Word: muncey
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DIED. Bill Muncey, 52, dean of the hydroplane superstars; of a severed spinal cord suffered in a crash during championship competition; in Acapulco, Mexico. In three decades of competition, Muncey thunderballed to more victories (61), championships (seven) and Gold Cups (eight) than any other competitor who raced unlimited hydroplanes at 200 m.p.h. or better. A survivor of countless crashes, Muncey said in 1979: "Anything less than death is a minor accident...
Once in the water, men as well as machines need something like black magic to survive the punishing eight-hour Havasu marathon. Topping 100 m.p.h. on the straightaway and jouncing through treacherous wakes, the streamlined craft are, as Driver Bill Muncey says, "delicate mechanisms that run on the ragged edge of blowing up every minute." Indeed, by the halfway mark in last week's race, crackups and conk-outs claimed 26 of the 94 starters...
...victory was worth $11,000 in prize money, but the cash was only part of it for Muncey. He earned a niche in racing's Hall of Fame just behind the greatest pilot of all time, Gar Wood. Between 1917 and 1921, Gar Wood won the Gold Cup five times running, at 57.5 m.p.h. average speeds. In today's considerably faster company, Muncey has beaten all comers four times, the last...
Broad and muscular (5 ft. 8½ in., 175 Ibs.), Muncey started racing outboard motorboats at 14, first drove a limited hydroplane in 1947, when he broke in on smaller boats with 65 m.p.h. top speed. Eight years later, Designer Ted Jones, whose Slo-Mo-Shun IV revolutionized hydro design in 1950, gave Muncey his first crack at the really big boats by picking him to drive the first of Owner Rhodes's Miss Thriftway hydros. Muncey barely missed winning the Gold Cup his first time out, then came on to win in both...
Corsets & Asparagus. He had his closest call late in 1957. Thundering along the Ohio River at 175 m.p.h. during the Indiana Governor's Cup race, Miss Thriftway blew up spectacularly, hurling Muncey into the water. Luckily, he broke no bones; but he spent weeks in the hospital recovering from internal injuries, now wears a steel corset in every race. He sank the second Miss Thriftway in 1958, when he lost a rudder and rammed a 40-ft. Coast Guard patrol boat. He placed a close second in the 1959 Gold Cup competition, won it for the third time...