QUESTION: Fred, I have a number of questions regarding the late J. Lee Schoenith, who was Unlimited Commissioner from 1962 to 1969. What would you consider to be his most significant contribution to the sport? What is your take on his very controversial win as driver of GALE V in the 1955 Gold Cup? And was his feud over the years with Bill Muncey for real?  -  K.M. Brien

ANSWER: Regarding the so-called Muncey feud, it was strictly show business. In private, Lee and Bill were close personal friends. In the 1970s, they were owner and driver respectively of the ATLAS VAN LINES team and won many races together.

In those halcyon days of the 1950s, heroes and villains were clearly defined in the battle between Seattle and Detroit over possession of the APBA Gold Cup.

Lee Schoenith was the man you loved to hate--especially if you were from Seattle.

To Seattle fans, Bill Muncey was the hero and Schoenith was the villain. To Detroit fans, the opposite was true: Schoenith was the hero and Muncey was the villain.

The media and the fans couldn't get enough of the alleged rivalry between the two men, who played their roles to the hilt and with great relish.

Regarding Lee’s 1955 Gold Cup victory at Seattle, he won it fair and square.

Schoenith and GALE V outpointed the team of Muncey and MISS THRIFTWAY in the final standings, 1225 points to 1025. This was in spite of the fact that MISS THRIFTWAY had posted heat finishes of third, first, and first, while GALE V had run second, second, and third.

On the strength of their victory, Lee and his father Joe won the right to defend their title in 1956 on home waters in Detroit, which hadn't hosted a Gold Cup since 1950. All of the races from 1951 through 1955 had been run in Seattle and hosted by the Seattle Yacht Club. The SYC team of SLO-MO-SHUN IV and SLO-MO-SHUN V, owned by Stan Sayres, had won an unprecedented five consecutive Gold Cups. Thanks to GALE V, the "Golden Goblet" returned to the trophy shelf of the Detroit Yacht Club, much to the chagrin of Seattleites accustomed to considering the Gold Cup their own.

The Gold Cup rules in 1955 called for three heats of 30 miles each. First-place in a heat was worth 400 points, second place 300, and third 225. Additionally, a boat could earn 400 "bonus points" for the fastest heat and 400 for the fastest race.

Schoenith and GALE V took the lead at the start of Heat One but were overhauled by Joe Taggart and SLO-MO-SHUN IV. SLO-MO went on to establish lap and heat records of 107.965 and 103.159 miles per hour. GALE V kept the pressure on SLO-MO-SHUN IV throughout and averaged 102.469 for the 30 miles. Muncey checked in third at a conservative 97.232 with MISS THRIFTWAY, 64 seconds behind Taggart and 57 seconds astern of Schoenith.

 MISS THRIFTWAY grabbed an early lead in Heat Two and held it to the checkered flag at an average of 100.944, followed by GALE V at 99.103. SLO-MO-SHUN IV ran an unfamiliar fourth place prior to overtaking SUCH CRUST III at an average of 97.631 to the CRUST's 96.392.

For the third and deciding heat, Taggart and Muncey were tied with 625 points apiece with the SLO-MO driver in line for the 400 bonus points for the fastest heat, provided he complete the 90 miles. Schoenith possessed 600 points but stood in the best position for the 400 bonus points for fastest match, with an elapsed time edge of ten seconds over Taggart and 37 seconds over Muncey.

SLO-MO-SHUN IV charged to the front at the start of Heat Three, followed by SUCH CRUST III, MISS THRIFTWAY and GALE V in that order with MISS CADILLAC and BREATHLESS trailing.

The positions remained unchanged until the fifth backstretch, when MISS THRIFTWAY roared by on the outside of SUCH CRUST III, which was attempting to lap BREATHLESS. On the same lap, SLO-MO-SHUN IV's manifold started to crack. Taggart eased off to nurse SLO-MO along as Muncey moved closer.

Finally, two laps from victory, Taggart elected to save the boat, and himself, from fire. He shut off the engine, forever dashing the hopes of Stan Sayres for an unprecedented sixth consecutive Gold Cup triumph.

With Taggart out of the race, Bill Muncey, in his first appearance with a competitive Unlimited hydroplane, had the Gold Cup in his grasp. He had compensated for the 37-second elapsed time differential between himself and Lee Schoenith. But on the final backstretch, the inexperienced MISS THRIFTWAY pilot forgot or ignored or was unaware of the critical bonus points factor. He committed the costly error of reducing his speed and allowed his approximate 38-second lead over the third-place GALE V to dwindle.

At the finish, it was MISS THRIFTWAY the winner at 99.990, SUCH CRUST III second at 98.460, GALE V third at 97.080, MISS CADILLAC fourth at 88.390, and BREATHLESS fifth at 77.201. But while Muncey had eased down to 93 for the last lap, Schoenith had maintained his same steady previous pace.

Although despondent over the demise of the SLO-MO winning streak, Seattleites generally consoled themselves over the apparent victory of another local boat. They jubilantly proclaimed Bill Muncey as the hero of the day for having "saved" the Gold Cup for the Pacific Northwest. There were many references to a long and successful career for the 26-year-old driver who, ironically, resided in the Motor City.

