Now that the water has setteled and I have had a day to rest and reflect, I think I can say the NAMB 2010 Fast Electric Nationals were a huge success. We had a few minor glitches but they were quickly resolved. I am very proud of NAMBA District 20 and Rocky Mountain Thunder Boats. As our club is very young and had never done a larger race let alone a National event we needed a support system. Robert Holland director of district 20 and The Nitro and gas clubs of district 20, Northern Colorado Nitro Burners and Rocky Mountain Marine Modelers were our back bone and support. They did all of the site work as we are 200 miles away and saved our butts may times over. I would like the say THANK YOU for all of the hard work and dedication to the hobby. I think it shows gas and electric clubs can work together and be very sucessful.
We were pretty much blessed for most of the week with great weather with the exeption of Thursdays brief wind and rainstorm. Temps were a bit hot to the mid 90's. Water conditions were nearly perfect and made for great racing.
We were able to field 24 of the 25 classes with a 3 boat minimum. The only class of the 25 planned classes that was not ran was 1/8 scale unlimted Hydroplane. I think as a lot of guys traveled its hard to bring large beautiful boats and risk damage.
After each morning drivers meeting the racing began by 9:00 am We ran a pretty quick pace to try and meet our 4 rounds per class goal. we tried to meet all drivers needs with any having back to back races. The drivers did a fantastic job of keeping up and we were able to run 4 rounds of every class and finish daily with time left for open water testing of the following days classes.
We had tons of great racing on Wednesday the P-limited classes had lots of head to head battles and very close finishes. The N-2 and P-limited hydros were fantastic lots of great racing. In N-1 Mono, Bill Oxidean set a new 3 lap 1/2 mile record. And Jason Sims was the oustanding Driver in the production class and took the plunge, However he got even and and took ken Haines in to the pond with him A 2 for 1 kind of thing LOL. We closed the Day with a Pizza Party at Old Chicago Pizza.
Thursday was all Off Shore racing. The weather was great for the Off Shore classes, cool and cloudy all day with a slight breeze that would create just enough chop to provide true Off Shore conditions. LSO was one of the largest Class feilds filling 3 full heats of 7 boats each. Lots of action and great racing all day many race were won or lost by a bouy cut or called penalty. By late in the day the clouds turned black and the had wind turned ugly. Just before the last heat of the day a storm blew in and reaked a bit of havoc. Pit areas had to be secured and closed up to keep things from being damaged. We had a Lagre Pit Tent that had been Provided by Don Wollard , Rum Runner Racing and Doug Twaits Jr. of Rum Runner Hobbies. This provided all of the folks plenty of shelter. Once the storm passed we gathered inside the tent for a great true Bar-B- Que dinner served up by Swinestone Cowboy Bar-B-Que. The Dinner was sponsored by Steven Vacarro and Off Shore Electrics.com We sat down to some great Pulled Pork, Ribs and Brews. I think all had a great time. THANK YOU DON, DOUG AND STEVEN FOR A GREAT EVENING.
Friday morning began with clear skies and great water with temps going to the 90+ mark by afternoon Lots of great racing in the N-2 Mono class I was really impressed with the speeds of the small power yet big punch these boats provide. most of the best of the best racers ran the class and it was a blast to see them run head to head time and time again. One of the standout happening of the day was a boat destroying crash, It was between Mike Pag's big Cat and Chris K's fast mono. A racing incident that destroyed both boats leaving 1/2 of Mikes sponson broken off and stuffed insde Chris's mono. I'm sure it was a costly crash. It also seened the Day 3 curse had hit we had some damaging crashes in the P-hydro heats that damaged a few of the very fast riggers. We also ran the 1/6 Exhibition P- limited Crackerbox class It was a hoot to see that cracker can be raced sucessfully. We had 5 Crackers that drew a lot of attention I hope the class grows it was a gass to dive. I t was sad for me I was beat by one of the Cracker I had built for Chuck. He came out on top. We had a light turn out of modern scale 1/10 Ron Daum who came from Washington, ran his beautiful Elam then came out on top. Friday evening was left to an open evening with no plans. I went back to room and got ready for the largest heats which were coming up on Saturday.
On Saturday we once again had great weather and water but was again going to be hot. It was the day for P-Limited Sport Hydro/ LSH which is the largest class and had the most entries. We had so much great reacing in LSH that it was just a blast. There were sp many lead change it was hard to keep track of the leader But I think it is still one of the most fun classes. By the end of the day Sean Kewley and his beautiful Red Ducatti whiplash came out on top. Another huge class that is growing rapidly is P-Limited opc. Lots of great racing and it seemed it always came down to the best driver. David Newland can really drive the opc and ended with a top finish. N-2 hydros was also on the Saturdays menu. The riggers are fast and not very forgiving a field of 7 boats made for lots of possible things to go wrong but these guys can dive these things. What a blast. Once again Dog Twaits shown why he is the MAN and came out on top. The Q sport Hydros were screaming fast. But they had a hard time keeping up with Sean Cordovas Whiplash. He came out on top. But I don't think it official as he managed to wheezel out of going on to the pond to make it official. We also ran My very favorite class. It was hard but I had decided not to run to many classes as I knew I was going to be busy. By luck of the draw I did not run Vintage 1/10. It was sweet to see all of the Scale boats running the course a fantatic sight from the CD stand. In the end I receved some gratifacation as The "Short Circuit" Hydro That I had built For Chuck Alarid became the clear winner. Thats right a boat from PUEBLO, COLORADO beat the Boys from Washington And Detroit at there own game.J/K Kind of reminds me of the movie The Movie "The Madison" Chuck Did make it official by taking the plunge. Sweet, We had a concourse Judging , We had independant judges select their choices . For Best Boat the winner was Tom Costello's "My Sweetie" , Best Scale Hydroplane was Ron Daum's "Wild Root Charlie" and Best Crackebox Rod Sanata's "Crazy Horse" We closed the day and the event with an awards banquet at the Best Western Convention center. We were served up some fine food followed up by the closing raffle prizres. These were some great donations. We had received A UL-1 RTR from Aquacraft and the big winner was Robert Holland. And a great Cracerbox buid kit From Rich Koll and Mack products. Winner of that one was Fred Siewert.
We then moved on to the awards. The high light was Doug Twaits Jr. To The NAMBA hall of fame,follwed by high points Champion David Newland and The Team Champions, Team Rum Runner, With Doug Twaits Junior, Mike Paganelli and Dave Rychakski. If anyone would like to add events I have missed I hope you'll share them. I will be adding a full thank you thread as well. For those who have taken pictres please post or e-mail them and we can share the race. I think it was fine event, I had a great time and hope all attending did as well!!!
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