Hall of Famer Bill Mowatt remembered

Bill Mowatt, a two-time ERCU Gold Cup champion and ERCU Hall of Fame inductee, lost his battle with cancer on Monday, Aug. 12.

Bill courageously fought an aggressive cancer, that took over his body, throughout the summer of 2024 and made it to the race course when he could — both races at Waughop Lake. He also had a couple of opportunities to go to the lake with Jerry Dunlap and test his new boat.

Mowatt will long be remembered as the most positive and one of the biggest personalities in the club’s history. His ever-present smile lit up pit areas from Marysville to Longview and he created lasting memories with everyone in ERCU.

Mowatt started in ERCU as a “hired gun” driving Rick Evans’ 1968 Miss Bardahl — the “Checkerboard Comet” — which he eventually was able to talk Evans into selling him. A big fan of the Miss Bardahl, and in particular the yellow and black checkerboard livery, he worked so hard for many years to make his boat a winner.

While the 1/10 scale Miss Bardahl was a consistent up-front runner, Bill often battled the “curse of the Karelsen hull”, which is flighty and likes to blow over at “just the wrong moments”. But the Mowatt smile was never brighter than Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023 when he posted his first-ever race win with his Bardahl. That was the Atomic Cup in Elma.

Bill also had the opportunity to serve as a “hired gun” when David Newton selected him to drive the 1970 Pride of Pay ‘n Pak Hemi in the 1/7 scale classic class at the 2023 ERCU Gold Cup. Mowatt, of course, won the Gold Cup with David’s boat that day.

But it wasn’t the first time.

One year earlier, Bill drove John & Denise Sjostrom’s 1990 Oh Boy! Oberto to the championship of the 2022 ERCU Gold Cup in the 1/7 scale modern class. It was Bill’s first-ever ERCU race win, his own first Gold Cup, and the first Gold Cup for the Sjostroms.

He was thrilled.

Bill even had so much fun racing the borrowed 1/7 scale boats that he built his own. From scratch. He was proud of the collaborative work he did with Mike Hughes to put together a piece of art that turned out to be the 1968 Miss Bardahl — just a bigger version of the little boat he had so much appreciation for.

Never one to give up, Bill completed the 1/7 scale Bardahl build just a week before his passing.

Off the race course, Bill loved ERCU. He served on the club’s board of directors for two terms. He towed, stored, maintained, packed (and re-packed) the club’s equipment trailer, he arranged for the purchase of the club’s new chase boat, and turned the 20-year old Livingston into a planter garden on his property in Eatonville to help be sure it was properly disposed of.

He championed and defended the club as if it were a member of his family. He loved ERCU.

That love primarily came in the form of the friendships he formed in the club. For Bill, race day was more about time spent with people he loved. People with whom he had racing in common with. And people with whom he shared a love of unlimited hydroplane racing.

Bill is already missed.

ERCU’s Board of Directors has already voted to name the race course at Woodland Creek Park in his honor. Beginning with the upcoming ERCU Detroit Memorial Regatta and going forward, the Lacey race course will be known as the Bill Mowatt Memorial Race Course for all ERCU events.

Already, too, some individual members are planning personal remembrances to our friend Bill Mowatt.

God speed, Bill. Race in peace.