Two of hydroplane racing\u2019s greatest names became the first members of the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum\u2019s Unlimited Hydroplane Hall of Champions Saturday at a dinner and induction ceremony at the Kent-based museum.<\/p>\n
Hydro legends Chip Hanauer and the late Bill Muncey were the official inductees.<\/p>\n
KIRO TV\u2019s Steve Raible served as master of ceremonies for the event, which included video highlights of both drivers\u2019 careers and comments from legendary Hydro broadcaster Pat O\u2019Day .<\/p>\n
O\u2019Day shared an audio clip of his call of a Spirit of Detroit final heat in which a 24-year-old Hanauer, driving the Squire Shop hydro, nearly caught Muncey by surprise at the finish line, serving notice that he would be a force to be reckoned with in the sport. O\u2019Day also observed that if Muncey were alive today, the San Diego race would not be in jeopardy, adding, \u201cBill just wouldn\u2019t let that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum Board President Eric Mann explained the new Unlimited Hydroplane Hall of Champions recognizes a career of excellence and success on the racecourse, while the existing Hall of Fame includes deserving individuals from various phases of the sport.<\/p>\n
Video presentations produced by the museum\u2019s Don Mock, highliting the lives and careers of both drivers, brought cheers and applause from the audience.<\/p>\n
Muncey\u2019s wife Fran Muncey thanked the museum and the attendees for honoring the life and career of her late husband. All four of Muncey\u2019s sons, Edward, Wil, Kenton and Dorian, shared memories of their legendary father.<\/p>\n
Hanauer unveiled the bronze plaque, which will hang next to that of his mentor in the museum\u2019s new Hall of Champions, and thanked his father Stan and other family members for the support he received over his career. He also saluted the audience members who had been involved in his career as owners, crew chiefs, and crewmembers.<\/p>\n
Muncey is Unlimited Hydroplane Racing\u2019s all-time winningest driver, with 62 victories, eight Gold Cups and seven national championships. Hanuer retired with 61 career wins, rather than eclipse the record of his hero and mentor. Hanauer also won a record 11 Gold Cups and eight national championships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two of hydroplane racing\u2019s greatest names became the first members of the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum\u2019s Unlimited Hydroplane Hall of Champions Saturday at a dinner and induction ceremony at the Kent-based museum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":19513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-19512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19512"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19512"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=19512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}