E-City Record Trials

[Blaise Recca]

I haven't seen any preregistration info for the April 24-26 record trials in Elizabeth City. Who is going and do I need to register before hand or just show up? I finally got some boat finished and I am looking forward to getting them wet!

 

[Dick Loeb]

you just signed up.lol

Dick

 

[ZZ RACING]

Guys. All sanctioned events can be found on the IMPBA site master calender. Here is the EC one.

http://www.impba.net/index.php/component/jevents/icalrepeat.detail/2014/04/25/451/-/elizabeth-city-nc?Itemid=119

 

[John Finch]

Dick,

Jim and I will be there Friday morning.

 

[Dick Loeb]

See you then,

Dick

 

[Mike Luszcz]

Dick, I will be there Saturday. Mike

 

[Doug Smock]

Break a keel fellas!!!

 

[Chilli]

Good luck Guys. Hope the winds die down for you.

 

[shoboat]

Boaters,

Any records today?

Thanks,

Mark Sholund

 

[Carl Van Houten]

I have heard from a good source that there was very high winds there that had blown trees down across the road leading to the pond. I think that the retrieve boat was blown over as well. Not sure if it was straight line winds or what but is sounds like there was quite a delay because of it. I guess someone that was there will post more about it.

-Carl

 

[Chilli]

Severe T-Storms passed through last night and the area was under a Tornado watch for most of the evening. They called it a day yesterday before the storms hit. I'm sure that was the reason for the downed trees.

 

[Ray Sametz]

Any more news?????

 

[El Zorro]

I was down there yesterday for a few hours. Got there just before noon and they were just setting up the sensors and had already dried out the motor on the retrieve boat. There was a lot of leaves, sticks and other debris in the water from the storm and high winds from the night before. Most of this was being blown to the shoreline and was not in the running lanes. I did see Jim Skelton make some great passes to get a Sport Gas hydro record at 89 MPH and change. Congratulations Jim! Just before 4PM the wind shifted and started to blow the debris back into the driving lanes. Don't know what happened after that because we left to go eat some seafood at the world famous Oyster Bar in Elizabeth City. I assume someone that was there today will chime in with things that happened today. I heard that Martin Truex, Jr. was going to stop by the lake today. He finished 10th Saturday night at the Richmond race. Positions were tough to come by last night.......great run, Martin!

Dick Tyndall

 

[Bob Morton]

Glad all the contestants are safe.

Nails

 

[Don Ferrette]

Well here it is Monday morning and my azz is seriously dragging. This event was tough on everyone as mother nature threw us a wicked curveball. Friday had a very small window early on but closed quickly and it was quite breezy because of the approaching storm front. Most of us were watching the local channels that evening and the weather radar looked like the vast majority was going to go just above us and bear down on the southeast areas of Virginia like Franklin and Newport News. Well for whatever reason a leg formed off the storm and formed up it's own "super cell" as the news called it that generated 3 verified tornados in the Elizabeth City area, two F1's and and F2, this info I got from chatting yesterday with one of the sheriffs who came by to watch. 18 homes in E-City were condemned but no fatalities. One of these tornados did a number on the pond site, turning over a couple semi trailers there, destroying a 24 foot enclosed trailer they used as extra office space along with major damage to other structures within the site. Needless to say this also trashed the pond, we found the retreive boat a couple hundred yards down the pond upside down in the water with no marks in the shore where it had been pulled up on leading us to believe that it may have very well been tossed to where it wound up. Somehow the motor managed to stay on the transom but the fuel tank, life vests and other items in the boat were gone (we did find the fuel tank later during the weekend barely floating in amongst the brush). We did our best to make passes but the off and on breezes and tons of trash in the water made life tough. Martin Truex flew in Saturday night after the race and the police actually escorted him though town to get him past the many barricades and closed off streets in downtown E-City. Sunday was another battle with debris on the water, we probably spent more time cleaning stuff out of the water than running. We staying until the last possible moment yesterday trying to get Martin some passes but mother nature just kept teasing us with it looking good one minute to being too rough the next. MJ did get some runs in including a blistering one way pass just short of the record. As darkness set in we broke everything down, loaded up and said our goodbyes. Long ride home getting in late and up early this morning is going to make for a looooong day, my butt is whooped but we still managed to have a good time. Hopefully next spring Martin can make a return visit as it appears he really took a liking to the site.

 

[Terry Keeley]

Was watching the weather and hoping you guys were safe.

Spring Record Trials are always a crapshoot, but tornados - that's downright ugly.

Cudos to you guys sticking it out, many others would have bailed early!

 

[Don Ferrette]

Was watching the weather and hoping you guys were safe.

Spring Record Trials are always a crapshoot, but tornados - that's downright ugly.

Cudos to you guys sticking it out, many others would have bailed early!

The storm rolled in while some of us were at a hibachi place called Volcano's (good food!) having dinner and it seemed like WW3 had erupted outside. The storm ripped open the double glass doors that led into the lobby area tearing the door closers clean off the metal framing, we helped them get the doors closed again and deadbolted. During the height of the storm we heard a really loud noise that freaked out a bunch of people inside and shortly after that water started pouring through the ceiling into one of the dining areas. After the storm had passed when we left there was a mangled up piece of HVAC ductwork about 4 foot square and maybe 10 foot long laying on the sidewalk out front, probably what let all the water in when it got torn off. We found out Sunday that one of the tornados touched down 1/4 mile from Volcano's, man we were lucky. On a lighter note while we were waiting out the torrential rains Ron Shaw found the karaoke machine and after fiddling with it for about 15 minutes he got it working and provided some entertainment. While I don't expect you'll see him on the next run of American Idol believe it or not the guy ain't half bad at singing. Then again it was AFTER we had been drinking some seriously good mixed drinks.

 

[Don Ferrette]

Here's a view of some of the aftermath of the tornado that passed through. Check out the semi trailer on it's side and the building on the left with the front pounded in and the side partially torn off......

 

[Ben G.]

Pleasure as always gentlemen, even under adverse and strange conditions. Well, for my first time at that restaraunt, it might as well lived up to the name. I was interesting to see Ron having a good time singing. I believe the comment he made was that he felt like the band on the Titanic.

Always fun and that is exactly as a direct result of what the entire group makes it. There's a lot of very fast folks and it's always good to hear the RPMs sing higher and higher from one event to another. Thank you to everyone involved. I will have to say that it is my first event to have had the rescue boat blow over!

 

[RonShaw]

2014 Elizabeth City SAWS are behind us, and even with all of the curve balls mother nature threw at us, we still came away with 3 records over the weekend.



Contestants L-R- Jim Skelton, John Finch, Bob Austin, Trent Ghattas, Don Ferrette, Scott Liddycoat, Martin Truex, Ben Gugler, Kentley Porter, Ron Shaw, Dick Loeb (not pictured......sleeping in his truck!!!....

The unofficial results:

Jim Skelton- LSG Sport Hydro 89.498 mph

Blaise Recca- TLSG Mono 66.021 mph

Trent G- LSG 27 Rigger- 105.288 mph

Thanks go out to everyone for their help throughout the weekend. Tornados, debris, wind, etc, did not dampen the spirit for sure. Special thanks to Dick Loeb for supplying the retrieve boat and manning it for a lot of the weekend, Scott Liddycoat for helping his help in launching and retrieving, as well as "taking one for the team" and going into the water to rescue the "rescue" boat...lol



Scott giving me the "ok" sign.......

Thanks again everyone for a great weekend!!!