Meanwhile, out on the judges' stand, the team of APBA officials checked and rechecked the overall average speed and discovered a startling statistic. Lee Schoenith and GALE V had completed the 90 miles 4.536 seconds faster than MISS THRIFTWAY. The three-heat clocking, 24 laps of 3.75 miles each, showed a match speed for GALE V of 99.552 miles per hour, compared to Muncey's 99.389 for the 90 miles.

This entitled GALE V to the bonus points for the fastest race. Schoenith's accumulated points increased from 825 to 1225. The Detroit Yacht Club challenger held a victory edge of 200 points. For the first time since the introduction of the Gold Cup bonus point system in 1937, a boat had won the race without winning a single heat.

The announcement proclaiming Detroit the winner and Seattle the loser generated something akin to a cultural shock wave throughout the Pacific Northwest. Even persons not otherwise inclined toward boat racing were inevitably drawn into the debate over the invocation of a "technicality" in a civic-supported sports event of national significance. Lack of understanding by the general public of APBA "fine print" was partially responsible for the uproar.

The local press capitalized on the public disenchantment with harsh criticism of the Gold Cup rules and expressions of sympathy for the crestfallen Muncey. The Seattle media even went so far as to accuse SUCH CRUST III pilot Walt Kade with intentionally blocking MISS THRIFTWAY in the last heat so as to slow her down, an allegation without basis in fact and absolutely denied by Kade in a 1965 interview with Fred Farley.

According to Kade, "I didn't even know Muncey was behind me. I was trying to get by the BREATHLESS. I didn't know Muncey was there until he went by both of us on the outside."

The bottom line was that Bill Muncey just plain "blew it" by not following the rules. Conversely, Lee Schoenith followed the rules and reaped the benefits of doing so. Muncey never made that mistake again and vindicated himself by winning four of his next seven Gold Cup contests for the MISS THRIFTWAY organization.

When Schoenith returned to Detroit following the Gold Cup, his plane was greeted in the middle of the night by a crowd of cheering hydroplane fans.

Following his retirement as a driver, Schoenith assumed the office of APBA Unlimited Commissioner at a time when the sport faced a myriad of problems.

The Internal Revenue Service was questioning whether or not boat racing was a legitimate business expense. And the cost of campaigning an Unlimited hydroplane was spiraling upward.

As the self-styled "Czar" of Unlimited racing, Lee had some difficult decisions to make. For the sport to survive, it had to professionalize. The government had to be convinced that the boat owners were businessmen rather than just sportsmen.

Starting in 1963, the Gold Cup race location was determined not by the yacht club of the winning boat but by the city with the highest financial bid. This was a blow to honor and all that but a move entirely in line with the new professional school of thought, which included mandatory cash prizes at all races.

These changes did not come easily and were bitterly opposed by the sport's amateur element. But to those who accepted the new order of things, their reward was a competitive series of races that compared favorably--if not better--to the great races of the past.

At the beginning of the 1962 season, only four races were definite. This number grew to six events as the season progressed. Schoenith assured the race sites that they would have a representative field of competing boats. And he delivered on that promise.

Lee may have lacked the tact of a diplomat, but the man got results...and probably saved the sport.

In 1964, Schoenith appointed Bill Newton as Chief Referee for the entire circuit to standardize the interpretation of rules.

The average field had thirteen starters in 1964, an all-time record.

Eighteen boats attended the 1966 Tampa Suncoast Cup, an all-time record for a non-Gold Cup event.

In 1966, the standard course size was reduced from 3 miles to 2-1/2 miles for the purpose of improving spectator vantage points.

In 1967, Lee appointed Phil Cole as Executive Secretary to handle media relations for the sport.

After retiring as Commissioner, Schoenith concentrated on running his Gale Enterprises racing team. In 1970, he hired Bill Muncey as driver and, in 1971, inked a sponsorship pact with Atlas Van Lines, Inc.

Schoenith and Muncey enjoyed the best season of their illustrious careers in 1972. The ATLAS VAN LINES (U-71) won six out of seven races, including the Gold Cup at Detroit, and the National High Point Championship. The boat broke only one Rolls-Royce Merlin engine all year--and even then was able to finish the heat in second-place.

Schoenith retired as an Unlimited owner after 1975, while Muncey started his own team and went on to many more successful years in racing.

But the sport had not seen the last of Lee. He re-surfaced in 1980 as Chief Referee for the Unlimiteds--a position he occupied for eight years until ill health forced him to step down.

As Referee, Schoenith was his usual hard-nosed no-nonsense self. He went by the book--a book that he had helped to write: "The first guy I ever called for a rule infraction was my best friend, Bernie Little," owner of MISS BUDWEISER.

Lee Schoenith passed away on August 20, 1993, at the age of 63. His greatest legacy was in transforming an amateur endeavor into a professional pursuit. He was a catalyst for change and improvement.

Those who didn't know him often accused Lee of being bellicose and abrasive in tactics.

His bellicosity masked a warm love for the sport. His steadfast resolve was to never preside at any administrative surgery harmful to the best interests of boat racing. His abrasiveness was used, at times, as a tool to probe motives, attitudes, facts.

If not for the untiring efforts of "Czar" J. Lee Schoenith, Unlimited hydroplane competition as we know it might not exist.