On the evening of May 9th, Jeff Ayler, Tim Torrance, Charley Wiggins and Charlie Grooms talked about the Miss Madison team and hydroplane racing on the airwaves of WORX.  Tonight we present part two of our three part look at that conversation...

TT: Charlie Grooms, let’s jump back and talk a little bit about Miss Madison again. From the time the boat was put on ice for the winter till we’re going to Evansville, any major changes, anything worth noting that you’ve done with the hydroplane during the winter months?

CG: As far as the boat’s concerned, Tim, no we didn’t do anything major. We tried to fix those things that were broken, cracked, those maintenance issues. Probably the biggest thing we did was to make an arrangement with a gentleman in Montana to do some work on our engines. We found several things we were kind of hoping did not exist. But they did in fact exist – with some minor maintenance issues and maintenance problems, so we had to address those. We went over budget. That was one of those unfortunate things that he had the motor torn apart and he said "Charlie, what do you want to do? We have to address these issues." It’s unfortunate that we ended going over budget there, but I’m pleased that we were able to find a quality guy to do the work. We’re happy with his work. I anticipate that this will bode well for us during this season. That’s one of those things that can bite you if you don’t maintain the things. We’ve done a good job, I think, having had the winter to attack that. We knew that was one of the things that had not been done for quite some time. It was needed. It was a big budget item and something I really wanted to get done, and we did. Looking forward to throwing those engines in the boat. We should see the results immediately.

TT: What exactly, if you could explain a little bit, what was the process he did with the motors?

CG: If you recall back, not to go into a great big long dissertation, when we left DeWalt…when did we leave them Jeff? ’96, ’97? ’97?

JA: I think it was 1997.

CG: Okay, ’97. When we left DeWalt and we weren’t out on the circuit every year, the engines were done in the winter of 1996. They were all tore apart and rebuilt. They have a lot of magnesium parts inside there and a lot of metal that doesn’t like salt water. And so from ’97 till just now, this past winter, those things weren’t torn apart. So, that was something we had to do. We found some problems in there. They weren’t problems that tear motors up, but they do affect performance, they do affect longevity and had they gone untouched, we would have destroyed some major equipment and that’s stupid. So once we had the money and had the guy willing to jump in there and help us do it, we did that. Of course, we’ll see the results this year. It only happened on one of the motors and the other two were fine. They performed as we expected them to last year. We’re happy with that. So now we’ve gone through and pulled them completely apart, down to nothing but nuts and bolts and they’re ready to go. I’m much more comfortable going into this year knowing that the engines have been run on a dyno, which I hope to get done within the next month. They have been run. They’ve been tore completely apart, and we’re looking forward to some really good performance out of the things.

TT: I’m sure as Charley Wiggins looks at it, the motors have been taken apart, done whatever, put back together, when you jump in the boat, you know motor-wise, you’re pretty well set.

CW: It’s very reassuring to know that my first chance in unlimiteds, everything had been gone through, the boat’s been gone over closely, and all I need to worry about is getting qualified, going through that process and getting familiar with the boat. Hopefully we won’t have any mechanical problems to worry about in addition to trying to get qualified.

TT: Right. And as a rookie driver, you step into the hydroplane and if you have a problem on the water, you can kind of look back and say that well, the engines have been gone through and that doesn’t necessarily eliminate them from a problem. From a driver’s standpoint, it has to be relaxing to you to be able to go out there and push it as hard as you can, knowing the motors are all running in A1 condition.

CW: That’s right. Most definitely. That’s the thing in our light boat, we went to the first race last year in a new boat. We weren’t really sure what we were going to get into. Then really didn’t know if we’d be competitive right out of the box. In that situation, we were, and hopefully some of those same things will translate into this boat. It’ll be a lot different than just going to a different unlimited light. At least the boat ran last year and they’ve been through everything and hopefully we won’t have any problems.

TT: Jeff Ayler, do you have anything for us, buddy?

