Born in Xenia, Ohio, and a long-time resident of Tallahassee, Florida,[5] Chenoweth began his career in motorboat racing at the age of 12. At 15, he won three national championships, in Class A and Class B hydroplanes and Class A stock boats.[5]
Chenoweth moved to unlimited class hydroplane racing in 1968.[5] Between 1968 and 1982, he won four APBA Gold Cups, in 1970, 1973, 1980, and 1981,[6] and won the National High Point Championships four times.[7] Chenoweth also set a record of twenty heat race wins in the first five events of the 1980 season.[6]
Best known as the driver of Bernie Little's famed Miss Budweiser,[6] and owner of a Budweiser distributorship in Tallahassee, where he moved in 1973,[8] Chenoweth survived a number of spectacular accidents, including a massive blowover on Lake WashingtonatSeattle during a speed record attempt in October 1979.[9][10][11][12]
While piloting Miss Budweiser in 1982, Chenoweth was killed on the Columbia RiverinWashingtononJuly 31.[14] During Saturday morning qualifying for the next day's Columbia Cup at the Tri-Cities, the boat was traveling at about 175 mph (280 km/h) when it blew over and impacted inverted.[3] He suffered massive head, neck, and chest injuries; when pulled from the water, he was unconscious and did not have a pulse. Chenoweth was taken to Kennewick General Hospital, and was pronounced dead 45 minutes after the accident.[3][4]
Less than ten months earlier, hydroplane racing legend Bill Muncey was killed during the last race of the 1981 season at Acapulco, Mexico.[3][15]
Chenoweth's death led Little to develop a closed cockpit for the next Miss Budweiser boat, and the enclosure became standard for unlimited racers.[7] He is memorialized by a fountain in Lake Leon in Tallahassee's Tom Brown Park; he had been named the city's Man of the Year for 1981.[8]
