flat-bottom boats, managed to set a lot of world records and win a lot of championships. from there, of course, it was a step to racing hydroplanes. dave soon breaking almost every record in the book. in 2004, he decides to see just how fast he can drive his legendary hydroplane, miss budweiser and tries for the straightaway record. we ll be racing against time and mother nature. we ll see what we re made of. dave doesn t let his nerves show. one of the problems in setting records is you know you re going to experience things that other people have not. everyone pay attention, the course is live. the speed is calculated by averaging the time over two one-kilometer runs. 9.83. the speed to beat is 198
how fast he can drive his legendary hydroplane, miss budweiser, and tries for the straightaway speed record. we ll be racing against time and mother nature. we ll see what we re made of. dave doesn t let his nerves show as he gets ready to start the record attempt. one of the problems in setting records is you know you re going to experience things that other people have not. everybody pay attention. the course is live. the speed is calculated by averaging the time over two one-kilometer runs. 9.83. the speed to beat is 198 miles per hour. dave it buckled into the cockpit and hits the gas. here he comes. 213.437 miles an hour. he s on record pace over the first leg. for the second leg, he gives it everything he s got. 225. 225. 30 he s out of it. it s more than fast enough to
dave says imagine driving your car at 200 miles an hour over two and three foot speed bumps without springs or shocks. that s what it feels like to ride this thing. the environment of looking from the outside of a hydroplane, it likes wonderful, graceful vehicle that flies over the water. the truth is the boat is actually beating the snot out of the drive es inside. david fell in love with racing boats as a teenager. while most kids his age were out riding bicycles. i started out racing flat-bottom boats, because that s what my uncle had done. dave, good-bye. and it was a lot of fun, and it progressed into bigger flat-bottom boats, managed to set a lot of world records and win a lot of championships. from there, of course, it was a natural step to racing hydroplanes. dave soon breaking almost every record in the book. in 2004, he decides to see just
in the blink of an eye, a piece of equipment fails or a driver makes a mistake, they could be 50 feet up in the air. upside down and backwards. at first glance, dave might look more like a banker than a daredevil, but he s been racing hydroplanes for years and been in some pretty dramatic crashes. you re traveling at over a football field per second. so if you aren t anticipating what what s going to happen, you re likely to crash. they flip through the air as if they weigh nothing, but these boats are 30 feet long, 7,000 pounds with 4,000 horsepower engine. it s a celebration of excess. everything about it is bigger and badder and more extensive than you could possibly imagine.
he s out of it. it s more than fast enough to break the world record. but the burst of speed also breaks the boat s rudder. the race is on hold. bud has a hole in it. we need to get him off the course. luckily dave isn t hurt in this record stunt. broke the rudder bracket, snacked the propeller and cleared the propeller and strut off the boat. but it s a very different story seven years earlier. dave was at the columbia cup championship in washington state, ready to claim the record for the most consecutive race wins. this would be his 20th win in a row. but as he bursts out of the gate, almost instantly the boat has hit two waves in a row. at top speed, the force is too much and the hydroplane blows over. the top of the boat crashes onto