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Muncey's Best Season Question |
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By Fred Farley - ABRA Unlimited Historian |
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QUESTION: Fred, you've always regarded overall performance during a season as being more significant than an individual race performance. With that in mind, which season of Bill Muncey's career do you regard as his best? Would it be 1962 or 1978? - Rick Daniel ANSWER: Neither one. In both 1962 and 1978, he had a boat that was far superior to everyone else. Moreover, the rest of the fleet simply didn't have its collective act sufficiently together to be able to provide meaningful competition for Muncey. I would nominate 1972 as the best of Bill's career. After the difficulties experienced in 1971 when Muncey was nearly barred from racing for repeated violations of the right-of-way rule, the 1972 campaign was a refreshing change for the better. He won six out of seven races in 1972 for the Joe Schoenith team, including the long-anticipated fifth Gold Cup. The mechanical status of Muncey's Rolls-Royce Merlin-powered ATLAS VAN LINES could hardly have been more impressive. In 1972, the ATLAS broke only one engine all year long--and even then, Muncey managed to finish the heat in second-place. (This occurred at the President's Cup where he was runner-up to Billy Sterett, Jr., in PRIDE OF PAY 'n PAK after a sensational side-by-side battle in the Final Heat.) Bill's best individual race performance of 1972 was probably the Gold Cup at Detroit. He won all four 15-mile heats and trounced second- place Billy Schumacher in PRIDE OF PAY 'n PAK and third-place Terry Sterett in MISS BUDWEISER. This tied Muncey with Gar Wood's record of five Gold Cup wins between 1917 and 1921. As reported by George E. Van in the September 1972 issue of YACHTING MAGAZINE, "All of the know-how of this 43-year-old veteran was in operation as he equaled the great Gar Wood's record. There were those who reflected that the tragic deaths of fellow drivers during the '60s, all good friends of Muncey, might have tempered his driving. Conservatism, if any, was replaced by headiness on Muncey's greatest day. "His starts were flawless. He backed off at the right second and he let her go with perfect timing. ATLAS VAN LINES was never behind on the backstretch." |
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