Craziest Racing story

[DtwSailor]

Too many times we focus on the political portion of the sport, and sometime we loose sight of the fun aspect of racing. What's the craziest moment you had in racing? I have had 2 this year.

One was a rookie mistake at nationals during elimination rounds this year when I forgot to double check the fuel level before leaving, and ran out of gas on the 2nd lap. "Dooh!"

The second was a few weeks ago in Big Rapids, when I started closer to the front pack, and was running a conservative race due to water conditions. I saw that I could gain on the pack, but there was also a significant distance between me and the next place boat...1/4 lap, so I decided to back down the throttle, and ended up spinning out in turn 2, and rolling the boat. Upon arrival of the rescue crew, and confirming that indeed nothing was hurt or broken but my pride, they pulled me into the rescue boat to take me to shore. They asked if I wanted the news now or upon arrival on shore, and I said now. It seems the front pack had all jumped the gun, and if I had gotten 50 yards further, I would have had my first ever win!

[Mr_dirt]

That sounds like some tough luck!

Keep at it, you'll be running at the front of the pack soon enough. It's always neat to hear from new drivers.

[krazy karl]

I have one similar to the above. I did an online registration for CSR only if there weren't 3 boats to run the class at Minden a few years ago. I was going to run a Merc on my regular boat in CMR. I would put the Yamato on my doggy marathon boat and run CSR if needed.

Whe I arrived on Friday afternoon there was only one CSR there so I set up my marathon boat. Saturday several more C stocks showed up and there were now six of us. Since I had already rigged the boat I thought I would run it anyway even though I wouldn't have any trouble keeping everyone else in front of me. I even relocated the turn fin to see if I could improve the turning . It was worse and I even spun it once in the first heat.

To try and make a long story short, the whole field except me jumped, not only the first heat but also the second. Unfortunately I was DQ'd for being underweight, by 37 POUNDS! I didn't bother putting in my ballast because I knew I would be bringing up the rear, just filling the class. Would have been my first closed course win. I was the highlight of Sunday's drivers meeting.

The number 1 rule in boat racing? Never assume anything.

kk

[mark5pa]

My rookie blunder. After 2 black flags in CSH, went out for the third try, with the BSH drivers! Never heard the announcement they were letting CSH's refuel.
Wondered why the safety boat folks were waving at me. I was waving back, all fat, dumb & happy.

[Dennis Crews]

My rookie blunder. After 2 black flags in CSH, went out for the third try, with the BSH drivers! Never heard the announcement they were letting CSH's refuel.
Wondered why the safety boat folks were waving at me. I was waving back, all fat, dumb & happy.

Now that is a funny story!

[mark5pa]

My rookie blunder. After 2 black flags in CSH, went out for the third try, with the BSH drivers! Never heard the announcement they were letting CSH's refuel.
Wondered why the safety boat folks were waving at me. I was waving back, all fat, dumb & happy.

Yeah, first time all weekend the boat started on first pull, off I went. When I got back to the launch, my pit crew were hiding. Thought I coasted in far enough to get out. Nope, 5' deep. Right leg got hung on steer cable. Flopped around for a bit, almost swamped. Talk about not drawing attention.

[reed28n]

Norwood 1997 ish

ASR marathon because the wind was blowing. I thought I would help out Ryan Runne who was stepping up to ASR and I noticed he was running a Racecraft. After of few minutes of expertly coaching him on the dangers of the wind and waves and Racecrafts.... I promptly fell out of my boat in less than half a lap as Ryan cruised by and completed the 8 lap ride by ignoring everything I said.

