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What started as an ugly looking Friday turned into a pretty good Saturday for the finish to the USTS Nationals held at Lake Andrea in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin as we were unable to finish at our traditional national site of Depue, Illinois.
We did have about an 90 minute delay mid way today because of a switch in the wind to from the North, coming right straight down the back stretch with white caps. After that, it was full throated throttle racing.
We had two classes that were run as regular USTS races besides the 5 classes run for a national title. They were the 500R rockets, and 125R’s.
First up were the 125R’s with 3 different heat winners Parker Thirlby winning the first heat, unable to run the second, and finishing up with a 3rd in heat three. Brandon Mills won the second heat Jackson Hall finishing 2nd in both heats. Then Jackson needing a win to take it all, did just that winning by 75 points over Brandon.
Bradley Dygert, taking his first Pro open class ride in the B&B Electric took a bath in heat number 3, but grateful he was okay, but loved the ride up to that point. Hope to see him in that runabout again.
Jackson Hall
Brandon Mills
Parker Thirlby
The other non-National class was complete domination for Derek Gesler as he won all 3 heats of racing with Brennan Burkland doing an outstanding job to finish 2nd overall and Brian Payn, driving the Wright Roofing entry to a 3rd place. Both of the Thirlby entries suffered mechanicals with Andrew Thirlby and Kurt Nydahl watching from the water and the beach.
Gesler
Burkland
Payn
Now for the National Championship classes.
In 250H it seemed as if it was a sibling act for the class with the Nydahl’s, Amy or Kurt, or the Schmidt’s, Michael or Eric finishing at or near the top spot, or found a DQ, or DNF somewhere in the 3 heats of racing. Michael won the first heat, with Kurt finishing 2nd, closing fast at the end, Amy finishing 3rd and Eric finishing 4th.
In the next heat, Michael found himself sitting in the front straightaway as the Pipe broke on his motor, Amy was DQ, Kurt could not get started, and Eric winning the heat. YIKES, is there anyway to keep this straight?????
3rd heat comes up and Eric is out front, only to have the crank take a poop and found himself watching as brother Michael went on to win the heat and the National title in 250H. Chris Hellsten put together enough points in the 3 heats to finish 2nd , while Eric was able to salvage a 3rd overall with his finishes.
Michael W. Schmidt
Chris Hellsten
Eric Schmidt.
Next up was 350R with Brian Payn working to duplicate last years results at Depue with a USTS Championship to take home to Center Point, IA. And did he ever, he won the first two heats with convincing victories, and then hung back at the start of heat three to take the oveall win with those two heat wins and a 3rd in the final heat. Tim Small saw his chances go away in the first heat as ignition woes saw him sitting in the bottom turn of heat number one, however winning a heat and finishing 2nd in the two heats he finished. Mike Krier ended the 350 class with a nice 3rd overall.
125H came up for its championship heats with Todd Anderson finishing out front in the first heat and David Tenney finishing 2nd then the two of them swapped positions in the 2nd heat, setting up a donny brooke for the 3rd heat. Tenney had started in the back of every heat in 125H including the final heat, having to work his way up to finish overall with a first and 2 seconds, while Todd Anderson in the 3rd heat missed the exit buoy in the 1st turn to watch his title chances go away. Todd ended up with the blues in a 1st, 2nd,and 3rd place finishes to take 2nd overall. Jake Quesse took the 3rd and final heat and put together a nice run to finish in the 3rd spot overall.
Tenney
Anderson
Quesse
The final class for the 2015 USTS Nationals was the 1100H with Amy Nydahl trying to replicate last years’ win in Top Hydro. Did she ever as she put together 3 heat wins over Ike Yoder and Rick Saver the 2nd and 3rd place drivers. She dominated in the wins, but Ike Yoder was close behind trying his best to get around to no avail.
Congratulations to all of our drivers as we had 42 entries and look forward to an equal number tomorrow. Our thanks to Pete Nydahl and NCM for all the hard work in putting this together with short notice, but what a weekend so far.
