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Sunday a great day of weather and find racing as the 2015 USTS racing season came to an end at Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.
Yesterday I forgot to thank our drivers for their efforts in going to our fans to sign the USTS posters with many drivers able to sign their photos on the poster. This was well received by our fans there. THANK YOU!!!!!! The fans loved it and many of our drivers after the award ceremonies found a youngster to put in their boats and presented their medals to them. Could not ask for a better group of drivers than found in the USTS.
A total of 8o entries for the weekend made it an excellent event, with national event winners on Saturday, Congrats to them, and to our regular classes with great racing today.
My thanks to Todd Brinkman for his unwavering leadership and ability to guide our organization to new heights, thank you my man. And to our volunteers who make each race weekend so much fun, my thanks as well. Sue, Denise, Sue, Big Pal, Tammy, Abbi, Tiffiny, Diane, Kelly, Pete, Diane Brinkman, grateful thanks for all the work. I know I forgot someone, so please forgive, and to our Drivers Reps, Rich Krier and David Tenney, job well done.
Racing kicked off with 250R’s and 7 of them hit the water, with JJ Walls taking home heat number one in fine fashion with Mike Krier and Rich Krier giving chase. Tim Small had trouble with his engine in the first heat but came storming back to take the last two heats, while JJ, putting together good finishes in the other two heats piled up enough points to take the B&B Electric entry to victory lane.
JJ
Tim
Mike Krier
Next up the 250’s put on one of the best shows all weekend as Gary Buskirk hitting the scales 40lbs lighter, I think I found it Gary, was on fire with
Great starts and perfect corners made him tough to catch. Kurtis Nydahl starting in the back a bit did everything humanly possible to catch Gary, turning on a dime in the corners and giving 9 cents in change, but just could not get to Gary. Gary finished out front in the first two heats, hung back at the start of the third as to not jump, but finished with the point lead. Amy Nydahl wanted to show the “guys a thing or two,” and did just that winning the 3rd heat by a wide margin.
Gary
Kurtis
Amy
Next up were the 700R with a new entry in 700, Joe Franck, driving one of the Thrilby Automotive entry green rockets, equated himself quite well as he finished second overall to Derek Gesler who was absolutely flawless in the two heats, with Joe right in behind him. A new to the USTS, driving the Tim Chance entry had a ball this weekend with us. Bill Hemp doing a fine job in his first foray into Pro racing picked up the 3rd spot, congrats Bill and welcome aboard.
Derek
Joe
Bill Hemp
Our first class up in the second half provided excitement that we can do without as the K-Pro’s hit the water with one of them really hitting the water. Brianna Payn coming up for the start, saw that X-22 shoot toward the moon as up and over she went, but swam over to the boat and climbed into the safety boat under her own power, and later made good on the driving ability she had by taking the 3rd heat in fine fashion raising her right hand in victory as she crossed the finish line.
The story in K-Pro this year has been the emergence of a great young driver from a long line of Pro drivers, Mackenzie Hellsten. She took home not only the Nationals, but was the overall winner of every race with the Title Series this year. Congrats to her, a proud Pop in Chris and Momma Dawn. BTW, Grandpa Tom was as usual pacing the shoreline while MacKenzie was driving the boat he built for her. Way to go Tom.
Next up the 175’s were on the water, with Baylee Burkland taking an easy victory, followed by Ray Hammond, and then they changed up in the second heat to provide a bit of drama to the 3rd heat. As they came up for the start of the 3rd heat, Ray was quite a bit early and had to back off, only to load up and Baylee set sail for the lead. Ray ended up in about the 5th place at the start, barley not jumping the gun, but finally got it to clean out. Baylee ended up sitting in the bottom corner with engine problems, while Ray continued to work his way through the field to take the win and overall victory.
Shannon McGrath of St. Louis running at a good pace for the 175 finished up on the podium as well, so Ray was surrounded by two beauties on the podium. Congrats to Shannon on a very good run.
Ray
Baylee
Shannon
The final to the USTS season was the big 500’s with Doug Hall showing us why he won the Nationals at Depue with great speed there and here in that GRM powered machine. Doug took the first two heats of the category going away from Rick Saver and Ike Yoder for the 2nd and 3rd spots.
At the start of the 3rd heat, Doug again holding back from jumping the gun got a late start and Rick Saver jumped out front, but the interesting part here is that Rick was able to hold Doug off for the 3rd heat victory.
Doug
Rick
Ike
Again thanks for the fun year, we look forward to a great year in 2016 and beyond.