JA: Well I sure do, Tim. I’ve got an e-mail from one of our listeners around the world-wide web. It’s from Doug Furman from Gadsden, AL. He writes, "Even though the unlimited and unlimited light boats don’t travel to the state of Alabama, Charley has a great following here. What would it take to get some racing a little closer to the area? Do you think we could talk Charlie and Charley into bringing the Miss Madison down here to Charley’s hometown for a test drive. Let Charley know his stand-by crew members are ready and willing to travel." He wished good luck this season and will see you in Evansville. By the way, the Miss Madison has a win in the state of Alabama. Correct me if I’m wrong, Tim, I believe it was 1965 in the Dixie Cup at Guntersville, AL. Buddy Byers was the driver. Charley Wiggins will win the inaugural in Gadsden. (Laughter)

CW: It’s good to hear from Doug. I don’t know if he’s listening tonight, but if he is, "Hello, Doug." Good friend of mine and has helped out a time or two with the race boat and he’s following us on the internet. We would love to see hydroplane racing come back to the state of Alabama and to go to Gadsden. Maybe in the future some time we could do some sort of deal where we bring the boat down there and try to get some racing back in Alabama. I don’t see us doing much testing down there, but maybe we could at least bring the boat and put it on display.

JA: We’ve talked about the turbine and automotive powerplants. What are some of the differences that you could think of right now – your first thoughts of driving a turbine? I know that in years past, when the boats get up and start walking, the fans on the shore line think you’re pulling that foot off the throttle. It’s not necessarily so, you want to keep burying that thing and keep the nose down in the water. Do you see the same with the turbines?

CW: Probably even more so. And here I’m speaking without much experience. With the automotive engine, when you back out on the throttle, it’s a quick instant response. You let off on the throttle and immediately the torque on the propeller is reduced and two things happen. One, typically, if you’re not too out of shape, you’re going to slow down immediately. But the other thing you have to be careful of is the back end setting down in the water and increasing the angle of attack of the whole boat, which increases your chance of a blowover. So, while the boat is really hung out, you have to be careful about backing off in the automotive. There are a lot of times you can. You can just easily back off and slow down. It’s my understanding in principle the way the turbine engine works that once it’s spooled up it’s at high rpms through the turns. Backing off the throttle doesn’t have an instant response like it would in an automotive engine. You do a lot more driving with the canard wings like you would at the real high, top speed, hung out automotive engine style.

JA: Let me ask you one more question, Charley, about feathering the throttle. Especially in the 5-liter class and in the unlimiteds, the past few years since the clock start’s come back into effect, we’ve seen these guys run up toward turn two. Which is what I call it, other people call it turns three and four, where everybody’s getting down to this ground idle/stall business. As far as a fan and the guy covering the races, I’m not much for it. I think it takes some of the skill out of driving and also a show for the fans along the shore line. I believe old Chief Referee Bill Noonan, back in the 60’s and 70’s wouldn’t allowed for it. What’s you thoughts on that? Do you think the ground idle is good for the drivers or would you like to see the drivers up on plane and really charging up and earning that spot?

CW: In my opinion, I ‘m not real a big fan of what we call the 5-liter start, patented by Mark Weber. For the most part. Not a shot at Mark because it’s legal and it gets you the inside lane. I never in the past was a big fan of it because we never had a boat that you could control that slow and not cause a big spray in front of the boat where you could still see where you’re going. With the new Jones boat we have now, you can virtually come to a stop and you can still see where you’re going and it maintains a planing attitude. And last year with the new boat, we were able to use that style start, grab the inside lane on many occasions, which helped put us in position to win the race. If you can beat ‘em, join ‘em. I would really like to see them do something different. The unlimiteds really can’t do that as well as the lights. They can’t waste a whole minute past the entrance pin. And I think that’s a lot of the difference you see with the unlimiteds versus the lights. I’d like to see them make that a thirty second buoy or move the point where you establish your lane all the way around to the exit point of the turn. Once you enter the one-minute period, you’re not in an established lane until you come around the turn, which would add a little excitement to it.

JA: Tim, I have a question for Charlie Grooms. Charlie, you’ve been radio man for the Miss Madison for a number of years. Loren Sawyer is definitely the best in the business with the Miss Budweiser. As far as radio communications with you can Charley, will you be going to Lake Havasu and monitoring his radio with the unlimited light to just get a feel of communication he has with his radio man with the light team?

CG: Jeff, the last time I looked at the weather for out there, it was 100 degrees. (Background laughter) I have no intention of going to Havasu for nothing. There’s no way.

JA: Where’s my contact for out there coming up May 23^rd? Is Dave Shirley going?

