Crash in Hydroplane Didn’t Rattle Kropfeld

LAS VEGAS — The most dangerous occupation, according to insurance underwriters, is that of an astronaut.

The second-most dangerous? Unlimited hydroplane racers, according to the same underwriters, and world champion driver Jim Kropfeld doesn’t argue about that evaluation.

Two months ago, while testing a newer version of Miss Budweiser on its maiden cruise, a sudden gust of wind caught the right front sponson, rendering the 5,300-pound boat airborne.

The turbo-driven craft flipped backwards in a spectacular crash and landed on its topside.

Kropfeld, 46, recalled: “The last thing I remember I saw the sky and knew I was gone. Traveling at 140 (m.p.h.) isn’t very fast for a hydroplane, but, going upside down, it’s a little fast.”

He won his 1986 world championship in the final event of the year--the Budweiser Las Vegas Silver Cup, when he slipped past Chip Hanauer by a mere 31 seconds.

Kropfeld will be defending both the Silver Cup and world titles Sept. 25-27 in the $161,000 event on Lake Mead near Las Vegas.

The enclosed cockpit and driver restraining system are credited with saving Kropfeld’s life in the recent mishap. The system includes a bubble canopy from an F-16 fighter plane, a form-fitting seat harness and an oxygen mask and emergency air supply, developed and refined over the past three years by owner Bernie Little’s Budweiser Racing Team.

“I would have been dead for sure without this safety innovation,” Kropfeld said. “Everybody had been calling hydroplane racing the most dangerous sport in the world, but nothing had been done about it until we did recently.”

He said he spent 4 1/2 minutes upside down in the dark water-filled cockpit. He also hyperventilated and began sucking water around his oxygen mask.

“It took me a couple of seconds to calm down,” he said. “I remember taking four breaths and choking and then saying to myself, ‘I’m not going to die this way. I don’t want to drown in this stupid thing.’ That was scary, but after I got my mask running good, I was pretty confident. I knew I couldn’t sink.”

But he couldn’t get out, either. His rescuers--including rival Hanauer, the first man to reach the overturned boat--couldn’t open the escape hatch in the bottom of the boat. A screwdriver was needed to pry off the escape hatch.

Kropfeld came out of the mishap with only a stiff neck and he was so unnerved that less than a month later the Cincinnati resident reentered the sealed bubble aboard the repaired boat and won the Budweiser Regatta in Miami’s Biscayne Bay for the second straight year.

He next won the Thunder on the Ohio River in Evansville and the Indiana Governor’s Cup in Madison, matching his entire 1986 victory total.

Kropfeld set a qualifying record of 150.83 m.p.h. for last Sunday’s Detroit Trophy Race, bettering the old mark by 11.5 m.p.h. But, he failed to win his fourth straight race after being penalized a lap for crossing the starting line too soon, although he did manage to finish third.

At the midpoint of the season, the veteran Kropfeld has 4,125 points for a commanding lead over runner-up Todd Yarling and his U-22 boat. Yarling has 2,613 points.