[mike ross]

This was a real dumb one. Got my brand new Runne runabout all shined up and headed out to try it in Camden. Tested when I got there and it seemed to be in the hunt. Not my fasted speed's but still would be competitive. Ran both days and got some great starts and faded back to like 3rd or 4th both days. Left Camden a little bummed out. Boat looked great but ran like chit. Got home and went to the lake to test. Went to hook up my throttle and to my suprize there was that 25 restrictor plate we couldn't find. Right behind the carb. No wonder I ran like chit. Learning by trail and error!!!! Mikey

[stu_racing]

My first blunder happened in my rookie season too. I was at Crystal Lake running 20ssh. I got a great start but after a veteran changed lanes (legally ahead of me) his wake led me too far inside. Going into the turn, another veteran shut the door on me in the first turn and I went for a twirl. The fourth place boat turned as hard as he could but still knocked me in the head with his sponson. Luckily he turned it as hard as he did so I didn't get the prop and skeg to the head. Again, luckily, my mother didn't show up to race until I was leaving the ambulance. I still have the marked up visor from the helmet to remind me of the mistake.

Second time was at NE divisionals. After I stole the start and ended up 2nd in my qualifier I ended up being DQ'd for being under a pound light. The inspector gave me about 3-5 min to try to get legal but after all the attempts I was still light. I should have weighed in beforehand but was too focused on my kill switch. There were 13 boats combined in the 2 qualifiers and I was the only one that didn't make the finals.

[Affholter66]

Several years ago..I pulled into the Pits at 8am (Late to be sure..) Rushing to get my stuff set up..Drivers meeting called..wouldn't ya know 1st class on the water 25XS runabout..Got things all rigged and ready..Dry fired the motor POPPED the first pull. A couple of "Old Timers" happened to be walking by..they stopped and were looking at my set-up..in a amused sort of way. Just as I was going to ask "What the H.. they were looking at"..one of them says "Boy that thing outta really run if ya plug your spark plug wires on them plugs"....hmmmmm good idea

[DtwSailor]

Caught on Tape

Here is the spin out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_ox...1&feature=plcp

[Yellowjacket]

Here is the spin out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_ox...1&feature=plcp

I really liked the little fish swimming by at about 16:55... That was a nice touch....

[thepiranhabros]

I really liked the little fish swimming by at about 16:55... That was a nice touch....

HA! I didn't see that the first time through. That's really funny!

[wagner-racing16-s]

story

Ok for those of you that know me know that my nickname is Skippy. The name came after my very first race. So here is the story. I went to my first race in 2005 at Ford city, PA. It was the last race of the year. I had a BMOD/20ssh oconner that I purchased in the spring and went out testing a few times prior to the race. The race officals gave me the go ahead to take a few hot laps before we started racing for the day. I went out and got on plane and started my laps. The boat was running great and I was getting the feel of the course. When I came around after my second lap down the front stretch our clubs rescue boat was going on to the center of the course. As I came out of the second turn I squeezed the throttle full boar and moved my A$$ to the clamps and got the boat aired out nice. Everyone was on the bank watching me as soon as I hit the starting line I started hitting the rollers from the rescue boat. I freaked a little as the sponsons started to dig back and forth and I started turning the wheel back and forth to try and correct the issue. Next thing I know my turn fin catches digs my left sponson in and spins the boat out. I got thrown from the boat. I was laid out superman style and skipped across the top of the water like a stone. So I get a tow to shore and there is the classy 10-S calling out to me saying hey Skippy!!!! What really got me that weekend was Brian crowned me that name but he flipped 2 times that weekend in the same spot both times. Ahhh the fond memories.

[Racerkyle20]

2002 Eatonville, WA

I just bought my first racecraft hydro (personally first time I used my own money for a boat too) from Joey Z at the Mod Nationals in Kentucky. I brought the boat back to Washington ready to race and try to set the 3/4 mile record at Eatonville. My FAH/FAR motor was really fast that year (3rd in FAR at nats). Well I ended up spinning/crashing the boat 3 straight heats between ASH and FAH. Susan Rautenburg was the referee that race and banned me from running the boat the rest of the weekend.

Well come to find out there was a lift rail on the back of the outside chine lifting the back of the boat in the corners, giving me horrible instability and making the back end swap around on me.

Well happy ending, we took the lift rail off for Lawrence lake 3 weeks later and set the FAH mile and quarter record which still stands.

Oh and there's always the fun off the water incidents. Let's just say ski hills in Michigan are a bad idea for me.....