SEATTLE — Now that Dave Villwock has become unlimited hydroplane’s all-time winningest driver, things can get back to normal.
“Now we can focus on the sport and not Dave and how many races Dave’s won,” said Villwock, who will pilot the U-96 Spirit of Qatar at the Albert Lee Cup at Seafair to
day. “I told somebody in Madison (Ind.) that talked (to me) about it: If I was the other drivers, I would have pulled over and (said) just get it over with.”
Villwock won his 63rd career race when he took the Gold Cup in Detroit last month, passing the legendary Bill Muncey and his 62 wins. Villwock won his 64th race last weekend at the Columbia Cup in the Tri-Cities.
Nobody has more High Points national titles than Villwock, who has won nine as a driver (plus two as the crew chief for Chip Hanauer in the Circus Circus). Halfway through the season, Villwock is in first place in the standings with nearly 800 points on Jeff Bernard.
His last national title came in 2007 driving the Miss Elam Plus (which is the same boat as the Spirit of Qatar just with a different sponsor).
Steve David in the U-1 Oh Boy! Oberto has won the last three.
“We’ve had a couple years where we’ve been in the lead and our sandwich landed on the peanut butter side,” said Villwock, who graduated from South Kitsap High and now lives in Auburn.
To Villwock, the difference between winning and losing over an entire season can be a series of coin flips — or which side a slice of bread with peanut butter spread on it lands. A crash or a mechanical problem can cost plenty of points and could be the difference between first and second.
Steve David has been behind since a crash with Villwock at the first race in Madison. He was declared the winner, but he missed the next race. He sits sixth in the High Points standings nearly 2,000 points behind Villwock. The national title has been a two-team race since between David and Villwock for the last seven years.
“They (the U-96 team) are just awfully good,” said Ken Muscatel, who is both a driver and on the board of directors for H1 Unlimited, the sport’s governing body. “They win because Dave is great. I’m not going to kid you around, Dave is great. He drives hard and he sets the boat up right.”
Villwock insists the focus around his Ballard-based team is not the national championship.
“Sven (Ellstrom) would tell you, ‘We don’t care about points, we try to win races,'” Villwock said, referring to the team’s owner.
But just how long is Villwock looking to win races? He’s 57 and it’s a dangerous sport. Villwock is missing two fingers on his right hand from a crash in the late 1990s.
In answer to this question, Villwock gets philosophical. He paraphrases Sun Tzu’s the Art of War: Never take a hill you can’t hold.
That’s what he sees from the younger racers around the circuit, who sometime drive for the advantageous inside lanes without the boat speed to hold them. Villwock understands the greater strategy is get points for the finals and beyond.
What he’s getting at is his experience keeps atop the sport. That and he has one of the two top boats in the fleet.
It’s hard to argue with his success. He’s won two of three races this seasons.
“I’m still healthy,” he said. “…If the Ellstrom family wants to continue and Sheikh Hassan (the sponsor) wants to continue, then I’ll continue. If they don’t, I probably won’t.”
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