"WILD BILL" CANTRELL
By Fred Farley - APBA Unlimited Historian
Time: Saturday night, August 9, 1980.
Place: Jack McGovern's Music Hall in downtown Seattle. Occasion:
the gala Unlimited Hydroplane Hall of Fame Banquet, honoring the
great names of racing's past and present, on the eve of Seafair's
annual run of the roostertails on Lake Washington.
As the Hall of
Fame members-old and new-were individually introduced, the capacity
crowd cheered approvingly.
By far the most enthusiastic round of applause was reserved for
popular "Wild Bill" Cantrell, the 1949 Gold Cup champion, who received
a standing ovation.
To an entire
generation of race fans, "Wild
Bill" was best known for his 22-year association with the Gale
Enterprises boats of Joe and Lee Schoenith from Detroit. In later
years, Cantrell moved to Madison, Indiana, where he campaigned
for a number of years the former MY GYPSY hydroplane with fellow
Madisonian Graham Heath. And until his death in 1996, Cantrell
served as a consultant for the COOPER'S EXPRESS team, owned by
Ed Cooper, Sr., and Ed Cooper, Jr., of Madison and Evansville,
Indiana.
Born in West Point, Kentucky, in 1908,
he spent much of his early life in nearby Louisville. Not much
is known of Bill's childhood, except that his family experienced
dire poverty. But this didn't prevent him from rising above his
humble circumstances to achieve the pinnacle of fame in his chosen
field of power boat competition.
Pinpointing the
exact origin of Bill's long career in boat racing is difficult
even with Cantrell's help.
He began competing sometime around 1924. As the story goes, he
was christened "Wild Bill" when an Outboard he was racing went
out of control on the Ohio River and crashed through anchor chains
and moored spectator vessels.
In the early days, Cantrell divided
his time between cars and boats. As a Depression Era dirt track
competitor, he at one point pushed up all of the Hoosier Racing
Association's records for half-mile tracks. At an automobile race
in Evansville, Indiana, in 1941, he suffered a broken neck, an
injury that later precluded him from military service during World
War II.
In 1948 and 1949, Bill drove in the
Indianapolis 500. He completed 161 laps in 1948 with the FAGEOL/TWIN
COACH SPECIAL and finished 95 laps in 1949 with the KENNEDY TANK
SPECIAL. Cantrell appreciated being invited to compete at Indy
and enjoyed going fast there, but the boats were always his first
love.
One of his earliest boat racing accomplishments
occurred when he won the 1927 Ohio Valley Championship for Class
B Outboards. He eased into the Inboard tanks as a riding mechanic
on such famous contenders as the PAL-a Liberty-powered 725 Cubic
Inch Class craft-and the original LOUISVILLE KID-a 510 Cubic Inch
Class rig with a Curtiss OX-5 power plant.
"They put a jacket
and a helmet on me and I'd get in there and pump air for the fuel
to get up to the
carburetor. One day, one of the guys didn't show up and I got a
chance to ride in the GEE WHIZ, a little 151 Cubic Inch boat, in
Springfield, Illinois. Then I got a chance to drive it, and that
was it."
When not racing,
Cantrell worked a "regular
job" as a marine supply dealer in the Louisville area. He also
picked up a few dollars on the side as a professional wrestler.
A lifelong bachelor, "Wild Bill" enjoyed the company of the fair
sex but was truly "married" to the boats.
He carved an enviable reputation for
himself on the old Mississippi Valley Power Boat Association circuit
during the 1930s. His fellow racers of that era included the likes
of Marion Cooper, Soupy Ciconett, Jim Vetter, Cam Fischer, George
Davis, Warnie Anderson, and Bill Nall.
Cantrell won
many trophies in boats of the 725 Class, including BIG SHOT and
a series of hulls named
WHY WORRY. The 725s utilized the 1914 vintage Hispano-Suiza ("Hisso")
aircraft engine for power. The 725 Class was the MVPBA counterpart
of the American Power Boat Association's Gold Cup Class.
The Ventnor-designed WHY WORRY of 1939
was originally a 225 Class hull, beefed up to handle a V-8 Hisso.
The boat would prove to be the most significant in the long history
of 725 Class racing.