Ray
Yesterday I forgot to thank our drivers for their efforts in going to our fans to sign the USTS posters with many drivers able to sign their photos on the poster. This was well received by our fans there. THANK YOU!!!!!! The fans loved it and many of our drivers after the award ceremonies found a youngster to put in their boats and presented their medals to them. Could not ask for a better group of drivers than found in the USTS.
A total of 8o entries for the weekend made it an excellent event, with national event winners on Saturday, Congrats to them, and to our regular classes with great racing today.
My thanks to Todd Brinkman for his unwavering leadership and ability to guide our organization to new heights, thank you my man. And to our volunteers who make each race weekend so much fun, my thanks as well. Sue, Denise, Sue, Big Pal, Tammy, Abbi, Tiffiny, Diane, Kelly, Pete, Diane Brinkman, grateful thanks for all the work. I know I forgot someone, so please forgive, and to our Drivers Reps, Rich Krier and David Tenney, job well done.
Racing kicked off with 250R’s and 7 of them hit the water, with JJ Walls taking home heat number one in fine fashion with Mike Krier and Rich Krier giving chase. Tim Small had trouble with his engine in the first heat but came storming back to take the last two heats, while JJ, putting together good finishes in the other two heats piled up enough points to take the B&B Electric entry to victory lane.
JJ
Tim
Mike Krier
Next up the 250’s put on one of the best shows all weekend as Gary Buskirk hitting the scales 40lbs lighter, I think I found it Gary, was on fire with
Great starts and perfect corners made him tough to catch. Kurtis Nydahl starting in the back a bit did everything humanly possible to catch Gary, turning on a dime in the corners and giving 9 cents in change, but just could not get to Gary. Gary finished out front in the first two heats, hung back at the start of the third as to not jump, but finished with the point lead. Amy Nydahl wanted to show the “guys a thing or two,” and did just that winning the 3rd heat by a wide margin.
Gary
Kurtis
Amy
Next up were the 700R with a new entry in 700, Joe Franck, driving one of the Thrilby Automotive entry green rockets, equated himself quite well as he finished second overall to Derek Gesler who was absolutely flawless in the two heats, with Joe right in behind him. A new to the USTS, driving the Tim Chance entry had a ball this weekend with us. Bill Hemp doing a fine job in his first foray into Pro racing picked up the 3rd spot, congrats Bill and welcome aboard.
Derek
Joe
Bill Hemp
Our first class up in the second half provided excitement that we can do without as the K-Pro’s hit the water with one of them really hitting the water. Brianna Payn coming up for the start, saw that X-22 shoot toward the moon as up and over she went, but swam over to the boat and climbed into the safety boat under her own power, and later made good on the driving ability she had by taking the 3rd heat in fine fashion raising her right hand in victory as she crossed the finish line.
The story in K-Pro this year has been the emergence of a great young driver from a long line of Pro drivers, Mackenzie Hellsten. She took home not only the Nationals, but was the overall winner of every race with the Title Series this year. Congrats to her, a proud Pop in Chris and Momma Dawn. BTW, Grandpa Tom was as usual pacing the shoreline while MacKenzie was driving the boat he built for her. Way to go Tom.
Next up the 175’s were on the water, with Baylee Burkland taking an easy victory, followed by Ray Hammond, and then they changed up in the second heat to provide a bit of drama to the 3rd heat. As they came up for the start of the 3rd heat, Ray was quite a bit early and had to back off, only to load up and Baylee set sail for the lead. Ray ended up in about the 5th place at the start, barley not jumping the gun, but finally got it to clean out. Baylee ended up sitting in the bottom corner with engine problems, while Ray continued to work his way through the field to take the win and overall victory.
Shannon McGrath of St. Louis running at a good pace for the 175 finished up on the podium as well, so Ray was surrounded by two beauties on the podium. Congrats to Shannon on a very good run.
Ray
Baylee
Shannon
The final to the USTS season was the big 500’s with Doug Hall showing us why he won the Nationals at Depue with great speed there and here in that GRM powered machine. Doug took the first two heats of the category going away from Rick Saver and Ike Yoder for the 2nd and 3rd spots.
At the start of the 3rd heat, Doug again holding back from jumping the gun got a late start and Rick Saver jumped out front, but the interesting part here is that Rick was able to hold Doug off for the 3rd heat victory.
Doug
Rick
Ike
Again thanks for the fun year, we look forward to a great year in 2016 and beyond.
Ray
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