Hanauer Blames Injuries On Hull Of Miss Budweiser

One of the most successful marriages in unlimited-hydroplane history appears headed for divorce as driver Chip Hanauer continues his self-imposed exile from a boat he said he no longer trusts.

Seattle's Hanauer, who left the Miss Budweiser team seven weeks ago after the latest in a series of accidents in the boat, said he won't return to racing this season and won't return to owner Bernie Little's team at all unless fundamental changes are made in its hull design.

"I'm spending too much time in CAT-scan machines," said Hanauer, 41, who's in the final year of his Bud contract.

Hanauer said he also has a one-year renewal clause in his contract that allows either party to back out of the extension within a 30-day window that starts the day after the final race of 1996.

The decision to sit out the rest of the year makes official what many already suspected: The defending Seafair race champion will miss the three-race Northwest swing that opens with this weekend's Columbia Cup in the Tri-Cities.

"It is an injury issue," said Hanauer, whose 58 career victories - four short of Bill Muncey's all-time record - include 22 in his four-plus seasons with the Bud. "I raced unlimiteds for 15 years and never had so much as a hangnail or cut on my finger. Since I've been with the Budweiser for four years, I have had just a tremendous amount of injuries and a tremendous amount of convalescence."

Hanauer has missed time in the cockpit because of racing injuries in all but one season since joining the team in 1992. Problems included the escape hatch on the bottom of the boat blowing open twice at high speed - once breaking bones in his back - and two Seattle accidents among several blowovers.

He said he believes the problems are caused by flaws in the Bud hulls.

"They gave me no warning as far as what they were going to do," he said. "I always found them very difficult to drive. Plus we had a lot of mechanical failures. . . . And when the boat would flip, it was always in the corner, never in the straightaway. Normally a boat in the corner is pretty stable. So my predicament was this: I could either drive the boat as hard as I had to to win, but . . . there was a very good chance I'd be in trouble. The other choice was to drive the boat to assure I wouldn't get in trouble, but there was no way I could beat anybody driving like that.

"I didn't like either choice."

Bud crew chief Ron Brown, the man primarily responsible for hull specifications, refused to talk in detail about the problems when reached in Pasco by phone last night.

"Those hulls have won a lot of championships, that's all I know," he said. "Same hulls, same design."

When asked to respond to Hanauer's contention that a problem exists in that design, Brown said, "There is no problem. I don't understand what the problem is."

Indeed, Little's Bud team owns unlimited racing records for victories with 101 and season championships with 16 - 48 wins and nine titles with Brown as crew chief.

"I know there are people on the team who believe it is me, that if they get somebody else they won't have those problems," Hanauer said. "They believe in their product, and that's understandable. I don't believe in it. There's nothing personal.

"The bottom line is it doesn't matter who's responsible; I can't put myself at risk. I'm playing with dynamite there."

He said he has received no offers to drive for other teams and hasn't sought any.

The Bud team hasn't won since last season and stands in third place in a series with fewer than 10 regular boats heading into the Tri-Cities race. Wenatchee's Mark Evans has replaced Hanauer and is signed through this season.

"I can't predict the future," Hanauer said. "I don't know if this means I'm done forever. . . .

"The only thing I know is something had to change."