About the only part of WHY WORRY that
wasn't homebuilt was the bare hull itself. In certain places, baling
wire was used in the craft. The gears dated back to 1925, and a
second-hand automobile wheel with wire cable constituted the steering
mechanism.
As the story goes, the engine cost Cantrell
$175. When he discovered that the type of pistons that he needed
would cost $700, he did the work himself at a cost of $3.50 per
piston.
The three-point WHY WORRY was the successor
to a successful namesake, which had finished third in the 725 Class
races at Detroit in 1937 and 1938 with Cantrell driving. A Hisso-powered
single-step hydroplane, the first WHY WORRY had won the top prize
at the 1936 Madison Regatta and also the 1937 Calvert Trophy in
Louisville.
The old WHY WORRY was capable of straightaway
speeds of up to 61 miles per hour.
For years, the
725s were demeaned as the "Haywire Class" in comparison to the
more prestigious Gold Cup Class rigs. In winning the 725 Class
race, run in conjunction
with the 1939 Detroit Gold Cup, WHY WORRY made a stunning impression.
She won all three heats decisively and posted an overall average
of 62.186.
WHY WORRY's performance
in the 725 Class race could not be overlooked. Clearly, the
under-financed craft from Louisville had speed credentials that
warranted her
inclusion in the Gold Cup main event. This had never happened before.
Indeed, WHY WORRY's
average speed in Heat Three was 66.325. This compared favorably
to ALAGI's 66.080
mark in the 1938 Gold Cup, and NOTRE DAME's 68.645 in the 1937
race. No longer could the 725s be rejected out of hand as the "Haywire
Class."
Cantrell was
ripe for a shot at the big time. The MVPBA's most celebrated personality, "Wild Bill" would
become a Gold Cup legend.
On the eve of the 1939 race, the 725
Class contestants consolidated their equipment and entered their
two best boats: Cantrell's WHY WORRY and Marion Cooper's MERCURY.
Six boats-each
with a crew of two-made a start in Heat One. Vibrating with incredible
speed, Cantrell
and riding mechanic Jim Vetter led the field over the starting
line. WHY WORRY sprinted around the first turn and powered down
the backstretch, followed by NOTRE DAME, SO-LONG, MY SIN, MISS
CANADA III, and MERCURY. For the first time in Gold Cup history,
a three-pointer was controlling the race. Also, for the first time,
a low-budget 725 Class rig, representing the underdog Mississippi
Valley Power Boat Association, was
holding its own against the pride of the American Power Boat Association.
WHY WORRY finished the first lap in
first place with Dan Arena and NOTRE DAME challenging. Then the
craft from Louisville leaped out of the water with such force that
all of the blades sheared off of the propeller. WHY WORRY slowed
to a halt. Guy Simmons and MY SIN eventually worked their way up
through the field and took the checkered flag.
Equipped with a new propeller, borrowed
from one of the other 725s, WHY WORRY was pronounced ready for
another try in Heat Two. Once again, Cantrell and Vetter led the
other starters over the line. MY SIN and NOTRE DAME set out in
hot pursuit, while MERCURY and SO-LONG trailed far behind. And
again, propeller trouble proved WHY WORRY's undoing and forced
the front-running Cantrell to withdraw after the completion of
lap two. MY SIN then took over the lead and went on to win the
heat and the race.
It is interesting
to compare WHY WORRY's fastest lap of the day to those posted by
some of the other boats
in the race. WHY WORRY did 66.894, NOTRE DAME 66.225, MY SIN 70.153,
and MISS CANADA III 70.012. Even in defeat, Cantrell's unheralded "Haywire" hydro
could run with the best of them.
In 1941 at Cincinnati, Cantrell pushed
the third WHY WORRY-another Ventnor three-pointer-to a never to
be exceeded mile straightaway record for unsupercharged Gold Cup
Class boats with an average of 99.884 miles per hour-a mark embarrassingly
close to the supercharged Gold Cup Class record of 100.987 set
by Dan Arena in millionaire Herb Mendelson's NOTRE DAME.
After World War II, the Gold Cup Class
and 725 Class categories gave way to the Unlimited Class when the
huge supply of converted aircraft and other types of engines generated
by the war became available.
