Tweet
THE US TITLE SERIES NATIONALS AT DEPUE WITH THE DEPUE MEN’S CLUB
The wake up call came to my hotel room at 6AM while DePue residents who were still sleeping got there’s when we lit the test lamp at 8AM trying to get ahead of the wind which plagued us all weekend. We tested unitl around 8:45 and then we had the opening ceremonies and off we went. We had completed a few Saturday classes before Mr. Windy showed up, but not many, so hopefully a full day of racing was coming to the great fans at DePue.
We were able to race up until about 2:30PM before Mr. Windy showed up before he brought Mr. Whitecap to the party. Unfortunately the two of them stuck around until we finally had to call it a day. We were as disappointed as our DePue area fan base that we were unable to finish the 2nd flight of Sunday and missed out on the 250H, 350R, and the top Hydro’s for the finish. Robbie Galletta was ready to present 3K, 2K, and 1K to the first three Top Hydro, finisher’s and we thank him for his support to all of the drivers who were unable to run.
The DePue Men’s Club once again were outstanding in the execution of their side of the event with great food, great bands, and a great number of different types of food vendors brought in. One of the great comments of the weekend was uttered by the great Mayor of the city, and a Men’s Club member, was, “This has been the greatest day of racing ever at Lake Depue.” High praise for someone who has been active in the racing at DePue for many years. The crowd stuck with us all afternoon after racing ceased and partied and visited with family and friends and had a great time. Speaking of that, my thanks to “The Holy Bucket Gal” who are so much fun and are active in the community and where those Holy Bucket Shirts proudly. Hey that’s two more shots to get through ladies…….
We can never get where we are going without the steady hand of our leader Todd Brinkman, our President of the Title Series and our chief scorer Susan Sailer and her band of merry ladies. Our thanks for the effort you both made under extreme circumstances with me in your ear wondering what happened and what was going to happen. Also to Rick Jedwabny the pit boss running around making sure our teams were ready to hit the water and were they ever ready. Thank you Drivers so much for your effort to get to the water quickly. Added to that the yeoman’s effort every week by my friend and a friend to all, Paul Bosnich, known affectionately as Big Pall to all, was incredibly everywhere all at the same time, along with Abbi, his daughter processing the checks and plaques for the winners. Thank you to the greatest crew of workers. Also we say thanks to all the drivers and crew who volunteered to pull the load of turn judging and tear down after we were done.
Speaking of Bosnich’s let me just send out a job well done to Paul Bosnich III who hosted our drivers school on Wednesday and Thursday.. What a success as I believe there were 14 adults and about 5 youngsters who signed up for the school and it will occur next year at the Nationals as well. Also to Gary Merkel who loaned us his equipment to use after an effort with another boat and engine was too late on the docket to get it ready. So if you’d like a chance at running a few hot laps and classroom instruction Paulie is on FB with the PropRider’s, so send him a message and sign up.
I want to thank the folks from NBRA and especially Jeff Ruth who spent countless hours helping The US Title Series Nationals invite to them to come to DePue to run. Thanks Jeff and to John Ruff who spelled me on the NBRA classes my big thanks Brother. It was fun to hear these new friends tell us that they never thought they would ever be able to race on the famous water’s of Lake DePue and they enjoyed the time here and could not believe the crowd’s each day of the Nationals. Thanks guys.
Now on to the results of the racing itself. Thanks for letting me indulge in all that other stuff first.
In the CMH a heck of a race developed between Eric Van Over driving the Cliff Johnson entry and Braxton Miller driving for the What’s Up Doc team,who had won the DSH championship up at Wakefield and came to DePue to run the CMH. Eric was not to be denied his efforts to win this class and he had the 18H flying. Brett Simmon’s of Columbus, In was the third place driver.
Eric
Braxton
Brett
SEH
Nest up, John Palmquist stole the first heat start by 3 blocks and was never headed. Richard Baze and Tony Anderson chased him in both heats, but John who had taken the 175H championship earlier took this one as well. It was great to see Tony back on the water as he had blown over on Friday during testing and banged his shoulder up a bit, so it was great to see him on the podium.
