Harrah’s Club and Griffon Bud shine at Muncey Memorial

On June 8th, Classic Thunder held its Muncey Memorial Regatta.  If you weren’t at Lake Pleasant, you missed a great race.  The sun was out, the water was fast and the intermittent breeze made for some real thrills and spills.  Here are some of the highlights from what would be a very eventful day.

Division 1 competition began with 11 boats taking on the challenge.  

Dave Sacry and Breathless took heat 1A over Bob VandenAkker’s Notre Dame, Mike Krone’s Bardahl and Jessica Van Wyk’s Berryessa Belle.  

Heat 1B was won by Pete Schille’s Harrah’s Club followed by Jeff Howard’s Budweiser, Dale Van Wyk’s Miss Seattle and Gary Simpson’s Chrysler Crew.  During the heat, we witnessed the most unbelievable flip I’ve ever seen.  Jeff‘s Miss Budweiser was chasing the Harrah’s down the front straightaway when the Bud caught a bit of a breeze.  The boat proceeded into a 360-degree blow over with a full twist and stuck the landing.   We’re talking gold medal gymnastics type stuff.  It was amazing!  The boat didn’t even come off plane and barely lost any time as it landed pointed in the right direction and carrying enough speed to just keep on going.  As you will see, Jeff continued to keep the crowd on the edge of their seats throughout the day.

Mitch Dillard’s Gale IV won heat 1C ahead of Danny Sacry’s Miss U.S. and Craig Mullen’s $ Bill.  Yes, I said Craig Mullen.  This was Craig’s first competition in 2003 and the maiden voyage of the $ Bill.  The boat ran well for its first time in competition and we look forward to seeing it and Craig some more.

The day continued with the Harrah’s and Gale IV winning heats 2A and 2B respectively.

Heat 2C saw the Miss Seattle win, followed by Chrysler Crew and Miss Bardahl.

Notre Dame won Heat 3A ahead of Breathless, Chrysler Crew and Berryessa Belle.  This heat marked the completion of Jessica Van Wyk’s rookie starts.  She can now put the Belle on the front line.  Congratulations Jessica!  Word has it that this also qualifies her for a free battery upgrade from her crew chief.  Remember, “until death do us part”, or at least until your batteries dump two laps too early.  This is my favorite story line.  Dale and Jessica are so much fun.  I appreciate that they’re such good sports.  

3B was won by Gale IV followed by Miss U.S.  The Miss Seattle and $ Bill did not finish.

Heat 3C saw the Harrah’s Club and Budweiser hook up for a deck-to-deck dual from the start.  On lap two the two boats entered the first turn together with the Bud on the outside hip of the Harrah’s.  The Bud suddenly pitched up and blew off the water, landing upside down this time.  Jeff missed his chance at a second gold medal and second place went to Miss Bardahl.  I’m not sure, but I think this was the heat where Jeff tried to run over his own boat after retrieving it.  He ended up running the chase boat up on the shore when the electric trolling motor kicked on unexpectedly.  Fortunately, Jeff and his boat escaped damage.  No, Jeff wasn’t done yet.  Keep reading.

Jeff and the Budweiser would redeem themselves with a win in the Consolation Heat by finishing ahead of Miss Bardahl, $ Bill, and Berryessa Belle.  The Miss Seattle was unable to start.  Budweiser would advance to be the trailer in the final heat.

The Harrah’s and Gale IV were both having good days. In the final heat they would test their luck against Notre Dame, Miss U.S., Breathless and the Budweiser.  Both came into the final undefeated in their preliminary heats.  Things shaped up nicely in the mill lap as the boats came flying up to the start.  Then we found out why it’s sometimes better to be lucky than good. In an instant, Gale IV’s luck ran out and its good day ended.  As the Gale accelerated, it unexpectedly dug in a sponson and spun violently.  The Breathless was following closely behind at the start and had no chance to avoid a collision.  BOOM!  Foam and wood pieces scattered all over in front of the start-finish buoy.  What a mess!  Thankfully, the Breathless flew over the top after impact and suffered minimal damage.  The Gale IV was not so fortunate.  A good part of the left sponson and deck were blown out.  While all of this was going on, the Miss U.S. jumped the gun and was forced to run an extra lap.  The Miss Budweiser also jumped the start from the trailer position.  The Harrah’s hit the start flying, followed by the Notre Dame.  The Harrah’s ran flawlessly and completed its perfect day.  Congratulations to Pete Schille and the Harrah’s Club, winner of the 2003 Muncey Memorial in division 1 and Classic Thunder’s fourth different winner in the first four races this season!  Second Place went to Bob VandenAkker’s Notre Dame.  The Miss U.S. with Danny Sacry driving continued its consistency with a third place finish. This represents a top three finish in every race so far.  The Breathless was unable to finish.

Division 2 competition included 6 boats!  Why is this a big deal?  It’s because 6 is the magic number when we can split the boats into two separate heats of 3 boats.  This also means that for the first time in Classic Thunder history, we are able to have a winner take all final heat just like we do in division 1.  Division 2 is growing and getting stronger all the time.  

