.

Hanauer won his first race with Atlas last week in the American Power Boat Association's prestigious Gold Cup race at Detroit.

"Everybody else sat around and waited for good weather. We wanted to test in rough weather. We wanted to learn what the boat could do in race conditions," said Hanauer. "I want to go as fast as it's comfortable, but the potential for this boat is still months away."

Chenoweth had no trouble handling Miss Budweiser. His problem, however, was in the Rolls-Royce Griffon engines. He has gone through about five engines in the past four weeks, including two since Thursday, and is still perplexed by their inability to last.

"I don't know. I really don't know," Chenoweth said of the cause of the engine breakage. The first couple of races we used new propellers, and the boat wasn't handling. Then we went back to our old setup, and this afternoon I never made it through the turn.

"The crew is flabbergasted," said Chenoweth, the Madison winner the past two years. "We think we're just running into a rash of little problems. I just hope we have them ironed out by Sunday."

Chenoweth qualified Miss Bud at 128.023 mph on Thursday and backed that up with a run at 127.660 on Friday.

Going into Sunday's race for the Indiana Governor's Cup, Hanauer leads Chenoweth 1,925 to 1,900 in the season point standings. Third-place Pay 'N Pak is out with hull damage.

Three other boats qualified on Friday, bringing the field for Sunday's five heats of racing to eight. The qualification speeds for Atlas and Budweiser are far faster than the other six boats.

Heat 1-A will group Atlas against Steve Reynolds' Miss Prodelco (which qualified at 117.493 mph), Ron Snyder's hometown Miss Madison (113.493), and Scott Pierce's Gilmore Special (103.330). Heat 2-A will have Budweiser against Tom D'Eath's Squire Shop (117.035), Jon Peddie's Kentuckiana Paving (110.701), and Fred Giese's Captran Resorts (101.237).

(Associated Press, July 2, 1982)

MADISON, Ind. (Special) -- For the first time in 23 years, four different boats and drivers have won the first four races of the unlimited hydroplane circuit.

Yesterday's surprise winner was Tom D'Eath of Fair Haven, Mich., who last unlimited victory came in 1976 when he won the Gold Cup in the Miss U.S.

D'Eath won the $65,000 Indiana Governor's Cup in The Squire Shop, taking the winner-take-all final heat in 114.242 mph. He joins Dean Chenoweth, driver of Miss Budweiser, Miami victor; John Walters, Pay 'N Pak, New York Thunder in the Park Regatta; and Chip Hanauer, Atlas Van Lines, last week's Gold Cup champion, in the 1982 winner's circle.

In 1959, Miss Pay 'N Save won the Apple Cup on Lake Chelan; Miss Supertest III won the Detroit Memorial; Miss Detroit won the St. Clair International Boundary Race, and the Maverick on the Diamond Cup on Lake Coeur d'Alene. Four boats also won the initial four races in 1961, but one of those races, the Harmsworth, was a contest between the U.S. and Canada and featured only two boats, at the same time conflicting with that year's Seafair Regatta.

D'Eath, who has been racing Grand Prix limiteds and mini-Indy race cars for the past six years, credited his victory to "a bit of driving ingenuity." In the final, he blew his Squire Shop off the line way ahead of co-favorites Miss Budweiser and Atlas Van Lines.

"I came down to the final heat to race for the clock," D'Eath said. "I noticed the Bud and Atlas had been running tardy (at the starting line) all day. I thought that if I had a shot at winning, I'd have to saw the lights right out of the starting clock. I tried to make everyone think I was running early. I sped up, backed off to look like I was wasting time, but we were the first boat across the line. Then I drove defensive as possible. I didn't want Dean (Chenoweth) to know what I was going to do. I wanted him to keep guessing."