2010 Pro National on Lake DePue

[mrlou40]

Heard from Zach via text that little man Colin Rucker won K-pro hydro! Congrats!. Sounds like a good day for region 10!

Rock on Colin........

Time for K.B. and Zach to put you on the team for beer pong and a tall CC

Carl...............( Mr.CC)



wedding: Sept 25th Lk. Lawrence, attendance mandatory or Sandstrom will make you do turn judge duty Sunday, open bar for all racers!!!!!!

[RLR]

2010 National's Friday results

Well the day finally arrived to kick off the first day of the 2010 U.S. Pro Nationals and kick it off we did!!!!! The Depue Men's Club celebrating the 26th year of Nationals, have this down to a science and we thank Steve Solario and his crew for those many wonderful years.

What we did miss though was the smile and ever great prescence of Frank Solario who was taken far too soon from us a few weeks ago. His ever smile and laugh will be missed and Alan Bosnich read from a note that he wrote in honor of Frank at the opening ceremonies. Thank you Alan for a most kind and thoughtful note on Frank.

CRH

In the first class of the day, the ole iron of Washington was beaten by the ole iron of Wisconsin, as Justin Gibson took home just enough points to beat out George Thornhill when final results were tallied. Jay Walls Sr. of Danville Indiana actually won enough points to take the title, but a DQ took place in the inspection area and he did not receive any points. Zach Malhoit took the third spot. A total of 100 points separated from 1st to 4th place with 694 points being the top point total, with many GJ through the 3 heats. Unreal

CRH
Justin Gibson
George Thornhill
Zach Malhoit

175 H

We started with 13 and after 1A/1B were run, we went to all boats in the
2nd and 3rd heats. What can you say about a world and National Champion that has not already been said, except to say with as many years of boatracing under his belt, one more time!!!! Ralph Donald put together a great 3 heat strategy as he finished 1st in two heats and 2nd in the final. Ralph has won many championships at Depue, but I am willing to bet none more satisfying than this one. Congrats Ralph and thanks for the many years of boatracing.

Diane Murray can only wonder what if, as in the first heat on the inside with Ralph and Buddy Tennell on the outside she was in the corner hot, and it hooked big time and spun her out and received no points. She came back in the 3rd heat and took the boys to school.

Buddy Tennell who finished second, just did not have quite enough for Ralph, but finished a solid 2nd.

175H
Ralph Donald
Buddy Tennell
Diane Murray

OSY 400

We started with 15 boats and whittled it down to the point where 12 boats entered the final heat with 4 boats in striking distance. In the end "Guido", John Peeters was left standing having defended his title. Heat 2A had Amy Nydahl, Ken Godwin the heat 1A/1B winners, along with Mike Schmidt the younger, all in the same heat, and quite frankly only one of them was going to come away with points toward the championship that were worth anything.

Ken Godwin who had run away with the first heat, ran into the buzz saw of Jonathan Nilsen and finished in 4th, making a tough assignment tougher. Amy Nydahl finished 2nd in that heat to give her a great chance.

In 2B, Guido ran awsome from the back to track down the win. He had to work hard for the 2nd place in the first heat as he started quite a ways back. But, he prevailed and this set up a great 3rd heat.

Everyone was antsy as the 12 drivers heard the 1 minute gun and set sail toward the start finish line. As they did, as they say, let the games begin. Head games that is, as a number of drivers headed off to the starting line a little early including Amy Nydahl who was disqualified. Eventhough John finishe on the water a ways back, nonetheless, he was the winner of the heat as 4 boats had jumped the gun.

So John Peeters will have US-1 on his boat for the 2011 campaign. Congrats John!

OSY 400
John Peeters
Billy Allen
Amy Nydahl

125R
SCARY!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the second heat, Paulie Bosnich of Depue headed into the first turn out front, only to have the back part of the boat's bottom peel away, with Paulie stopping abruptly in front of the whole field. With no where to go, David Jones, winner of the first heat, driving the David Tenny entry slammed into the back of Paulie's boat sending David butt end over tea kettle. If that was not enough to stop your heart, Erin Barth, with also no place to go, ran right up and over David's boat. Fortunately David was not home at the time, as he was pitched out when he hit Paulie's boat. Later Erin said, she was scared to death as she said she saw David's helmet and at the point of collision she thought she was going to run him over. After all of that smiles and tears of joy were seen on the beach as all escaped without an injury. Thank you Father!!!!

With three competitors on the beach and becasue of that the field thinned out and Dominic Defibo took home the next two heats, not because the field was not fast, just that Dominic was faster. Great job on the water for Dominic.

125R
Dominic Defibo
Andrew Thirlby(great job Andrew)
Buddy Tennell

K-Pro
Colin Rucker showed his gene pool par excellant today as he took home 2 heat wins and then in the 3rd hung back as to not jump the gun and then promptly took a bath as he was thrown into the lake after taking the title from Wendy Eldredge the 2009 Champ. Wendy took home the 3rd heat and was able to show great speed. Kurt Nydahl never missed a start and lead all 3 heats going to the first turn, only to have Colin get by him later in the heat, but Kurt battled the whole way.

