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I 'm not sure I spelled Excellence correctly, but Chip Hanauer is the greatest. He's a new member of BRF. He is also known as the "BOAT GUY"... 60 year old??? Seems he is my age, but I will do some homework on this.
Welcome, Chip!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Hanauer
Never knew these things of Mr. Hanauer until I read wikipedia. He is a very giving man; a man certainly to be admired.
Welcome Chip. I remember the first time I saw you in 1977 at the Hydroglobe in Dayton, Ohio. I hope you will share some stories with us.
60 is about right; Chip started racing J and then A Stock Hydro in Reg. 10 in the Sixties. The Wikipedia article just talks about his Unlimited career, but Chip himself has described the importance of his experience in A Stock. First, ASH was as competitive, in that time and place, as boatracing gets, with a bunch of very fast guys, and eliminations at every local race. All the guys in the big fast classes would stop to watch the A Stockers go at it. As Chip pointed out in talking about it years later, the boats didn't have any excess power or very good acceleration to cover a driver's mistakes, so you'd better not make any. Great competition, great training for anything else, and a whole lot of fun to watch . . . that was ASH in those years.
When he was only about 16, Chip became the regular driver of a pretty good 145, which was the Inboard version of A Stock; lots of closely-matched boats with not a lot of power.