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Madison Regatta 2011
Miss Madison Racing
The Madison Courier
Saturday, June, 25, 2011
From humble beginnings came ‘one heck of a legacy’
By DAVID CAMPBELL Courier Staff Writer
When industrialist Samuel Dupont donated his hydroplane, The Nitrogen, to the City of Madison in 1961, few could imagine that the legacy would span five decades and produce three national champions, 14 race wins and a movie. This year, Miss Madison Racing celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first time it hit the water. All 13 living Miss Madison drivers will be in attendance and the Madison Regatta plans on honoring its hometown boat all week long. “This is one heck of a legacy for a race team. Fifty years of racing, the longest team to race in any kind of motorsports including Roger Penske,” said Steve David, the 19th and current driver of the Miss Madison. “This is significant. I think sometimes we maybe take things for granted and I hope this time maybe we sit back for a second and realize that this is really significant.” The past four years have been the best in the community-owned team’s history with David, crew chief Mike Hanson and sponsor Oh Boy! Oberto delivering seven wins and three national championships. The previous 46 years were not nearly as successful, with only a handful of highlights sprinkled among what has largely been an average history. But the fact that the Miss Madison team survived — and even thrived — despite any kind of continued success is what made it such a fan favorite. Not just in Madison but all over the country, people consider themselves fans of the spunky, never-give-up team from the tiny town in southern Indiana. Dupont was just looking for a tax write-off when he donated The Nitrogen to the city in 1961. But Madison saw more than just a showpiece, it also saw a chance to jump into the big leagues of boat racing. Driver Marion Cooper and crew chief Graham Heath made the boat a contender in that first year with Cooper taking a secondary race at Seattle. Four years later, George “Buddy” Byers drove the second Miss Madison — purchased from
The first (above) and second (below) Miss Madisons and her volunteer crew toiling on one of the original Allison engines. Dupont in 1963 — to the team’s first win at Lake Guntersville, Ala., in 1965. The biggest moment in the team’s history, until recently, came in 1971 when Jim McCormick drove the aging boat the Gold Cup title on her home waters in Madison. Just to prove it wasn’t a fluke, McCormick won again three weeks later, this time in Tri-Cities. The rest of the 1970s were arguably the team’s toughest decade and it would be 12 more years before the team tasted success. In 1978, Miss Madison purchased the famed “Winged Wonder” from Bill Muncey and in 1983, Snyder steered the obsolete conventional hull to victory at Lake-of-the-Ozarks, Mo. In 1988, Miss Madison commissioned the building of a new cabover hull and in 1991 converted the team to turbine power. Hanson delivered the team’s fifth win when he became the first — and still only — driver to win a final from the trailer position when he did so at San Diego. David was hired in 2001 and he claimed victory in just his second race with the team when he won in Madison on the 30th anniversary of the Gold Cup win. He picked up the team’s seventh win in 2005 when he took the seasonopener at Evansville. The 2005 season proved to be the beginning of the team’s golden era. Hanson, who had left the team for several years, returned as crew chief and immediately set about to alter the boat’s performance. David rode the momentum from the season-opening win to the driver’s championship, the first in the team’s history.
David made it back-to-back driver’s titles in 2006 although the team lost the National High Points Championship by less than 200 points. A new boat was built for the 2007 season and it was immediately a contender winning races at Seattle and San Diego. Since the new boat’s construction, the Miss Madison team has doubled its win total and enters the 2011 season with a chance to join the Miss Budweiser team as the only ones with four or more consecutive national titles. “The reality is that our success and my success individually driving for you guys is only possible because I have been able to climb
on the shoulders of everybody who has come before whether it is Jon Peddie or Buddy Byers or Andy Coker, Mike Hanson, Ron Snyder, Todd Yarling,” David said. “You go down the list, every one of those guys made it possible for me to have the ride that I have today and for us to have the equipment we have today.” All 13 drivers will be honored at a celebration at The Boneyard Grill on Thursday and will serve as Grand Marshals for the Madison Regatta Parade. They will also be introduced during the Paul Overstreet concert in Bicentennial Park Friday night.
BILL COLE for City Council District 5 • 6th Generation Madison Resident • Extensive Budget Balancing Experience • Servant of the Community • A Proven Leader
“I will work for you to improve neighborhoods, infrastructure and city services. I will not support any ordinance or referendum eliminating the cap on property taxes. The city must live within its means.” – Bill Cole
Leadership • Integrity • Accountability Paid for by Bill Cole, Candidate, 2229 Seneca Dr., Madison, IN 47250