Just got home and boy am I beat! Thanks to everyone who came to make this one of the best events we've had at Thread Lake, which BTW, has been hosting IMPBA events for nearly 40 years now.
Here's a "quick" re-cap, look for a full article in the December IMPBA Roostertail.
We had 19 contestants from as far away as New Hamshire and they were treated to some of the best conditions I've seen in my 20+ years being involved with this event. Both days had crisp, cool air and hardly a breath of wind. We did our best to keep things moving along and thanks have to go to Mike Nowicki, Mike Ross, Mark Stein and the rest of the Oakland/Wolverine MBC for all their help.
Paul (Gooycheese) Bychowski and Chuck Giesen came from the Chicago area and ran their fast .12 hydros through the traps for speed patches and kicks, thanks guys.
Gary Murcott, Frank Orlic and Steve Reesor came from Ontario, Gary running his new LSG riggers, Franco his little .21 rigger and mono and Steve his big electric riggers and monos. Steve made a 2.556 sec. or 88.028 mph blast with his big Q rigger and opened the books on the T hydro oval at a very respectable 23.868 sec.
Gary and David Preusse had a good weekend, Dave upping his SP20 SAW to 66.568 mph and the oval to 23.974 sec. Gary had a 74.577 mph pass with his "A" (.12) Hawk before it tumbled and broke and ran his SP 40 to a 24.232 oval, thanks guys.
Denny Wilson (IMPBA 3167) came over from Buffalo to run his Nelson powered mono and his 20 Hawk, good to see ya again Denny!
Mark Sholund cam down with lots of props for everyone to try and even had a little time to run his Nowicki 20 SAW boat, looking good Mark!
Walt Radzinski and buddy Randy Crum came over from the west side of the state and ran a fast little Whiplash 20 but had all kinds of problems, I know you'll get it guys, and when you do David better lookout!
Rick and Dustin Maston came up from Ohio to run their fast LSG mono and cat. Dustin set the LS36 mono record at 65.963 mph and the LS36 Catamaran at 71.023 mph, congratulations guys and see ya next year!
Co CD Mike Nowicki and Mike (engine man) Ross teamed up in LS27 hydro and had a 89.250 mph shot coming close to the 92.251 mph record held by Matt Waldron. Mike Ross had a bunch of passes in the 70's with his LS27 Cat and Mike Nowicki had lots of passes over the "C" hydro record with his Nova Rossi .28 powered hull, including one blast Saturday night of 101.856 mph, try as could he couldn't get it backed up for the record though, next year bud, next year...
"Amp Heads" Ken Joye, Fred Siewert and Terry Davis joined us on Sunday and opened the books on some oval records, Ken ran 30.913 sec. in T Sport Hydro, Fred 31.513 in Q Sport and Terry 30.801 in P Sport and 32.567 in N-2 Sport, thanks guys!
The hi-light of the weekend though had to be when Walter Duarte, who came all the way from Raymond, NH, finally put two passes together back to back to get the XLS27 Catamaran record at 77.855 mph late Sunday after knocking on the door all weekend. Walter had a bunch of us "driving" for him as he aired his PPB Dragcat through the traps pass after pass trying to get the average over the record, finally his last two made it with a fastest of 78.152 mph!
And me, well, I'm getting my new boat running pretty smooth and learning new things every time I get it out, and I got all kinds of work for the guys in the shop to do over the winter!
