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Sunday dawned a little brighter and much warmer than Saturday when we had the cold and stiff breeze blowing during the day.
K-Pro kicked off the day on Sunday, with McKenzie Hellsten letting the field she is coming and don't hold her back. She got a great start in the 3rd of the 4 heats to be run and held off Jackson Hall the eventual overall winner by adding great driving to the mix. Jackson tried everyway he could to get inside of her, but she held off the other 4 drivers to take the heat. She now had a heat win and Jackson the two on Saturday, to set up a great finish to the weekend and try to tie him on points and win on time.
AS the second heat came to the water, Jackson new what he had to do, a good start and he managed to get to the inside at the first turn and took home the heat and the overall win, winning 3 of 4 heats. Congrats to Jackson, McKenzie, Brianna, Parker, and Lyndsay for a great 4 heats of racing.
Hall
Hellsten
Payn
Next up came the 125R with Jackson Hall looking to double up with the other 5 boats to boot, and double up he did. Jackson running the Rossi prepared by his Grandfather Rex Hall got out front in the first two heats and was never headed from there. At the start of the third heat, you would have thought him a wily veteran as he held back at the start, knowing the others would try to get him to jump, but Jackson was ready for it and finished in the 2nd spot to David Jones. A great young man Brandon Mills, driving a steady race for the 3 heats finished on the podium with third overall.
Hall
Jones
Mills
Next up were the 250H's with 5 count em, 5 a start and 4 restarts to boot with the course being tight, we had a number of boats that ended up in the corners or on the front straightaway that we had to call the heats for, as well as JP Jedwabny who went over in the first turn. JP was not hurt, but was unable to come back in the 3rd heat. Then throw in everyone pushing the start and we had to re-run a heat because we could not identify all of the GJ.
None of that should take away from a tremendous run by Michael W. Schmidt who put his brand new boat into the water on Friday during testing and shows tremendous opportunity for speed and handling. He was on a rail in all of the 250 heats and just was about untouchable. In the first heat, he just crossed the finish line when he ended up destroying a spark plug core and stopped, good thing not a few seconds earlier. Jeff Kugler in a brand new Pugh this year performed admirably for the 2nd spot having been the only driver in one of the heats to not jump the gun. Amy Nydahl was able to finish with two 2nds to finish on the podium as well.
Schmidt
Kugler
Nydahl
700R
Can you say Derek Gessler was fast, why yes you can. Derek took both heats of racing in the 700r with Mike Thirlby chasing him in the 2nd heat and Pete Voss in the first heat, but to no avail. Mike ended up on the water under two in that first heat, but you could see he was fast, but had a problem. Pete Voss is so much fun to be around as well as to watch him on the race course, as there is no giving up on him, no matter what position he is in on the course.
Gessler
Voss
Thirlby
The second half of the program kicked off with 175h's 8 boats hitting the water. Todd Anderson driving that brand new Trombetta for the Race for Kids Foundation was very fast and he worked himself from the back of the back in every heat to get up toward the front winning two of the heats, but holding way back for the start of the 3rd heat and finishing 3rd behind Ray Hammond and Jake Quesse. This sets Todd up for a real shot at the 175H Worlds coming up in October at Lake Alfred.
Anderson
Hammond
Quesse
350R had its share of craziness as Mike Krier in the 2nd heat went into the first turn, only to have his runabout take a sharp left hand turn and spin in the corner with Paulie Bosnich right in behind him with no place to go and up and over the top of the nose of Mike's boat he went. Neither driver left their boats, nor were hurt, but Mikeeeeeeee has lots of wood butchering to do this winter.
Rich Krier, Mike's brother took home 3 straight heat wins to take the title at Johnson City and Brian Payn took home the second spot, with Mr. Nobody in the 3rd spot with those two with the only points.
Krier
Payn
The crowd all weekend was definitely in our FASTGAL, as Amy is called, court all weekend. She absolutely wowed the crowd and would have been bitterly disappointed without a win for her over the weekend. She did not disappoint them as she took both heats of the 1100H category pulling away from the field. She was very fast and was able to navigate the small course with great driving and speed. Ike Yoder was able to secure the second spot with great driving in the H-4 instead of his usual M-50 and gave it quite a ride with Tom Adkins from Fernandina, Fl.
Nydahl
Yoder
Adkins
The weekend could not have been more of a success as far as the city of Johnson Cities welcome, its hospitality, and the atmosphere surrounding the Title Series first visit to the area. I want to make sure we give a great big thanks to Gavin Andrews, Brenda, and MaryAnn for all of their hard work in putting this together. They were phenomenal and Brenda and MaryAnn were great sports and handed out medals at the awards ceremony. As we finished out the program, many of the audience stopped by and wanted to let us know how much they enjoyed are being there and wanted to ensure that we come back next year. We are hopeful that the city and the Convention Bureau saw enough this weekend, even with foul weather to bring us back for next year. As Bill Kurps said, what a race course, for me what an opportunity to show the audience what our sport is capable of.
Well wishes to our Pres. and Pit boss Todd Brinkman who injured his knee on Saturday and had to have a quick trip to the hospital, but was back on track Sunday. Thanks to Sue Sailer and her crew, along with Big Pal, Paul Bosnich for all the great work and leadership.
This completes the USTS season and I will look forward to reflecting back on the year when we post up the season high point champions later on. We look forward now to the World's being held in Florida in October with drivers from all over the world coming to race with us.
