Newberg

[Cameraboy]

Two days of racing on the Willamette in Newberg, OR. Nice spectator turn out, 105 entries. Six OPC classes in addition to Stock/Mod/PRO. Racers from Canada to California (thanks for making the drive, folks. Great action in SST-120, CSH, ASR, OSY, 20ss, DSH to mention a few.

Also, flying runabouts (in addition to Mike Perman's save shown below, J Michael Kelly saved a tail-stand snap roll - and won the class with a broken finger), C Service Runabout jousting, and ASH on the barbie.

As usual, photos from Camerboy and his gal at http://community.webshots.com/user/cameraboy5

[Dave M]

Burning Of the Boat

Any good story on the burning of the boat ?

[HydroKyle93R]

The boat was the one that Ken Kaiser built for Tyler and Becca Roth. To make a long story short, the boat was the one in the car accident on the way to Moses Lake last year and the boat Mike Kelly blew over at Shadow Cliffs, which pretty much detached the right rear end.

So, they decided that the boat deserved a Newberg ending. At the end of Saturday's racing, Tyler Roth, Tony Lombardo, my brother Dylan Lewis and myself tied the boat to the back of my dad's truck. Tony and I made a few laps around the parking lot, smashing/jumping it over curbs and getting it close to 40 on its final run. When we were done, Mike Kelly and Tyler Roth threw it into the fire.

[Cameraboy]

Any good story on the burning of the boat ?

Indeed. Boat burning is a tradition Saturday night at Newberg. Recent boat funerals include Pat Gleason's Killer Tomato and Lee Tietze's 350 hydro (the moon shot vehicle).

This little Fralick debuted at Newberg last year, having been built by Ken Kaiser. It won it's first race with Ken's stepson Tyler driving. Tyler had a lot of success in the boat. In July, J Michael Kelly began driving it in ASH, and loved how it handled.

At PRO Nationals, Tyler was in a collision, and the boat was damaged. Ken made repairs. Kelly continued driving in ASH when he wasn't driving the big hair-dryer boat. The boat was being delivered to Moses Lake race by the some of the Kaiser family when they involved in a rollover accident. Two of them ended up in the hospital, but are OK now. The boat was thrown maybe 50 feet from the truck.

J Michael and father Jeff made repairs to the boat, and it headed to Shadow Cliffs for the ASH high points showdown with John Palmquist. J Michael and the Fralick won the first heat over John and his screamin' B&H. In the second heat, J Michael barrel-rolled in the turn. As he tends to do, he held onto the throttle, got back on the boat, and some how got it back on plane. The rear left of the boat was held on by the tie down rope, but he still finished. John came away with high points, but we all saw something amazing.

That little boat saw a lifetime of drama in one season. The Kaiser's built a new Fralick (which debuted this weekend) and so did the Kellys for this season. Check out the webshots site to see J Michael and Tyler toss her in.