PRO Nationals 2009

[RyanWarner]

osy 400
John Peeters
Amy Nydahl
Billy Allen

125 H
BJ Tetro
Amy Nydahl
Dave Jones

K Pro
Wendy Eldredge
Zach Maguire
Ashley Rucker

[pro350hydro]

From my memory, sorry it's been a long week

Brandon Thirlby 250cch
Mike Thirlby 1100ccr
Sean Mckean 1st 1100cch
Doug Hall 2nd
Dave Hooten 3rd

[Allenthefamily]

Any results for Sunday?

[David Weaver]

Sunday

Large fields for most of today's classes and the weather forecast is promising for a beautiful day. There are about 22 125 hydro's, 19 250 hydro's, 12 350 runabouts, 12+/- OSY 400's, 10 KPRO's, 9 1100 hydro's and 8 1100 runabouts.

[flatsmoke]

Congratulations Ralph Donald from Lee Sutter and Ron Anderson.

350cc Hydro Finals

From the pits:

First heat of 350cc Hydro:
1st David Mitchell, MJR/GRM
2nd Jeff Kuglar VRP
3rd Chris Hellsten, Mostis/GRM

Second heat of 350cc Hydro:
1st Chris Hellsten, Mostis/GRM
2nd David Mitchell, MJR/GRM
3rd Jeff Kuglar VRP

Final heat of 350cc Hydro:
1st Chris Hellsten, Mostis/GRM
2nd Jeff Kuglar VRP
3rd David Mitchell, MJR/GRM

Overall for the National Championship of 350cc Hydro:
1st Chris Hellsten, Mostis/GRM
2nd David Mitchell, MJR/GRM
3rd Jeff Kuglar VRP

[HRTV]

Doubling down at Lake DePue - bcrnews.com

<img alt="" src="http://www.bcrnews.com/articles/2009/08/01/r_1hxic0xoscaqudr3fmueaw/1-depue-kh-1.jpg" class="aligncenter" width="400" height="158" />
David Jones of Oxford, Conn., has the nose of his boat going up, but was able to maintain control in Friday’s DePue races. (BCR photo/Kevin Hieronymus)

<a href="http://www.bcrnews.com/articles/2009/08/01/r_1hxic0xoscaqudr3fmueaw/index.xml">Full article Link </a>

[Al Peffley]

An Apology is in Order

Sorry Buddy, I did not purposely mean to mis-report your 175ccR national title win. I thought Ralph came in second in the first heat; I was incorrect. Congratulations to both you and Ralph for winning and placing, respectively, in a great 175ccR race.

Al

[HRTV]

Pair of racers grab 4 of 5 power boat titles handed out on DePue’s first day

<a href=http://shar.es/z2vf>Jumping off to fast starts - Peoria, IL - pjstar.com</a><br /><br />Posted using <a href="http://sharethis.com">ShareThis</a>

[David Weaver]

Corrections

Buddy Tennell is National Champ in 175 hydro and 125 Runabout. Ralph Donald ran great, but a poor finish in heat 1 left him second overall. Amy went out of her 125 runabout. Jake Walk is V-350 and put in a heck of an effort with Yamato powered boat.

[Al Peffley]

Day One of Racing at Depue

Diane Murray stuffed her PRO laydown hydro in early testing and destroyed the boat; she is OK but has some serious pain from a nasty left hand cut and some bruises; her helmet did not have strap rings or straps and was thrown from her head like a football. She jumped two wakes, stuffed the entire frontal area of the boat; it looked like she broke through the side of the cokpit and then landed on the entire right deck surfaces back to the transom before being finally tossed into the water on the opposite side from her floating helmet. We were really worried because we could not see her head from the shore, just the floating debris and her floating helmet until she bobbed to the surface and raised one arm up.

BJ Tetro blew over his 'Betta 175ccH in the first pin of corner 1 during the first heat today; his helmet restraint straps broke on water impact and he also lost his helmet as he was thrown from the boat (one of the rivets for the strap rings that Simpson installed also failed.) BJ is sore, but OK, and his Betta boat took the 180-degree flip beating with pretty minimal damage after ending upside down in the first corner. Ralph D. placed second in 175ccH for the national title -- he beat all of the remaining competitors, including Buddy Tennell, by quite a margin in the last two heats -- the big grin on his face after the last heat was priceless.

500ccH racing was very exciting with Hall dominating the field in the final heat and McKean and Thirlby chasing Doug and a solid-blue capsule boat with V-350 number (Jake Walk, I thought, won the first heat). Derek's new capsule 500ccH hydro, equipped with Brian's new VRP motor, looked good; however, after changing the complete ignition system from PVL to MSD they were plagued with a stuck piston on the same cylinder yesterday in testing and today in the first heat of racing.

Neilson and Zak both ran well in the service classes. Region 10 drivers dominated the service hydro and runabout classes.

The guy that won the first two heats of 175ccR had his motor quit in the third heat for a DNF. Amy Nydahl lost control in turn one and was ejected from her 125cc runabout, but came back again to run and finish in the 175cc hydro class.

Quite a few people went swimming today due to bizarre circumstances, and we had a number of stuck motors and broken pipes during both morning testing and afternoon racing. We had some minor wind gusts, but basically a cool (high 70's/ low 80's temperature), mostly sunny, and not very humid day here. The Black Diamond Rescue divers did an excellent job today, responding quickly to the outcomes of each accident.

There are 19 250ccH entries this year. We race on Sunday...

Al

[Al Peffley]

Second Day of Testing Done

Day two of testing is completed at Lake Depue. The mass quantities of jumping Asian Carp is incredible! We had one capsule boat that came back in with a live carp inside the rear cowling when the hydro stopped abruptly in the back stretch after sticking number one piston. I had one carp jump at my helmet while being towed in yesterday.

Today it rained after testing was over, and the daytime temperatures are 20 degrees cooler for this part of the US in late July. Scheduled racing starts tomorrow. The motor "gremlins" were very busy today, causing all types of failures on the PRO boat racing community's hardware. The fireflies are really cool to watch in the corn fields at night. Our first attempt at video taping a couple of testing runs failed; we will try again on Sunday (a remote on-off camera switch would be nice...)

Al

[Brew56]

Eric,

Good to hear your parents are well. My Dad and yours have many things in common (wood) and used to share many stories together. Tell him Jack Brewster said hello when he returns.

Thanks,
Jerry

[epugh66]

My parents should be camped beneath a big tree by Monday or Tuesday, stop and say hello. They should be the only ones in a VW Bus.

[Al Peffley]

Settled In and Getting Ready

The Depue beach spots are filling up since Sunday night, and the weather is cooler than in past years. It's been a decade since we've raced at Depue. Lots of Asian carp are jumping in the lake and there are some downed branches in the brownish water from the last storm, but the lake level is down from earlier this month. We are settled in to register tomorrow and test on Wednesday. Parking the trailer was painless. Thanks for the Sunday staging assistance and friendly help getting us settled into the pits! Should be a great 25th year of PRO Nats racing if the weather cooperates all weekend.

Al