"Wild Bill's" first
ride in an Unlimited occurred in 1948 when he was hired to drive
the famous original
MY SWEETIE, owned by Ed Gregory and Ed Schoenherr of Detroit. Co-owner
Gregory had handled the boat in its debut race-the Ford Memorial
Regatta-but quickly concluded that an experienced professional
driver was needed.
The Allison-powered MY SWEETIE was designed
by John Hacker to be a single step hydroplane but with the propeller
amidships and a buffer step forward and a tunnel in the afterplane.
The craft utilized a forged steel propeller-the first of its kind.
All three of the Unlimited races which
Cantrell entered in 1948 were disappointments. The brand new MY
SWEETIE was fast but failed to score in either the Gold Cup or
the Silver Cup, and could place no higher than sixth in the President's
Cup.
Then came the
magical year of 1949 in which "Wild Bill" would make his claim
to fame by winning every race that he entered except the Harmsworth
Trophy. In a 1971 interview
with this writer, Cantrell was asked to identify the one race above
all others in his career that stood out as the most memorable.
He quickly acknowledged it to be the 1949 APBA Gold Cup on the
Detroit River.
Ten boats qualified for the event that
was scheduled for July 2 of that year. MY SWEETIE was the fastest
with a 92.402 average for three laps of the 2-1/2-mile course.
Cantrell's two most formidable rivals were Stan Dollar in SKIP-A-LONG-the
1949 Harmsworth winner-and Dan Arena in SUCH CRUST I-the 1948 Season
High Point champion.
Rounding out the field were Morlan Visel
in HURRICANE IV, Guy Lombardo in TEMPO VI, Chuck Thompson in the
original MISS PEPSI, Albin Fallon in the defending Gold Cup champion
MISS GREAT LAKES, Norman Lauterbach in HOT METAL, Cameron Peck
in ASTRAEA II, and Lou Fageol in the 7-Litre Class SO-LONG.
Also in the field was 20-year-old Bill
Muncey, who would go on to win eight Gold Cups between 1956 and
1979. Muncey failed to qualify at the minimum speed of 65 miles
per hour with his 225 Cubic Inch Class MI-SON. (This was in the
days when any inboard hydroplane over 10 feet in length could theoretically
participate in the Gold Cup.)
Arena and SUCH CRUST roared to victory
in the opening stanza and set a Gold Cup heat record of 74.809
in the process, followed closely by SKIP-A-LONG with MY SWEETIE
trailing in third. The SWEETIE had an early lead until Cantrell's
foot accelerator broke on lap two, which slowed the boat almost
to a halt for a few seconds. Bill reached under the dashboard,
grabbed the fuel control rod, and managed to finish ahead of fourth-place
TEMPO VI by steering with one hand and feeding the proper amounts
of fuel with the other.
In the Second Heat, Cantrell shattered
Arena's mark with a clocking of 76.964. SKIP-A-LONG took second
once again, turning 75.134, with the CRUST third at 74.146.
Heading into
the finale, Cantrell and Arena were tied with 625 points apiece
with "Wild Bill" in line
for 400 bonus points for the fastest heat providing he finished
all three 30-mile heats. Stan Dollar trailed with 600 heat points
but possessed an elapsed time edge on both the SWEETIE and the
CRUST and thereby had the inside track on the 400 bonus points
for the entry that turned the fastest 90-mile race.
With all of the chips riding on the
final 30-mile moment of truth, Cantrell proved his mettle in championship
fashion. He broke his newly established heat record with a mark
of 78.645, followed by SKIP-A-LONG at 77.227 and SUCH CRUST at
76.529.
Bill Cantrell
had won the Gold Cup-his most cherished goal after 25 years of
boat racing. "Wild Bill" had
also set a Gold Cup competition lap record at the commendable speed
of 85.731.
Cantrell's long-time
friend and fellow boat racer George Davis recalled this incident
that occurred at
the 1949 Gold Cup when Bill brought MY SWEETIE back to the dock
to receive the trophy. "When he came in by the judges' stand, Bill
got out of the cockpit and kissed the deck of that boat! Then he
pulled his old dollar watch out to see what time it was" to note
his moment of triumph.
