Fears Take Flight At Seafair -- Son's Queries Prophetic As Tate Injured In Flip

Only a week ago, Mark Tate's 3 1/2-year-old son started asking the questions every hydroplane driver with a family eventually has to answer.

Andrew Tate saw a picture of the Miss Circus Circus boat blowing over in the Tri-Cities and another picture of his father's Winston Eagle gliding inches above the water.

"So we sat down and talked about those things," Mark Tate said earlier this week. "We explained the situation that when a boat does flip how a guy can get hurt. I'm trying to educate him at a young age that this could happen to Daddy. . . ."

Yesterday on Lake Washington, for the first time in his unlimited racing career, it happened to Daddy. And Andrew learned what no conversation can prepare a child for.

Tate, 33, suffered a concussion, broken middle finger on his left hand, and bruised shoulders in a violent blowover accident, in which his boat turned upside-down in midair and glided airborne almost four seconds before crashing backward on the water.

The Wayne, Mich., driver was listed in satisfactory condition at Harborview Medical Center and was expected to be released today.

"There were four- and five-foot chops. It was only a matter of time before somebody got hurt out there," Kellogg's driver Mike Hanson said.

Tate and Chip Hanauer in the Miss Budweiser were racing side-by-side toward the end of the back straightaway at speeds close to 200 mph when the Winston caught a gust and quickly lifted off the

water. When it finally came back down, it splashed into the water upside-down and emerged right-side up.

The final heat of Seafair was stopped on that second lap, and the five-lap final was started again about 45 minutes later.

"We didn't know there was a driver in there until we pulled up on the boat," said Paul Davison, one of the paramedics who pulled Tate from the wreckage. "It was that violent."

The impact knocked Tate unconscious for two to three minutes, said Dr. Keith Peterson, the medical director the Unlimited Racing Commission. "What he suffered was like getting a quick punch."

Tate's boat suggested something more resembling a grenade hit.

The nearly inch-thick bulletproof Plexiglas that covers the cockpit was shattered. The roll bar made of stainless-steel tubing was bent over the top of the driver's seat. And the metal wall behind the seat was dented about eight inches into the cockpit.

"That's just water pressure," said Jim Lucero, Winston crew chief.

Peterson said it was the worst damage he had seen to a protective cockpit since Jim Kropfeld's Miss Bud cockpit was sheared away in a 1988 accident in Miami.

"It was crushed badly," Peterson said of Tate's boat. "And the roll bar was crushed down on him."

Said Steve Woomer, Winston team owner: "If he's all right, we're real fortunate because the boat's pretty beat up."

Woomer said the team will rebuild in time for the next race in the series, Sept. 19 in San Diego, but was unsure whether he would enter if it meant replacing Tate.

"Mark's our race horse. It's hard to answer that question now," Woomer said. "It'd be a decision he'd be included in if we did it, but I don't think we will. That's not my style."

What has been the style since Tate joined the team is running hard.

"In my whole racing career, I have `flown' my boat," Tate said Saturday. "I don't want a tight (stable) race boat. I feel it's easier to get the boat over sloppy water in a faster way.

"And I've been fortunate. My crew has given me a great boat, a forgiving boat."

Forgiving, that is, until the wind picked up in the afternoon and a rough Lake Washington started rolling whitecaps after three laps of six-abreast parading before race officials would drop the green flag.

"It was the worst water I'd seen, even worse than Pasco," Hanson said of last week's Tri-Cities race in which two boats flipped. "It was just that first run of the final. All those laps chewed up the course. It was atrocious."

Tate's first flip in an unlimited - he had gone over three times in limited-class boats - was the second in three days in Seattle and fifth in the past three events.

Seattle's Ken Dryden was uninjured when he flipped the Miss Rock during qualifying Friday.

Six boats have gone over in eight events this year, and eight have flipped in the past 11, dating back to Hanauer's blowover during Saturday qualifying last year in Seattle.