Ray
K-Pro kicked off the day on Sunday, with McKenzie Hellsten letting the field she is coming and don't hold her back. She got a great start in the 3rd of the 4 heats to be run and held off Jackson Hall the eventual overall winner by adding great driving to the mix. Jackson tried everyway he could to get inside of her, but she held off the other 4 drivers to take the heat. She now had a heat win and Jackson the two on Saturday, to set up a great finish to the weekend and try to tie him on points and win on time.
AS the second heat came to the water, Jackson new what he had to do, a good start and he managed to get to the inside at the first turn and took home the heat and the overall win, winning 3 of 4 heats. Congrats to Jackson, McKenzie, Brianna, Parker, and Lyndsay for a great 4 heats of racing.
Hall
Hellsten
Payn
Next up came the 125R with Jackson Hall looking to double up with the other 5 boats to boot, and double up he did. Jackson running the Rossi prepared by his Grandfather Rex Hall got out front in the first two heats and was never headed from there. At the start of the third heat, you would have thought him a wily veteran as he held back at the start, knowing the others would try to get him to jump, but Jackson was ready for it and finished in the 2nd spot to David Jones. A great young man Brandon Mills, driving a steady race for the 3 heats finished on the podium with third overall.
Hall
Jones
Mills
Next up were the 250H's with 5 count em, 5 a start and 4 restarts to boot with the course being tight, we had a number of boats that ended up in the corners or on the front straightaway that we had to call the heats for, as well as JP Jedwabny who went over in the first turn. JP was not hurt, but was unable to come back in the 3rd heat. Then throw in everyone pushing the start and we had to re-run a heat because we could not identify all of the GJ.
None of that should take away from a tremendous run by Michael W. Schmidt who put his brand new boat into the water on Friday during testing and shows tremendous opportunity for speed and handling. He was on a rail in all of the 250 heats and just was about untouchable. In the first heat, he just crossed the finish line when he ended up destroying a spark plug core and stopped, good thing not a few seconds earlier. Jeff Kugler in a brand new Pugh this year performed admirably for the 2nd spot having been the only driver in one of the heats to not jump the gun. Amy Nydahl was able to finish with two 2nds to finish on the podium as well.
Schmidt
Kugler
Nydahl
700R
Can you say Derek Gessler was fast, why yes you can. Derek took both heats of racing in the 700r with Mike Thirlby chasing him in the 2nd heat and Pete Voss in the first heat, but to no avail. Mike ended up on the water under two in that first heat, but you could see he was fast, but had a problem. Pete Voss is so much fun to be around as well as to watch him on the race course, as there is no giving up on him, no matter what position he is in on the course.
Gessler
Voss
Thirlby
The second half of the program kicked off with 175h's 8 boats hitting the water. Todd Anderson driving that brand new Trombetta for the Race for Kids Foundation was very fast and he worked himself from the back of the back in every heat to get up toward the front winning two of the heats, but holding way back for the start of the 3rd heat and finishing 3rd behind Ray Hammond and Jake Quesse. This sets Todd up for a real shot at the 175H Worlds coming up in October at Lake Alfred.
Anderson
Hammond
Quesse
350R had its share of craziness as Mike Krier in the 2nd heat went into the first turn, only to have his runabout take a sharp left hand turn and spin in the corner with Paulie Bosnich right in behind him with no place to go and up and over the top of the nose of Mike's boat he went. Neither driver left their boats, nor were hurt, but Mikeeeeeeee has lots of wood butchering to do this winter.
Rich Krier, Mike's brother took home 3 straight heat wins to take the title at Johnson City and Brian Payn took home the second spot, with Mr. Nobody in the 3rd spot with those two with the only points.
Krier
Payn
The crowd all weekend was definitely in our FASTGAL, as Amy is called, court all weekend. She absolutely wowed the crowd and would have been bitterly disappointed without a win for her over the weekend. She did not disappoint them as she took both heats of the 1100H category pulling away from the field. She was very fast and was able to navigate the small course with great driving and speed. Ike Yoder was able to secure the second spot with great driving in the H-4 instead of his usual M-50 and gave it quite a ride with Tom Adkins from Fernandina, Fl.
Nydahl
Yoder
Adkins
The weekend could not have been more of a success as far as the city of Johnson Cities welcome, its hospitality, and the atmosphere surrounding the Title Series first visit to the area. I want to make sure we give a great big thanks to Gavin Andrews, Brenda, and MaryAnn for all of their hard work in putting this together. They were phenomenal and Brenda and MaryAnn were great sports and handed out medals at the awards ceremony. As we finished out the program, many of the audience stopped by and wanted to let us know how much they enjoyed are being there and wanted to ensure that we come back next year. We are hopeful that the city and the Convention Bureau saw enough this weekend, even with foul weather to bring us back for next year. As Bill Kurps said, what a race course, for me what an opportunity to show the audience what our sport is capable of.
Well wishes to our Pres. and Pit boss Todd Brinkman who injured his knee on Saturday and had to have a quick trip to the hospital, but was back on track Sunday. Thanks to Sue Sailer and her crew, along with Big Pal, Paul Bosnich for all the great work and leadership.
This completes the USTS season and I will look forward to reflecting back on the year when we post up the season high point champions later on. We look forward now to the World's being held in Florida in October with drivers from all over the world coming to race with us.
Ray
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