In the years to come, Cantrell would
see action in boats such as HORNET, the original SUCH CRUST IV,
SUCH CRUST V, GALE IV, the three GALE Vs, TEMPO VII, MISS SMIRNOFF,
and the first GALE'S ROOSTERTAIL. He would win races such as the
President's Cup, Silver Cup, Steel Cup, Detroit Memorial, Indiana
Governor's Cup, Imperial Gold Cup, Red Bank Gold Cup, National
Sweepstakes, Unlimited Sweepstakes, Calvert Trophy, APBA Unlimited
Hydroplane Trophy, St.Clair International Trophy, and Maple Leaf
Trophy.
Shortly after the Gold Cup victory,
Horace Dodge, Jr., of the Dodge automotive family, entered the
ownership picture of MY SWEETIE. Bill continued as driver and went
on to win the 1949 National High Point Championship. (He won a
second High Point Driver crown in 1963 with GALE V.)
Cantrell stayed with Dodge for three
seasons before going to work for Jack Schafer's SUCH CRUST team
during 1952 and 1953.
At the 1952 Seattle
Gold Cup with SUCH CRUST IV, "Wild Bill" came perilously close
to meeting his Maker. After a third-place finish in Heat One, the
boat caught fire and
exploded in the south turn during Heat Two. A Coast Guard patrolman
pulled an unconscious Cantrell off of the flaming CRUST. The boat
burned to the water line. And Bill spent 46 days recuperating in
a Seattle hospital.
Undaunted, Cantrell was back in the
saddle in 1953 and had one of his best years. With Bill in SUCH
CRUST V and his good friend Chuck Thompson in SUCH CRUST III, the
Schafer team finished second and third behind GALE II in the National
Points Championship. It was a very competitive season with each
of the five High Point races being won by a different boat. Cantrell's
highlight was a victory on the Ohio River in the Imperial Gold
Cup at New Martinsville, West Virginia.
Schafer, Cantrell, and Thompson unfortunately
were unable to build upon their solid 1953 performance. The sponsoring
Schafer Bakeries experienced financial difficulties and went into
receivership. The SUCH CRUST racing team had to close its doors
for a couple of years, and Bill Cantrell was out of a job. But
not for long.
The moment Lee Schoenith learned that
Cantrell was unemployed, he hired him on the spot. From 1954 to
1975, Bill drew his paycheck from Gale Enterprises of Detroit.
One of the most successful two-boat
teams in Unlimited history consisted of Cantrell in GALE IV and
Schoenith in GALE V during the 1954 and 1955 seasons. Between the
two of them, Bill and Lee won eight races. GALE V was National
High Point Champion both years and GALE IV finished runner-up in
1954. Cantrell's victories included the 1954 President's Cup, the
1954 Indiana Governor's Cup, and the 1955 Detroit Memorial.
At the 1954 Seattle
Gold Cup, Bill was jockeying for a starting position prior to Heat
Two when GALE IV
experienced a rudder problem. The boat went out of control, ran
up on the shore, and came to rest in a rose garden! No one suffered
injury, but Cantrell was mighty embarrassed. The incident has since
achieved mythic stature in Seattle hydroplane lore, along with
Bill's classic comment: "That's the first time I ever walked home
from a boat race!"
Cantrell was
always a favorite with the kids. Even at the height of the Seattle-Detroit
rivalry, "Wild
Bill" (who drove a Detroit boat) could do no wrong in the eyes
of his youthful Seattle fans-and he had many.
At the 1961 Seattle race, Cantrell spotted
one particular youngster, age 7, standing outside the hot pit fence.
The boy was gazing longingly at the GALE V. But he lacked the required
pit pass that would have allowed him to get up close to the boat.
Bill reached over the fence, picked the kid up, and gave him a
personalized pit tour.
Years later, Cantrell met that same
youngster again. He was Chip Hanauer, the boat racing superstar,
who treasured the memory of that once-in-a-lifetime pit tour, conducted
by his hero.
