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2005 HARMSWORTH TROPHY |
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On Sunday, May 15th Classic Thunder held its 2005 Harmsworth Trophy Race at Woodland Creek Park in Lacey, WA. We would like to thank the U-8 Llumar Window Film race team for their sponsorship and Pete Schille for coordinating it for them. Thanks to the City of Lacey and Dan Clark for their contributions in setting up the event. We had varying weather conditions, but the water was great. Fast water and a sneaky breeze put more than a few boats into the air during the day. Division 2 competition saw some great battles. A small but scrappy group of seven dwindled to five when Dale Van Wyk’s Atlas Van Lines had a speed controller meltdown in a preliminary heat. Mike Schultz’s Oh Boy! Oberto suffered some kind of mechanical problem and was unable to take the water for the final heat. The Division 2 Final Heat was a good heat of
racing. Chris Cootsona put his Circus
Circus on the line at full speed from the start and never looked back. The perfect start gave him enough room to
stay in clear water out front and sail to victory. This was Chris’s first Division 2 win! Jeff Howard’s Elam ran in a close
second place on lap one until she blew over in the backstretch. Mitch Dillard’s Miller High Life
diced back and forth with Pete Schille’s Llumar for five laps. The Miller was able to hold off the yellow
boat to take second place. The Llumar
finished third. Dave Sacry drove
a very fast Weisfields to a fourth place finish. The Elam managed a fifth place finish after
landing right side up following her first lap acrobatics. Congratulations to Chris Cootsona’s
Circus Circus, winner of the 2005 Classic Thunder Harmsworth Trophy Race in
Division 2! Division 1 competition was a ten boat affair that say Jeff Howardcontinue a string of very impressive performances racked up since his eye surgery. Jeff’s Miss Budweiser chalked up another win, its second in 2005, finishing ahead of second placed Short Circuit driven by Chris Cootsona. Third place went to Bob VandenAkker’s beautiful Notre Dame. Mitch Dillard’s Miss U.S. had to shut down and pull to the infield without her cowling after being struck from behind at the start by Mike Krone’s Hurricane IV. Miss U.S. would take the DNF. Hurricane IV received a race penalty and was disqualified from the heat. Defending Harmsworth champion Miss Seattle would later hit the Miss U.S. cowling in the front stretch, disabling her rudder and force driver Dale Van Wyk to end his day with an unfortunate DNF. The Bud continues to make her presence known early in the season with top 3 finishes and two wins in the first three races. Congratulations to Jeff Howard’s Budweiser, winner of the 2005 Classic Thunder Harmsworth Trophy Race in Division 1! Woodland Creek Park is an awesome place to race. We were even entertained by a giant, majestic Bald Eagle who took a few fish out of the lake during the day. It was really a cool sight to see. We actually thought the bird was going to take a dive at Dan Clark’s Miss Burien, but Dan got lucky. Next up is the President’s Cup on June 5th at Coulon Park in Renton, WA. The event is sponsored by Bill McGraw and we should see a few more boats, including Bill’s outrigger Pay’n Pak out there for this one. Join us for some more deck to deck fun. This is race #4 on the season and it should be another good one. Hope to see you there. Sincerely, Mitch Dillard Classic Thunder Commissioner
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