John
Richard
Tony
C Service Hydro
No one had a moment for Jack Campbell as he picked up his second championship of the weekend with Duke Johnson finishing 2nd, the third second place to go along with his nephew Kyle Deptula winning a championship in Duke’s equipment, quite a weekend Dukester!!!! It was great to see Justin Gibson on the water as Justin blew over the runabout on Saturday going to the first turn and kind tore it up, but he was ok, and we are grateful.
Jack
Duke
Justin
350H came up and this was one of those races that I think the Mayor was talking about. Between Gary Buskirk, Eric Schmidt, Zach LaRose and the eventual winner Kurtis Nydahl changing places all through the first heat, the crowd was on their feet cheering them on. The speed of these guys is incredible to watch and literally takes your breath away.
Kurtis
Eric
Zach
The 125’s had 17 to get down to the top 12 and wow, wow, wow, another donnybrook on the water with David Tenny, John Palmquist, Brad Dygert, and Mackenzie Hellsten, the top 4 were ready to do battle. Brad saw his go up in smoke as he found himself sitting in the bottom corner watching, while Tenny and Palmquist literally traded the lead for a couple of laps and then John saw his chance go up when his engine quit, but Mac wasn’t done trying to get around David, but Tenny was able to hold her off and took home the title. Mike Werner from Canada, driving the Saxvick entry finished in the third spot overall. My apologies to Mike and Bob for my mistake at the awards ceremony, but we got it corrected.
This was David’s swan song as a driver and what a way to go out with another title. David is not going away and will be putting his equipment on the water with another driver taking the duties now. David has been such a supporter for the Title Series and always willing to help others and gives it his all. We will miss not calling the Tenny name on the water, but now it will be XXXX driving the Tenny entry. Congratulations on a great ending to a great career.
David
Mac
Mike W
750MH
This class provided another win for Eric Van Over and Cliff Johnson as that 44 was running like a scalded cat and he was way out in front over Dennis Burke who came up to join us from Dallas, Tx, and Richard Baze. Congrats Eric and Cliff
Eric
Dennis
Richard
1100R was up and running with Jason Sailer ready to add another title to his resume and he and Marshall Walk, a track and field champ from Hall High School, over in Spring Valley took to the water to do battle with his teammate Austin Van Over who had his newly engaged Sister Emily along for the ride. Sean McKean, yes you are not hallucinating, we are talking runabout, not Top Hydro that we would normally see him in had Lyndsay McGrath along for the ride. So Mom Shannon, riding with Jon Eldredge and daughter Lyndsay were ready to do battle along with 4 other 1100’s. Jason and Marshall were going well, but Sean and Lyndsay were hot on the trail with Austin and Emily with engine not running right could do no better than a fourth in the first heat. The second heat came up and Sean and Jason were back at it again with Sean closing in but he was able to get along side, but not pass Jason for the win.
Jason and Marshall
Sean and Lyndsay
Austin and Emily.
In 250R it was a headbanging between three drivers in both heats, with Mike Krier, Jason Saliler, defending Champ, and Jackson Hall all side by side for 3 laps before Mike took the heat. In the heat, as they came through the bottom corner, the nose suddenly went skyward as the three of them still at one another. Fortunately Jackson was A-OK, that cannot be said about the boat as it blew out the side. Mike went on to win the championship and was promptly dunked by his team when he got back to the pits. Brother Rich Krier was able to put good heats together as well and took the third spot on the podium with Mike and Jason
Mik
Jason
Rich
The fun of the weekend was in the 500H with Jake Hoffert from right in DePue took home a popular win in the 500H with a heat win and a second for the overall. He also took a bath as the pit area erupted in happiness for a very great kid. Congrats to Jake. Doug Hall won the other heat and put a hole in the boat in the second heat while Dan Kirts took the 3rd spot on the podium
Jake
Doug
Dan
Now I’m going to bed to recover.
