It was found in testing the boat that the cowl made the boat too "flighty". By removing the cowl, it was found that the boat was much less likely to get out of shape, so the cowl was relegated to covering the engine bay while flying down the hiway.
Rumor has it that Ron Jones actually argued with Dave Heerenspurger over making it a cabover. Ron wanted the front cockpit, Dave didn't. Dave won the debate since he was the one paying the bills. Ron did win the battles over the materials used, primarily Aluminum Honeycomb, and the twin tails and wing. When the boat was teamed up with with crew chief Jim Lucero and driver George Henley, the team became almost unbeatable. Even in the boat's first season with Mickey Remund driving, the team was a force to be overcome. Only the Miss Budweiser had any success against the Remund driven Pak in 1973, winning one less race than the Pak. Henley joined the Pak in 1974, after Remund was lured away by the Bud team, winning most of the races that season. Henley "retired " after the 1974 season, only to return to the cockpit part way through the 1975 season. After an offseason reworking, the Pak was a handful to drive and not dialed in. This resulted in the Miss Weisfields dominating the first three races. The return of Henley and some fine tuning of the boat resulted in a second place in the next race. From that point on, with Henley driving and the boat dialled in, it was a one boat race with the Pak dominating the rest of the season and winning it's third straight high points championship. Bill Muncey bought the team's assets after the season and, with Lucero staying on as crew chief, took the former Pak on a run that ended the season with a 4th consecutive championship. It also ended the Pak's reign as the boat to beat. With the introduction of the Blue Blaster in 1977, the Pak became an also ran. Sold to Madison Indiana after the 1977 season, where she ran one more time as the Pak, but without Lucero or Henley, she lost her Merlin powerplant and was fitted with a Turbo Allison. While always in the hunt, her outdated hull was no match for the two Rolls powered Atlas boats, Griffon Budweisers or the turbines she would be pitted against until her retirement when the new Miss Madison was unveilled at the Tri-Cities Regatta part way through the 1988 season. Now both the Pak, and her successor the Miss Madison, share a similar fate. The Pak is now stored in a warehouse in Detroit Michigan while the Madison is stored in another warehouse in the Madison Indiana area as a partially stripped down backup hull. As a side note, the Miss Madison never won a national championship, though she did win several races. Her successor, the Oberto sponsored Oberto/ Miss Madison has won consecutive titles in 2008 and 2009. Will she equal the Pak's 4? Time will tell
