Raceboat and Switzer Wings

[Fast Fred]

flyin on mist

[mintominto]

Here it is again in London 1984

[bstevenson201]

whose boat was that, who was the sponsor,driver,crew team?

[Fred Hauenstein]

whose boat was that, who was the sponsor,driver,crew team?

Hi Brandon.

The boat was Jim Hauenstein's new (that weekend), purpose-built Burgess, racing as the Arcadian Team in the London F-1 GP. The cowl (Trimite) was borrowed, I don't remember why. Johnnie Sanders drove. That's Gary Paugh sitting on the cockpit. Bill Chatfield swears that is NOT him with his feet on the boat (he was there). Jim and I were there, too. The boat ran a pass or two at about 150 MPH and then the transom came out of the boat, hence the pictures of the engine without cowl "on the hook."

Fred

[mintominto]

The cowl may have come from Rick Frost who ran Trimite colours at the time.
Seem to remember some footage of the wizard on an old 80's video.

[bstevenson201]

I was at the race with my mom in Pittsburgh when johnny recked the wizard, but i didn't know they did another race with the double engine. I thought that was Bill with his feet on the boat. After that race, I lost touch with everything. I did see Bill and the family at my wedding and we exchange Christmas cards every year, so I'm living memories from this website and all the pictures of my Dad up in my basement. I did speak to a few people from this website that knew my dad or had things to say, which was nice. Thanks to everyone in this website helping me follow all current stuff as well as when my dad was racing.

[tthibodaux]

I was at the race with my mom in Pittsburgh when johnny recked the wizard, but i didn't know they did another race with the double engine. I thought that was Bill with his feet on the boat. After that race, I lost touch with everything. I did see Bill and the family at my wedding and we exchange Christmas cards every year, so I'm living memories from this website and all the pictures of my Dad up in my basement. I did speak to a few people from this website that knew my dad or had things to say, which was nice. Thanks to everyone in this website helping me follow all current stuff as well as when my dad was racing.

I watched it tear the transom out in Cincinatti 84/85 when dad first started running F1 full time. That thing was way out front when it broke!

[bstevenson201]

how many times they try to run that thing before they figured this wouldn't happen. did they ever finish a race?

[Fred Hauenstein]

how many times they try to run that thing before they figured this wouldn't happen. did they ever finish a race?

This all happened in 1984.

OMC (and Merc) spent a lot of money with law firms over the V-8 circuit that year. OMC put the money into the V-8 circuit and didn't want Mercury and the T-4s messing with their V-8s. So, most of the European F-1 races and all the USA races outlawed Mercurys and the Wizard. It ran in London because the British sanctioning body, the RYA, wouldn't agree to ban the engine because it did qualify under the OZ class (F-1) UIM rules.

Both companies got tired of buying lawyers and settled the lawsuits before the last race - Cincinnatti. Part of the settlement was to allow Mercury to enter. Mercury held out until OMC agreed to also allow the Wizard to race there.

Johnnie Sanders and the Wizard won the first heat and were leading the second when the transom failed. That was the end of the 1984 season.

Then, UIM outlawed engines with more than one crankshaft. End of the Wizard of OZ!

As the Wizard Of ID said: "Wizards don't retire, they just disappear."

Fred

PS:
Yes, the cowl was borrowed from Rick Frost. We lost the original somehow and Rick had a spare Burgess cowl.

Arcadian also had another entry in that Cincinnatti race. Chris Bush was the youngest F-1 driver, piloting a Burgess with the smallest F-1 engine (Merc 2L.) -FH

[tthibodaux]

Hey Fred! I remember when dad raced the T4. You don't happen to have a picture of one do you?