Dave Villwock triumphs over near-fatal hydro crash

Dave Villwock talks about his accident and subsequent rehabilitation so casually that you almost forget the Unlimited Hydroplane driver had two fingers amputated from his right hand.

It isn't until you shake hands with the personable Villwock that the seriousness of his blow-over accident last year in Pasco, Wash., hits home.

And it makes his accomplishments this season in Miss Budweiser all the more remarkable.

Villwock, a former Green Valley resident, has won seven of the eight finals on the Unlimited Hydroplane Racing Association Thunder Tour in the Bernie Little-owned Miss Budweiser and clinched his second drivers championship.

In a sport where hand-eye coordination is critical, Villwock said he actually may be a better driver as the result of the loss of the two small fingers on his right hand. In fact, he said it has had other benefits.

"The loss of the fingers hasn't been a problem," Villwock said as he prepared for this weekend's Las Vegas Cup on Lake Mead. "The steering wheel in the boat has special grips on it ... and the boats are easier to steer now than they used to be.

"And my golf game has improved considerably since the accident. It's funny how when adversity is thrown your way, talented people will come up with not only an adequate answer, but a better one than before."

But Villwock does not take all the credit for his inspiring comeback.

"It has been a dream season for the whole team -- they went through a tough time," Villwock said. "We started out with a lot of intensity and managed to pull off the championship.

"It was a tough season for us last year but we regrouped. I had to go through a lot, the team had to go through a lot."

Villwock's dream season was born from a nightmarish experience during a heat race last July in Washington. After winning the first four races of 1997, Villwock flipped Miss Budweiser in the final heat at Tri-Cities. His right hand was so severely damaged in the accident that he was forced to undergo 15 surgeries and extensive rehabilitation.

With the aid of a special steering wheel grip, Villwock picked right up where he left off, winning the first four races this season. After Mark Evans in Pico American Dream won the Molson Thunderfest in Canada in early August, Villwock has captured the past three events.

The 42-year-old Villwock credits an increased level of concentration for his success this season.

"I was probably more focused this year than I had been in a while," he said. "I was real focused last year but then I had the accident.

"When I came back this year, we had a lot of things to prove: We had to prove that we had made the boats better than they were before, that we made the safety capsules better than they were before and we had to prove that we could work together as a team."

Quitting the sport, he said, was never an option.

"I was real committed to the team and I knew that we had a lot of potential," Villwock said.

Villwock said he doesn't intend to slow down this weekend just because the Miss Budweiser team has wrapped up the driver and boat championships. In a season of staggering accomplishments, Villwock has one more goal he wants to attain.

"If we can win eight races (this season), that would be something nobody has ever done before," Villwock said. "With the championship over, we don't have to worry about points, we don't have to worry about breaking, we have just got to worry about trying to win that next race.

"The next goal, since the championship is clinched, is to try to win one more race. If we can do that, we sort of etch our stone with a little piece of history that no one has ever done before."

Some might say Dave Villwock has already done that.

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