CG: Dave Shirley I’ll bet will be there. Well here, I’ll give Charley Wiggins my cell phone and you call that number and talk to him. (Background laughter) But I’m not going to fight that 100 degrees. Eugene Crosby calls me. Every west coast event, he calls me wanting his passes. Sure enough, he called last week and I said "Well Gene what the temperature buddy?" And he says, "Oh Charles, it’s 102, 103." And I said, "No, you better get your passes someplace else because I’m not going to be there."

JA: Is it a concern though, with you going into the season with a rookie driver?

CG: No, no. As long as the radio works and I know Pat Harris will make the radios work, it’ll be no-brainer. It’ll work just fine. Charley has a rookie title, but he’s been around the track a lot of times and this thing does not do anything stupid; it won’t jump up and bite him or hurt him.

CW: I want to know where the on-and-off switch to the radio is. I can just turn him off if I get tired of listening to him. (Laughter)

JA: If you get a little tired, just turn it on over to 96.7 WORX.

CW: Charlie, you’re breaking up… (Laughter)

CG: That works…

TT: Charley Wiggins, one question I have for you, last year you raced against the likes of Bo Schide, Phil Bononcini, Randy Haas. Now this year it’s Dave Villwock, Mark Weber, and it was going to be Chip Hanauer, but unfortunately Chip retired, now it’s going to be Greg Hopp. You go from the big guys in unlimited lights to the really big guys in unlimiteds, you and George Stratton are in kind of the same boat going into the season. How do approach racing against some of the names like Villwock, Weber and those guys?

CW: I think starting out in Evansville, I won’t even be looking at it even in that light. I’ll thinking let me get qualified, let me learn the boat, and see where we go from there. Once we get to the point where we’re really starting to race those guys, I’ve got to establish confidence. At least their confidence in me that we can race together and they’ve seen me race the light boat, but I’ve got to prove to some of those guys that I can handle an unlimited. Sometimes it’s intimidating. I can remember racing 1-liters and Steve David used to come down and race with us. He’d be driving unlimiteds one weekend and 1-liter the next. Some of these guys I’ve driven against before – Mark Weber. I don’t that I’ve ever raced against Mark Tate. But we’ve been around. It’s not really that intimidating. I’ve kind of been in that position all my life up until recently. I was always the young guy in the class whether it was 1-liters or 7-liters or the unlimited lights. I was the younger guy. It’s just been in the past few years, it’s really been the number one or number two boat competing out there. So I kind of felt like an underdog just because of my age all my life.

TT: When you go to Evansville this year, you’re going to jump in the boat, hopefully on Friday morning, and get your time in. What do you have to do to qualify as an unlimited driver?

CW: For those of you who don’t know, it can be a quick process or it could be a long one. Basically, the rules say that you have to run 15 laps and the can be qualifying or testing laps, before your first heat. 10 of those laps have to be over the minimum qualifying speed for turbines being 130 mph. After that, once you get your laps in, they make you start on the outside and they make you start a few seconds behind the pack for 2 heats. After each, they’ll evaluate you, talk, see how it goes. From that point, if everything goes well, they start turning you loose and letting you race as you feel comfortable and continue to evaluate you as the year goes on.

TT: What that means, basically, is that you won’t go out in heat 1A and throw yourself on the inside lane right up there with the hot dogs.

CW: Not if I want to get qualified. Hopefully, in an ideal situation, you’ll get a good heat draw and start on the outside. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to stay on the outside and stay back. They probably want you to stay on the outside, but that doesn’t mean you have to run last. If you get a good heat draw and don’t necessarily draw the red boat or the blue and white boat, them maybe we can have some good finishes, but still stay on the outside and maybe make the final.

TT: Well, luckily Evansville’s a place with some roomy corners, so you have plenty of room to maneuver. Hopefully things will go well, you’ll get qualified, and you’ll be on your way. So when you come to Madison, you’re ready to go.

CW: I can’t think of a better place to get qualified than Evansville. We’ve had a lot of success there. We’ve run the big course. You know, we ran the 2-mile course last year in qualifying because that’s what they wanted the lights to do and with the light boat we ran 120 mph. We don’t have to go a whole lot faster than that to get qualified in the unlimited, so barring any mechanical problems, we should be able to clip those laps off pretty quick.