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We had a good test session Friday afternoon @ Lock Haven. After some carb adjustments, trying a couple of spray shields/airboxes, and a few props, we managed to see better speed numbers than what we saw at Whitney Pt. and not far off what I saw at Dayton. Which is a pretty cool thing since Lock Haven is a lot shorter and tighter than either of the other two places. The airbox that Matt Muntz (sp?) made and brought to Dayton turned out to be the best option.
On Sat. I had a good run to the first turn in the first heat and was running with and maybe pulling Dave Young, George Stillwell and Matt D'Augustino. Unfortunately I forgot I was at Lock Haven (a tight river course) not at a place like Dayton or Whitney. Since I didn't crack the throttle I ended up kind of running through the turn and having to get way out of the gas to keep from hitting anyone else and to get turned. Then on the last lap bad evil things happened and I lost the airbox off the motor. We had to scramble and put a spray shield on for the 2nd heat. We lost 2-3 mph without the airbox. I was really kicking myself for losing the airbox. We couldn't locate the airbox after Sat. racing so we cobbled together a different spray shield for Sunday's racing. This spray shield didn't work much better (still 2+ mph off the speeds we saw with the airbox).
After Sun. racing Billy Simmons, Matt Muntz, and I went looking for the airbox again. Luckily the water @ Lock Haven is incredibly clear (you can see gum wrappers on the bottom of the river from the bridge) and Billy spotted the airbox and retrieved it from the bottom of the river.
Since I hadn't put on such a good show to this point and we had found the airbox, several people talked me into racing on Monday (ok it didn't take much convincing). I made sure not only to REALLY tighten the airbox on the carb but also safety-wired the airbox to the motor. I really didn't want to have to go looking for the airbox in the river again. In fact the airbox now has the same status as my helmet (It rides inside the car not in the trailer). The BSH were combined with the 25SSH on Monday which made for interesting starting. The 1st heat I made it to the 1st turn in the second wave of boats only to find Mike Marshall floating in the middle of the turn thankfully Tom Sutherland and I were able to miss Mike (he was pretty far from his boat). This heat got red flagged. On the restart I wasn't able to get out (still trying to get used to launching the Sidewinder versus an OMC A). I got out the 2nd heat and got an ok start. The motor with the airbox carried the boat much better through the corner and I was able to stay close to Matt & George heading down the back stretch. I managed to catch them at the 2nd turn but I ended up driving through a lot of spray and got hosed down pretty good. Unfortunately this ended up with some water into the carb and I barely kept it running coming out of the turn. I ended up stopping on the front stretch close to the start/finish line.
I was bummed about only getting the one heat and then not actually finishing it. Of course in the tradition of the up & down weekend that it was, when I got in and checked the gps I saw the best max speed I've seen (better than Dayton and better than what we had seen testing on Friday). Even better the speed was comparable to the speed that Tom Sutherland saw in the same heat on his gps.
I'll be racing at Hillsdale, MI this weekend. I hope to get another test session in one of the next two weekends after that since I don't have a race scheduled.
On Sat. I had a good run to the first turn in the first heat and was running with and maybe pulling Dave Young, George Stillwell and Matt D'Augustino. Unfortunately I forgot I was at Lock Haven (a tight river course) not at a place like Dayton or Whitney. Since I didn't crack the throttle I ended up kind of running through the turn and having to get way out of the gas to keep from hitting anyone else and to get turned. Then on the last lap bad evil things happened and I lost the airbox off the motor. We had to scramble and put a spray shield on for the 2nd heat. We lost 2-3 mph without the airbox. I was really kicking myself for losing the airbox. We couldn't locate the airbox after Sat. racing so we cobbled together a different spray shield for Sunday's racing. This spray shield didn't work much better (still 2+ mph off the speeds we saw with the airbox).
After Sun. racing Billy Simmons, Matt Muntz, and I went looking for the airbox again. Luckily the water @ Lock Haven is incredibly clear (you can see gum wrappers on the bottom of the river from the bridge) and Billy spotted the airbox and retrieved it from the bottom of the river.
Since I hadn't put on such a good show to this point and we had found the airbox, several people talked me into racing on Monday (ok it didn't take much convincing). I made sure not only to REALLY tighten the airbox on the carb but also safety-wired the airbox to the motor. I really didn't want to have to go looking for the airbox in the river again. In fact the airbox now has the same status as my helmet (It rides inside the car not in the trailer). The BSH were combined with the 25SSH on Monday which made for interesting starting. The 1st heat I made it to the 1st turn in the second wave of boats only to find Mike Marshall floating in the middle of the turn thankfully Tom Sutherland and I were able to miss Mike (he was pretty far from his boat). This heat got red flagged. On the restart I wasn't able to get out (still trying to get used to launching the Sidewinder versus an OMC A). I got out the 2nd heat and got an ok start. The motor with the airbox carried the boat much better through the corner and I was able to stay close to Matt & George heading down the back stretch. I managed to catch them at the 2nd turn but I ended up driving through a lot of spray and got hosed down pretty good. Unfortunately this ended up with some water into the carb and I barely kept it running coming out of the turn. I ended up stopping on the front stretch close to the start/finish line.
I was bummed about only getting the one heat and then not actually finishing it. Of course in the tradition of the up & down weekend that it was, when I got in and checked the gps I saw the best max speed I've seen (better than Dayton and better than what we had seen testing on Friday). Even better the speed was comparable to the speed that Tom Sutherland saw in the same heat on his gps.
I'll be racing at Hillsdale, MI this weekend. I hope to get another test session in one of the next two weekends after that since I don't have a race scheduled.
! Thanks for keeping us informed on your progress and the upgrades.
Seriously though I think it will have to be a combination of lighter boat and lighter me. 
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