Ray
The wake up call came to my hotel room at 6AM while DePue residents who were still sleeping got there’s when we lit the test lamp at 8AM trying to get ahead of the wind which plagued us all weekend. We tested unitl around 8:45 and then we had the opening ceremonies and off we went. We had completed a few Saturday classes before Mr. Windy showed up, but not many, so hopefully a full day of racing was coming to the great fans at DePue.
We were able to race up until about 2:30PM before Mr. Windy showed up before he brought Mr. Whitecap to the party. Unfortunately the two of them stuck around until we finally had to call it a day. We were as disappointed as our DePue area fan base that we were unable to finish the 2nd flight of Sunday and missed out on the 250H, 350R, and the top Hydro’s for the finish. Robbie Galletta was ready to present 3K, 2K, and 1K to the first three Top Hydro, finisher’s and we thank him for his support to all of the drivers who were unable to run.
The DePue Men’s Club once again were outstanding in the execution of their side of the event with great food, great bands, and a great number of different types of food vendors brought in. One of the great comments of the weekend was uttered by the great Mayor of the city, and a Men’s Club member, was, “This has been the greatest day of racing ever at Lake Depue.” High praise for someone who has been active in the racing at DePue for many years. The crowd stuck with us all afternoon after racing ceased and partied and visited with family and friends and had a great time. Speaking of that, my thanks to “The Holy Bucket Gal” who are so much fun and are active in the community and where those Holy Bucket Shirts proudly. Hey that’s two more shots to get through ladies…….
We can never get where we are going without the steady hand of our leader Todd Brinkman, our President of the Title Series and our chief scorer Susan Sailer and her band of merry ladies. Our thanks for the effort you both made under extreme circumstances with me in your ear wondering what happened and what was going to happen. Also to Rick Jedwabny the pit boss running around making sure our teams were ready to hit the water and were they ever ready. Thank you Drivers so much for your effort to get to the water quickly. Added to that the yeoman’s effort every week by my friend and a friend to all, Paul Bosnich, known affectionately as Big Pall to all, was incredibly everywhere all at the same time, along with Abbi, his daughter processing the checks and plaques for the winners. Thank you to the greatest crew of workers. Also we say thanks to all the drivers and crew who volunteered to pull the load of turn judging and tear down after we were done.
Speaking of Bosnich’s let me just send out a job well done to Paul Bosnich III who hosted our drivers school on Wednesday and Thursday.. What a success as I believe there were 14 adults and about 5 youngsters who signed up for the school and it will occur next year at the Nationals as well. Also to Gary Merkel who loaned us his equipment to use after an effort with another boat and engine was too late on the docket to get it ready. So if you’d like a chance at running a few hot laps and classroom instruction Paulie is on FB with the PropRider’s, so send him a message and sign up.
I want to thank the folks from NBRA and especially Jeff Ruth who spent countless hours helping The US Title Series Nationals invite to them to come to DePue to run. Thanks Jeff and to John Ruff who spelled me on the NBRA classes my big thanks Brother. It was fun to hear these new friends tell us that they never thought they would ever be able to race on the famous water’s of Lake DePue and they enjoyed the time here and could not believe the crowd’s each day of the Nationals. Thanks guys.
Now on to the results of the racing itself. Thanks for letting me indulge in all that other stuff first.
In the CMH a heck of a race developed between Eric Van Over driving the Cliff Johnson entry and Braxton Miller driving for the What’s Up Doc team,who had won the DSH championship up at Wakefield and came to DePue to run the CMH. Eric was not to be denied his efforts to win this class and he had the 18H flying. Brett Simmon’s of Columbus, In was the third place driver.
Eric
Braxton
Brett
SEH
Nest up, John Palmquist stole the first heat start by 3 blocks and was never headed. Richard Baze and Tony Anderson chased him in both heats, but John who had taken the 175H championship earlier took this one as well. It was great to see Tony back on the water as he had blown over on Friday during testing and banged his shoulder up a bit, so it was great to see him on the podium.