When the definitive
volume on 1950s Unlimited hydroplane racing is eventually written,
mention must
necessarily be made of the exciting 1958 Silver Cup on the Detroit
River. For fans of Bill Cantrell, the race contained a tidal wave
of drama. Although Cantrell and GALE V finished second to Bill
Stead and MAVERICK on that memorable day, many hydroplane historians
regard the race-and especially the winner-take-all Final Heat-as "Wild
Bill's" finest hour as a race driver.
For ten heart-stopping laps around that
squash-shaped 3-mile course, Stead and Cantrell ran head-to-head
and gave it everything they had. These two past-masters of the
sport really showed what Unlimited racing is all about. At the
finish line, it was MAVERICK the winner at 105.481 and GALE V second
at 105.229. The fastest lap of the contest was by Cantrell at 109.290.
If one were to choose a video of one
particular heat to put in a time capsule that shows 1950s Unlimited
action at its best, the Final Heat of the 1958 Silver Cup would
be an eloquent testimonial.
Bill's last victory was the 1964 President's
Cup in Washington, D.C., with MISS SMIRNOFF. The race was one of
the finest that Cantrell ever drove. He had to defeat one of the
most competitive fields in Unlimited hydroplane history, which
included Buddy Byers in MISS MADISON, Chuck Thompson in TAHOE MISS,
Ron Musson in MISS BARDAHL, Don Wilson in MISS U.S. 5, and Rex
Manchester in NOTRE DAME.
The year 1966 was a season of death
for Unlimited hydroplane racing. Four of the sport's finest-Musson,
Manchester, Wilson, and Thompson-were stricken from the list of
the living in races for the President's Cup at Washington and the
Gold Cup at Detroit.
When Cantrell suffered burned hands
in the 1966 Suncoast Cup at Tampa, Florida, his friend Thompson
replaced him at the wheel of SMIRNOFF. Chuck won his first two
Gold Cup heats and was heavily favored in Heat Three, when SMIRNOFF
took a bad bounce and disintegrated moments after the start in
the run down to the first turn. The boat was destroyed and Thompson
never regained consciousness.
The initial reaction
to Chuck's death was panic. The Detroit race committee announced
that the remaining
Gold Cup heats would be canceled and the race declared "No Contest." The
sport's critics pontificated that Chuck Thompson had died for a
brand name, that the entire schedule of 1966 races should be abandoned,
and that anyone who participated in motor sports of any description
was a lunatic. But in time, cooler heads prevailed.
In the pits at
Detroit, Bill Cantrell spoke movingly and forcefully that now was
not the time to quit-even
after four deaths. "We're now at a pinnacle where the sport is
going to go under or up." Cantrell reminded his comrades that Unlimited
racing, together with Indianapolis racing, was a professional endeavour.
And professionals needed to act accordingly.
The Unlimited people took Cantrell's
words to heart. The remaining Gold Cup heats were re-scheduled
for the following day with Mira Slovak emerging as the winner with
Bill Harrah's TAHOE MISS. The ensuing races on the 1966 calendar
went on as planned with a full field of participating boats.
The sport had suffered a gut-wrenching
blow. But it fired back every bit as strong as before with plenty
of competitive action for the fans.
An injury accident
at Madison, Indiana, in 1965 with MISS SMIRNOFF essentially ended
Bill's driving career.
An illegally moving MISS LAPEER left a side-ways wake at the start
of Heat Two. The SMIRNOFF fell into the "hole" left by the LAPEER,
and Cantrell was pitched into the water.
Photographer
Bob Carver was taking pictures from inside the race course in a
patrol boat that day when "Wild
Bill" encountered the wake. In Carver's words, "I could hear him
cussing in that distinctive Kentucky drawl of his as he sailed
right over me."
Cantrell suffered eight cracked ribs
in the mishap and was paralyzed on the left side for about three
months.
Over the next three years, Bill drove
in a few more races and managed a second-place in the 1966 Tri-Cities
Atomic Cup with SMIRNOFF. But physically he was never quite the
same.
Cantrell's last
appearance in competition was at the 1968 Diamond Cup in Coeur
d'Alene, Idaho, at age 60
as a relief driver for Jerry Schoenith in GALE'S ROOSTERTAIL. "When
I came up for the start, I wasn't afraid to go fast, but I didn't
want to go fast."