K-Pro
Colin Rucker
Wendy Eldredge
Kurt Nydahl

C-Service Runabout
Well Jim Nilsen driving the Steve Greaves entry took home the title, but not without a fight from George Thornhill and JJ Walls Jr. Jim finished with two
1st's and a 3rd to defend his 2009 title on the water. Thornhill and Walls traded spots in a couple of heats and then George broke out with enough points to take home the 2nd spot.

CSR
Jim Nilsen
George Thornhill
JJ Walls Jr.

500H
Sean McKean said he would rather be lucky then always good, but he was both on Friday in 500H. Sean won the first two heats of 500 and then finished 3rd in the third heat as he develped a hole in one of the pipes.

Doug Hall started the first heat loaded up, but finally was able to get it cleaned out, but could not catch Sean and actually hurt the motor in the heat. He changed piston's for the 2nd and 3rd heat, but had done considerable damage and the Rex Hall GRM was not at top form.

Brandon Thirlby, using that VRP got faster and faster, until he ran a great 3rd heat to take the win, with Doug finishing second and Sean third. Jim Wright changed from a Rossi to a Koenig and got out in the final two heats after thrashing changing those engines. Ike Yoder had the scare of his life as he snuck up the inside at the start of one of the heats and almost got pinched at the bouy or inside and spun it, but ever the miracle worker with his equipment, Ike kept the motor running and down the back stretch he went.

I saw a post that there might of been a protest in this class, but know nothing of it. So the results may not be final, but when I left the beach,

500H
Sean McKean
Brandon Thirlby
Doug Hall

Our thanks to Robby and Deborah Eldredge Galleta as they donated 3K to the Capsule boats with 1K to the winner on Sunday in Top Hydro.

My thanks to Sue Sailer and my daughter Tracy who hooked up a technical miracle and I had heat results for every heat and then for the final I was able to give the fans the points going into the 3rd heat, which was then fun for them to sit and figure with me as that heat finished it off.

Thanks to Sue and her crew, Big Pal, Paulie Bosnich Fred Shelety(SP?forgive me Fred, and Todd Brinkman, our race director, for an efficiently run first day.

Ray

[racingfan1]

Friday at the PRO Nationals

A cloud , dreary and rainy Friday afternoon for the first day of the PRO Nationals. Had to put the camera away early due to the rain , but here are a shots.

[racingfan1]

175 hydro

The 175cc hydro featured a little bump in the first turn between Amy Eldredge and boat X-9 , Amy made it to the beach with a hole in the bottom of her boat but the X-9 took on water and soon started to sink. Diane Murrays hope of a title ended in heat one when she went for a spin in turn one and stalled the engine.

[racingfan1]

Osy 400

Can you say threepeat - John Peters does it again!!!!

[Mrs blueskyracer]

Ray, Thanks so much for posting the results and Racing Fan 1 thanks for the photos!

[racingfan1]

Misc Friday

The best of the rest

[Jeff Akers]

Any updates...?

[pro350hydro]

700 Hydro
Mckean 1st
Hall 2nd
Peabody 3rd

1100 Hydro
Thirlby 1st
Hall 2nd
Mckean 3rd

1100 Runabout
Thirlby 1st
Fuschlin 2nd

350 Hydro
Hellsten 1st

250 Hydro
David Mitchell 1st (pretty sure)

If I'm wrong I apologize, its been a long, hot weekend

[racingfan1]

Sunday photos

Action from Sundays PRO Nationals

[racingfan1]

more sunday photos

misc shots from sundays action

[blueskyracer]

Just want to say way to go to all of the winners from Washington. Not bad at all. You did the west coast proud!!

[racingfan1]

More pictures

Here are some pit shots from DePue

[racingfan1]

mo

A couple more pits

[racingfan1]

Why I enjoy boat racing

One of my favorite pictures of the weekend is the one below. It is the reason why I enjoy being around boat racing at this level - mod , stock or PRO. On Friday Amy Eldredge was involved in an incident in turn one which left her hydro damaged. On Saturday , she spent most of the day with her dad Dan fixing the boat. It was not just two people working on a hole in sponson , but rather a father and daughter doing the job together. A father teaching his daughter how to square of the damage with a roto-zip , properly measuring and cutting the replacement pieces . and finally putting the pieces in place and clamping it all together - a process which took most of the afternoon. All the while Amy sat , watched listened and learned. And come Sunday , Amy ran this same boat in another class. . I am not saying that boat racing is unique in this manner , but the family atmospere that exists not just in a team , but amongst all the race teams. Yes the sport is just as competitive baseball or basketball or hockey or volleyball , but teams working together , if someone has a problem there is always help and then at the end of the race day to sit around with people you just competed against and be able to laugh , joke and rass each other. There is just something special about it which I truely enjoy when I am around it.