My thanks to our great crew of USTS officials who put this day of racing on, tested to get it done, but with perseverance they came through to get it done.
Ray
We did have about an 90 minute delay mid way today because of a switch in the wind to from the North, coming right straight down the back stretch with white caps. After that, it was full throated throttle racing.
We had two classes that were run as regular USTS races besides the 5 classes run for a national title. They were the 500R rockets, and 125R’s.
First up were the 125R’s with 3 different heat winners Parker Thirlby winning the first heat, unable to run the second, and finishing up with a 3rd in heat three. Brandon Mills won the second heat Jackson Hall finishing 2nd in both heats. Then Jackson needing a win to take it all, did just that winning by 75 points over Brandon.
Bradley Dygert, taking his first Pro open class ride in the B&B Electric took a bath in heat number 3, but grateful he was okay, but loved the ride up to that point. Hope to see him in that runabout again.
Jackson Hall
Brandon Mills
Parker Thirlby
The other non-National class was complete domination for Derek Gesler as he won all 3 heats of racing with Brennan Burkland doing an outstanding job to finish 2nd overall and Brian Payn, driving the Wright Roofing entry to a 3rd place. Both of the Thirlby entries suffered mechanicals with Andrew Thirlby and Kurt Nydahl watching from the water and the beach.
Gesler
Burkland
Payn
Now for the National Championship classes.
In 250H it seemed as if it was a sibling act for the class with the Nydahl’s, Amy or Kurt, or the Schmidt’s, Michael or Eric finishing at or near the top spot, or found a DQ, or DNF somewhere in the 3 heats of racing. Michael won the first heat, with Kurt finishing 2nd, closing fast at the end, Amy finishing 3rd and Eric finishing 4th.
In the next heat, Michael found himself sitting in the front straightaway as the Pipe broke on his motor, Amy was DQ, Kurt could not get started, and Eric winning the heat. YIKES, is there anyway to keep this straight?????
3rd heat comes up and Eric is out front, only to have the crank take a poop and found himself watching as brother Michael went on to win the heat and the National title in 250H. Chris Hellsten put together enough points in the 3 heats to finish 2nd , while Eric was able to salvage a 3rd overall with his finishes.
Michael W. Schmidt
Chris Hellsten
Eric Schmidt.
Next up was 350R with Brian Payn working to duplicate last years results at Depue with a USTS Championship to take home to Center Point, IA. And did he ever, he won the first two heats with convincing victories, and then hung back at the start of heat three to take the oveall win with those two heat wins and a 3rd in the final heat. Tim Small saw his chances go away in the first heat as ignition woes saw him sitting in the bottom turn of heat number one, however winning a heat and finishing 2nd in the two heats he finished. Mike Krier ended the 350 class with a nice 3rd overall.
125H came up for its championship heats with Todd Anderson finishing out front in the first heat and David Tenney finishing 2nd then the two of them swapped positions in the 2nd heat, setting up a donny brooke for the 3rd heat. Tenney had started in the back of every heat in 125H including the final heat, having to work his way up to finish overall with a first and 2 seconds, while Todd Anderson in the 3rd heat missed the exit buoy in the 1st turn to watch his title chances go away. Todd ended up with the blues in a 1st, 2nd,and 3rd place finishes to take 2nd overall. Jake Quesse took the 3rd and final heat and put together a nice run to finish in the 3rd spot overall.
Tenney
Anderson
Quesse
The final class for the 2015 USTS Nationals was the 1100H with Amy Nydahl trying to replicate last years’ win in Top Hydro. Did she ever as she put together 3 heat wins over Ike Yoder and Rick Saver the 2nd and 3rd place drivers. She dominated in the wins, but Ike Yoder was close behind trying his best to get around to no avail.
Congratulations to all of our drivers as we had 42 entries and look forward to an equal number tomorrow. Our thanks to Pete Nydahl and NCM for all the hard work in putting this together with short notice, but what a weekend so far.
My thanks to our great crew of USTS officials who put this day of racing on, tested to get it done, but with perseverance they came through to get it done.
Ray