When Bill returned
to the dock after a second-place finish in Heat 2-A, he announced
to a radio interviewer, "This
is my last race." It was the end of the line for one of the sport's
most colorful campaigners after a 44-year racing career.
Following his
retirement from competition, Cantrell went on to win back as a
shore mechanic and boat builder
some of the very same trophies that he originally won as a chauffeur.
But always the 1949 performance in the APBA Gold Cup with MY SWEETIE
would remain evergreen in his memory. For it was there that he
truly achieved the "big time" in the water sport of kings.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Bill constructed
many Unlimited hulls for Gale Enterprises and also for other teams.
These included the 1964 MISS SMIRNOFF, the 1965 GALE'S ROOSTERTAIL,
the 1966 NY GYPSY, the 1968 bat-winged SMIRNOFF, the 1971 ATLAS
VAN LINES, and the 1972 MISS MADISON.
In 1968, the
MY GYPSY team hired a top drag boat racer-Tommy "Tucker" Fults-as
their driver. Fults was lacking in experience around a closed course.
So MY GYPSY crew
chief Graham Heath arranged for Cantrell to give Tommy some driving
lessons on the Detroit River.
According to
Graham, "The first day,
Bill more or less led him around. It was the same the next day
with Cantrell showing him the ropes. Then, on the third day, Tommy
got the hang of it real fast and was outrunning Bill. He was doing
some serious racing with Cantrell. Bill was a veteran and knew
all the angles. And he taught those angles to Tommy."
Cantrell was
frequently called upon to give advice to various Unlimited teams,
including MISS MADISON.
When COOPER'S EXPRESS won the 1989 Tri-Cities Columbia Cup, co-owner
Ed Cooper, Jr., at the awards banquet, reserved his highest praise
for his two mentors, Bill Cantrell and Graham Heath. "They taught
me everything I know. I couldn't have done it without them."
For those fans
that never had an opportunity to watch Cantrell doing what he loved
best, they have but to tune
in to the movie MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION on late-night television.
The motion picture, filmed in 1953, shows the HURRICANE IV Unlimited
hydroplane throwing a spectacular roostertail of spray. That's "Wild
Bill" doubling for the star, Rock Hudson, in the first five minutes
of the show.
In 1977, "Wild Bill" retired to southern
Indiana, where he spent his last nineteen years. A working man
all his life, Cantrell became partners with his friend Heath in
the C & H Machine Shop on Wilson Avenue in Madison. In 1985,
he was selected Grand Marshal of the Madison Regatta Parade.
Bill would occasionally
grumble at the increasing commercialism of Unlimited racing and
lament the disappearance
of the amateur tradition. "It's no longer a sport. It's a business," he
observed in an interview with reporter David Taylor.
Although long
absent from the competitive arena, the racing world did not forget "Wild Bill" Cantrell.
The UNLIMITEDS DETROIT fan club from the Motor City voted him and
Bill
Muncey as the club's two all-time favorite drivers.
In 1992, Cantrell received one of his
highest honors when he was elected to the Motorsports Hall of Fame
of America in Novi, Michigan. Other inductees into that prestigious
hall include Muncey (1989), Gar Wood (1990), Dean Chenoweth (1991),
Ron Musson (1993), Bernie Little (1994), Chip Hanauer (1995), Betty
Cook (1996), Bob Nordskog (1997), Carl Kiekhaefer (1998), and Bill
Seebold (1999).
At the 1996 Madison
Regatta, six months following his death, the Governor's Cup race
course was officially
named the Bill Cantrell Memorial Race Course. His ashes were
scattered on the waters where Cantrell had competed as far back
as 1929, when he handled a vintage outboard hydroplane named FALLS
CITY BABY.
Bill had won the major trophy at Madison
in 1934 and 1935 with BIG SHOT, in 1936 with WHY WORRY, and in
1954 with GALE IV.
APBA President
Steve David presided over the ceremony, which included a moment
of silence in honor
of "Wild Bill"-a fitting tribute to one of racing's most popular
and most respected champions.
____________________
NOTE: The author is indebted to David
Greene and David Taylor, both of the APBA Unlimited Historical
Committee, who contributed to this article.
Copyright © Fred Farley
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