John
Richard
Tony
C Service Hydro
No one had a moment for Jack Campbell as he picked up his second championship of the weekend with Duke Johnson finishing 2nd, the third second place to go along with his nephew Kyle Deptula winning a championship in Duke’s equipment, quite a weekend Dukester!!!! It was great to see Justin Gibson on the water as Justin blew over the runabout on Saturday going to the first turn and kind tore it up, but he was ok, and we are grateful.
Jack
Duke
Justin
350H came up and this was one of those races that I think the Mayor was talking about. Between Gary Buskirk, Eric Schmidt, Zach LaRose and the eventual winner Kurtis Nydahl changing places all through the first heat, the crowd was on their feet cheering them on. The speed of these guys is incredible to watch and literally takes your breath away.
Kurtis
Eric
Zach
The 125’s had 17 to get down to the top 12 and wow, wow, wow, another donnybrook on the water with David Tenny, John Palmquist, Brad Dygert, and Mackenzie Hellsten, the top 4 were ready to do battle. Brad saw his go up in smoke as he found himself sitting in the bottom corner watching, while Tenny and Palmquist literally traded the lead for a couple of laps and then John saw his chance go up when his engine quit, but Mac wasn’t done trying to get around David, but Tenny was able to hold her off and took home the title. Mike Werner from Canada, driving the Saxvick entry finished in the third spot overall. My apologies to Mike and Bob for my mistake at the awards ceremony, but we got it corrected.
This was David’s swan song as a driver and what a way to go out with another title. David is not going away and will be putting his equipment on the water with another driver taking the duties now. David has been such a supporter for the Title Series and always willing to help others and gives it his all. We will miss not calling the Tenny name on the water, but now it will be XXXX driving the Tenny entry. Congratulations on a great ending to a great career.
David
Mac
Mike W
750MH
This class provided another win for Eric Van Over and Cliff Johnson as that 44 was running like a scalded cat and he was way out in front over Dennis Burke who came up to join us from Dallas, Tx, and Richard Baze. Congrats Eric and Cliff
Eric
Dennis
Richard
1100R was up and running with Jason Sailer ready to add another title to his resume and he and Marshall Walk, a track and field champ from Hall High School, over in Spring Valley took to the water to do battle with his teammate Austin Van Over who had his newly engaged Sister Emily along for the ride. Sean McKean, yes you are not hallucinating, we are talking runabout, not Top Hydro that we would normally see him in had Lyndsay McGrath along for the ride. So Mom Shannon, riding with Jon Eldredge and daughter Lyndsay were ready to do battle along with 4 other 1100’s. Jason and Marshall were going well, but Sean and Lyndsay were hot on the trail with Austin and Emily with engine not running right could do no better than a fourth in the first heat. The second heat came up and Sean and Jason were back at it again with Sean closing in but he was able to get along side, but not pass Jason for the win.
Jason and Marshall
Sean and Lyndsay
Austin and Emily.
In 250R it was a headbanging between three drivers in both heats, with Mike Krier, Jason Saliler, defending Champ, and Jackson Hall all side by side for 3 laps before Mike took the heat. In the heat, as they came through the bottom corner, the nose suddenly went skyward as the three of them still at one another. Fortunately Jackson was A-OK, that cannot be said about the boat as it blew out the side. Mike went on to win the championship and was promptly dunked by his team when he got back to the pits. Brother Rich Krier was able to put good heats together as well and took the third spot on the podium with Mike and Jason
Mik
Jason
Rich
The fun of the weekend was in the 500H with Jake Hoffert from right in DePue took home a popular win in the 500H with a heat win and a second for the overall. He also took a bath as the pit area erupted in happiness for a very great kid. Congrats to Jake. Doug Hall won the other heat and put a hole in the boat in the second heat while Dan Kirts took the 3rd spot on the podium
Jake
Doug
Dan
Now I’m going to bed to recover.
Ray