Heat 1A saw Mitch Dillard’s Griffon Budweiser come home ahead of Bob VandenAkker’s Weisfields.  Dale Van Wyk’s Executone did not finish.

Heat 1B was the first appearance for Craig Mullen’s Pride of Pay’n Pak in 2003 and it did not disappoint.  The Pak passed Pete Schille’s Tide on the backstretch of lap 1 and never broke stride.  Talk about fast!  Craig seemed to have the bugs worked out of the brushless motor setup.  There were no scary flashbacks for Craig, who’s Pak was badly damaged the last time it ran at Lake Pleasant.  Precautions were taken to prevent another incident like that from taking place.  The course was moved slightly away from the fountain for this race.  We also equipped the fountain with a wrap around floating pad.  No worries, right?  Wrong.  Jeff Howard stopped hearts again and continued his display of death defying feats with his Znetix boat.  He was having trouble getting it to corner and swung too wide in the first turn.  The boat missed the fountain, but launched itself off of the pad.  It landed precariously on one sponson, righted itself and continued on racing.  The Pak was untouchable and won the heat, followed by the Tide and Znetix.  Jeff had to settle for a third place finish in the heat, but was having one heck of an exciting day.  Forget N.A.M.B.A., he’d better call Lloyd’s of London.

The Griffon Bud won heat 2A followed by the Executone.  The Tide finished third after getting a bad start.

Pay’n Pak continued its winning ways in Heat 2B.  The heat started with the Weisfields jumping the gun.  The Pak then cut a buoy, putting the Znetix in the lead.  The Pak blew over in the front straight trying to make up the lap, but was able to continue.  Then she spun in the backstretch and was yet again able to continue.  Some time during all of this, the Znetix was penalized for cutting off the Pak.  This put all of them all on the same lap again… until the Weisfields cut a buoy.  When it was all said and done, The Pay’n Pak was first, Znetix was second and Weisfields finished third. You needed a scorecard to keep track in that heat.  

3A saw a great battle between the Executone and Znetix.  We believe that it was the first time the Executone had ever run on 14 cells.  We were all impressed with its speed as it held off the Znetix lap after lap.  The Znetix would gain in the straights, but the Executone would stretch out again in the corners.  Executone was light on its feet and seemed to be just on the edge of leaving the water at the end of the straightaways.  It was good to see it up and running on 14 cells.  Executone won the heat followed closely by the Znetix.  Unfortunately the Pay’n Pak was having electonics problems and was unable to start the heat.

Heat 3B started out with the Griffon Bud jumping out to an early lead over the Tide and Weisfields.  The Bud held the lead until it hooked in the final corner.  The Tide snatched victory away from the Bud, who was able to get back on plane and nip the Weisfields at the line for second place.  Weisfields finished third.

The final heat was won at the start.  The Tide was slowly approaching the line in lane 1, the Weisfields in about lane 4.  Both of them were early and throttled down.  The Znetix was coming up on the outside as well.  The Griffon Bud hung back a bit and came flying to the start at full throttle in about lane 2, splitting the Tide and Weisfields for the hole shot.  By the time the other boats got going, the beer boat had stretched out a lead that it would not give up.  This win will give Mitch something to smile about while he contemplates the repairs to his other boat.  His Budweiser win feels really good today, but tomorrow he’ll be looking at the damage to the Gale IV.  Does Anheuser-Busch make whiskey or tequila?  Congratulations to Mitch Dillard and the Griffon Budweiser, winner of the Muncey Memorial in division 2!  Second place went to Pete Schille’s Tide.  Third Place was Bob VandenAkker’s Weisfields.  The Znetix was unable to finish.

As you can see, the Muncey Memorial was full of fun and excitement.  We were visited by many friends and family during the day.  Everyone I spoke to was having a good time and thought Classic Thunder racing was great.  We would like to thank Bob VandenAkker for putting the event together and for the artwork of Pete Schille Motorsport Art.  A special thank you to Doug Spear of Waste Management (425-487-1006) for providing a very clean Port-A-Pot for our participants and guests.  We would also like to thank Wayne Neilsen and his staff at the Lake Pleasant RV Park in Bothell for their hospitality and for providing us a parking area.  The Lake Pleasant facility was perfect.  We couldn’t have done this without their help.  We look forward to returning there on July 6th for the Diamond Cup.  However, our next race is the June 29th Mapes Trophy Race at Angle Lake in the City of Seatac.  We are going to be racing during the City of Seatac’s International Festival at Angle Lake Park.  We would really like to see as many of you out there as possible.  The points race is getting even more interesting with the top five boats within about 800 points of each other in division 1.  Work has already begun on repairing the current points leader, Gale IV.  Remember, the Gale boat will be facing three trailer starts when it returns, so now’s the time to make your move.  Let’s go out and put on a great show for the City of Seatac.  Invite your family and friends.  I’m sure the festival will be a blast.  Thanks again for everyone who made the Muncey Memorial a great success.  See you on June 29th.

 Sincerely,

Mitch Dillard

Classic Thunder Commissioner