Hydroplanes -- Weber's Future Unlimited -- Villwock Has More Surgery

Bernie Little likes Fred Leland's hydroplane drivers.

For the second time since the end of last season, a Leland driver has been hired to fill the vacant spot in Miss Budweiser's cockpit. Yesterday Little announced that Mark Weber, who drove the past four races for Leland, will pilot the Miss Budweiser for the rest of the season.

Weber replaces Dave Villwock, who was injured in a crash during Sunday's Columbia Cup final. Villwock's condition was upgraded from serious to satisfactory yesterday by doctors at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center. But he underwent surgery again this morning on the ring-finger and pinky-finger of his right hand.

"This is to help in the circulation," Harborview spokeman Larry Zalin said. "It's a necessary surgery (to save the fingers)."

Villwock also once drove for Leland. He moved to the Miss Budweiser after driving Leland's PICO American Dream to the national points championship last season.

"I don't have a lot to say about it," said Leland, who won't race the Team Stihl boat this weekend at Kelowna, B.C. "He (Weber) is a very good driver. I always pick the best drivers, and Bernie always comes and takes them. It's just one of those things. The rich rule."

Weber, 33, signed a two-year agreement. He will be the Budweiser driver for the rest of this season, including the Seafair race Aug. 10 in Seattle. If Villwock recovers fully, as doctors hope, Weber would be a back-up driver next season.

"That means he can drive for any team," Little said. "But whenever we need him he's got to come."

Little had a similar agreement with PICO driver Mark Evans, but agreed to let Evans out of the contract earlier this week so Evans could continue driving for Leland. Little said he was thankful for Leland's cooperation.

"I wouldn't have hired any of his drivers if Fred had said no," Little said. "Fred has done more than you can believe for the sport. What he's done is bring people along in boat camps. He's given these guys chances."

Weber, a resident of St. Clair Shores, Mich., was traveling to Seattle yesterday and unavailable for comment. He did get an up-close look at his new team last weekend, however. One lane outside Villwock in the Columbia Cup final, Weber virtually drove under the Miss Budweiser as it flipped.

He told reporters afterward that it scared him. And apparently the youngest driver on the unlimited circuit initially had some reservations about replacing Villwock on the tour's most dominant team, which won the first four races of the season and had won 19 consecutive heats before Villwock's accident.

"He told me (Monday) night that he wasn't going to take it," Evans said. "It's a nerve-racking kind of thing, and he just wasn't interested, being all new. But he must have worked out something with Bernie."

Weber has won 10 national championships racing in various classifications of limited hydroplanes since 1990 and was last season's UHRA rookie of the year. He earned his unlimited license at the Columbia Cup race in Tri-Cities last year and raced the three Northwest races - Tri-Cities, Kelowna and Seattle - for Mike and Lori Jones aboard the Miss Exide.

Last week he drove the Team Stihl boat to two heat victories, a second place and third place in the final, though the prize money and points he earned during the final were taken away because he exceeded the allowable RPM.

"I told Bernie to find the best driver that we could to win races," Villwock said in a written statement. "I'll be there as soon as I can to help out in any way that I can. Our Miss Budweiser team is still leading in the championship and we all want to make that happen."

Weber is a third-generation boat racer. His father, the late Ray Weber, was a successful inboard driver in the 1950s and also was an American Power Boat Association official in the 1970s. His grandfathers, Jim Edwards and Harold Weber, also were hydroplane drivers.

NOTES

-- Villwock was moved from the intensive care unit at Harborview yesterday. He underwent nearly six hours of surgery Sunday to repair his nearly severed right hand and three more hours of surgery Monday to repair his fractured right arm.

His head injury, the reason he had been listed in serious condition, has improved and he was talking with family and friends yesterday.

-- Little said the hull Villwock flipped, the T-5, will not be ready to race again until the Sept. 12-14 San Diego event.

Little said another hull, built two years ago, will be brought from Florida to the West Coast sometime next week. He did not say what he would do for a backup boat this weekend.

-- Leland said he was not actively searching for a driver to replace Weber. He also said he was considering not entering the PICO American Dream in this weekend's races. PICO American Dream won the Columbia Cup.

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Weber at the wheel

Mark Weber, 33, is the youngest unlimited hydroplane driver on the UHRA circuit. Here are some highlights from his racing career.

-- 5-litre national championships (5) - 1991-94 and 1996.

-- Grand National Hydro national championships (3) - 1994-96.

-- Unlimited Lights national championships (2) - 1995-96.

-- UHRA Rookie of the Year - 1996.