Despite the recent rash of flips, Tate said early in the week, "I have no fear. . . . I feel if I had fear in the cockpit, I'd get in trouble."

It didn't take fear. It just took flying.

"Like we always tell him, `Bring it back first or bring it back broke,' " Woomer said. "We just didn't have this in mind."

---------------------------------------------------------. Texaco Cup hydroplane race results. . HEAT 1A. . Boat (Driver) Speed Pts. Winston Eagle (Mark Tate) 145.694 400. Kellogg's Frosted Flakes (Mike Hanson) 145.134 300. Miss Budweiser (Chip Hanauer) 137.436 225. Oh Boy! Oberto (Mike Eacrett) 120.528 169. Pete's Wicked Ale (Ken Muscatel) DNS 0. Fastest lap - Winston Eagle, lap 3, 152.183.

. HEAT 1B. Miss T-Plus (Steve David) 138.447 400. American Spirit (Mark Evans) 133.995 300. Cooper's Express (Mitch Evans) 112.002 225. The Tide (Nate Brown) DNF 0. Taco Time (Jerry Hopp) DNS 0. Fastest lap - Miss T-Plus, lap 2, 139.794.

. HEAT 2A. Winston Eagle 127.017 400. Cooper's Express 121.170 300. The Tide DNS 0. Pete's Wicked Ale DNS 0. Taco Time DNS 0. Fastest lap - Winston Eagle, lap 3, 134.047.

. HEAT 2B. Miss Budweiser 140.463 400. Miss T-Plus 137.493 300. Kellogg's Frosted Flakes 134.310 225. American Spirit 123.207 169. Oh Boy! Oberto 104.508 127. Fastest lap - Miss Budweiser, lap 2, 146.377.

. HEAT 3A. Kellogg's Frosted Flakes 149.505 400. Miss T-Plus 136.971 300. Pete's Wicked Ale DNS 0. Taco Time DNS 0. Miss Budweiser DNS 0. Fastest lap - Kellogg's Frosted Flakes, lap 3, 155.207.

. HEAT 3B. Winston Eagle 150.690 400. Cooper's Express 121.926 300. American Spirit DNS 0. Oh Boy! Oberto DNS 0. The Tide DNS 0. Fastest lap - Winston Eagle, lap 3, 153.092.

. LAST-CHANCE HEAT. The Tide 131.799. Taco Time 129.285. Oh Boy! Oberto DNS. Pete's Wicked Ale DNS. Fastest lap - The Tide, lap 2, 134.895.

. CHAMPIONSHIP. Miss Budweiser 137.630 400. Kellogg's Frosted Flakes 135.430 300. American Spirit 129.490 225. The Tide 117.520 169. Cooper's Express 110.825 127. Miss T-Plus DNF 0. Fastest lap - Miss Budweiser, lap 4, 139.373.

. POINT STANDINGS. Miss Budweiser 11,660. Winston Eagle 8,961. Kellogg's Frosted Flakes 8,877. The Tide 7,143. Miss T-Plus 6,397. American Spirit 5,007. Miss Circus Circus 4,353. Cooper's Express 3,941. Pete's Wicked Ale 1,896. Oh Boy! Oberto 944. KISW Miss Rock 394.

. PAST SEATTLE CHAMPIONS. 1992 - The Tide (George Woods). 1991 - Miss Budweiser (Scott Pierce). 1990 - Miss Circus Circus (Chip Hanauer). 1989 - Miss Circus Circus (Chip Hanauer). 1988 - Miss Budweiser (Tom D'Eath). 1987 - Miss Budweiser (Jim Kropfeld). 1986 - Miller American (Chip Hanauer). 1985 - Miller American (Chip Hanauer). 1984 - Miss Budweiser (Jim Kropfeld). 1983 - Miss Budweiser (Jim Kropfeld). 1982 - Atlas Van Lines (Chip Hanauer). 1981 - Miss Budweiser (Dean Chenoweth). 1980 - Atlas Van Lines (Bill Muncey).