SEAFAIR TROPHY RACE 2004

$BILL SURVIVES COULON, WINS SEAFAIR.

MULLEN GETS FIRST DIV.1 WIN!

On August 15^th, Classic Thunder held its annual Seafair Trophy Race at Coulon Park in Renton.  The event was sponsored by Mike Krone.  What a race!  The water was wild and would claim a few of us before the day was done.  Rough chop and rollers from the many pleasure boats and personal watercraft made the course lumpy and were a bit intimidating.  It was like having a tightrope race with several of your friends.  Fast or slow, you were in for a spine-tingling spectacle full of slips, dips bumps and, jumps.  It was intense!  We all kept our fingers crossed and tried to race the best we could.  Flag starts were a challenge, but we seemed to get better at them as the day went on.  You had to be on your toes all the time and sometimes that wasn’t even enough.  All of this made for some really interesting racing and set the stage for some great accomplishments.  However, it was almost guaranteed that some of us would leave the lake with some repairs to make too. 

9 boats showed up to brave the rough waters of Coulon in Division 1.  Competitors included John Dyer’s much-improved Rebel, Suh which made an impressive showing.  Also on hand were Dave Helton’s Miss Burien, Mike Krone’s Hurricane IV.  Jeff Howard’s Miss Budweiser advanced to the Final Heat by winning the Consolation. 

The Final Heat started with Bob VandenAkker’s Notre Dame drawing lane 1 for the flag start.  Mitch Dillard’s Gale IV was in lane 2, Craig Mullen’s $Bill in lane 3, Pete Schille’s Mr. P’s in lane 4 and Dave Sacry’s Short Circuit starting as the pace boat in lane 5.  Jeff Howard’s Miss Budweiser would start a roostertail behind in an outside lane of his choice as the trailer.   

The heat started with everyone hitting the line in formation and lined up very nicely.  The first corner got very crowded in a big hurry.  Water was flying everywhere as the Gale rounded the point buoy rubbing with the Notre Dame on her inside and with the $Bill on her hip.  Somehow the Gale boat spun out as they exited the turn.   Mr. P’s was the first to emerge from the corner cleanly but she would suffer a blow over as she began to accelerate up the backstretch.  $Bill came through clean and took over the lead closely followed by Notre Dame and Budweiser.   Gale IV quickly got back into the chase after the other boats had passed.  Short Circuit rolled on in fifth.  Budweiser was able to pass the Notre Dame on the inside in turn 2 on her third lap.  The Bud actually grazed the buoy on the way by, but fortunately did not hit it hard enough to knock the ball off.  Short Circuit continued on to take fifth place.  Gale IV came home fourth.  Notre Dame earned a solid third place finish.  Budweiser finished an impressive second from the trailer spot.  Unquestionably, all day long it was the $Bill that had the consistent boat ride and the ability to negotiate the swells that we encountered.  The $Bill ended the day with a perfect tally of four heat wins.  Congratulations to Craig Mullen’s $Bill, winner of the 2004 Classic Thunder Seafair Trophy Race in Division 1!  This was Craig’s first Division 1 win since joining the club.  It was well deserved.  We could tell early on that he had the boat to beat in this race and he proved it.  All hail Sparticus!!  Oh, Craig wasn’t the only Mullen making news on Sunday.  After the race, Craig’s youngest son passed his driver qualification by making a legal start and completing his required number of legal laps on plane.  Justin “Duckman” Mullen is now officially a qualified driver.  Congratulations Justin! 

TURBINE PAK TAKES SEAFAIR TROPHY.

FIRST CT DIV.2 WIN FOR MCGRAW!

For the second race in a row we have had more entries for Division 2 than in Division 1.  Many boats are experimenting with different equipment and have made some real strides in performance.  Driving skill and a considerable amount of good luck was a major factor in the day’s racing.  We all had to be on our game to survive this one.  The day was full of ups and downs.  Let’s start with the ups.  In Heat 1A, we saw the Mike Krone get his first Div.2 heat win in the Island Security Systems.  Congratulations Mike!  Unfortunately, later in the day, he would experience the down side when he lost control of the boat in turn two and slammed into the wood planks under the walkway.  The boat suffered damage to the tips of both pickle forks.  However, Mike was able to tape them up and continue racing.   

Another bright moment was provided by John Dyer, who got his first heat win with the 76 Atlas Van Lines in Heat 3C.  This is one of the boats that showed improvement at this race.  Good job John!  Another driver that appeared to finally find a good motor and prop combination was Jeff Howard and his Dewalt Tools.  He has been really dealing with some frustrations and searching for a while.  He’s certainly getting closer.  I look for good things from that boat in the coming races.  Other boats in the mix were Craig Mullen’s Pride of Pay’n Pak, Bob VandenAkker’s Candyman.  Mitch Dillard’s Coors Dry slipped a coupler in its first heat and briefly became a submarine in its third heat.   A series of circumstances, along with Craig Mullen’s withdrawal from what would have been the second Consolation Heat, allowed the other boats to compete for a trailer spot for the Final Heat.   Coors Dry was able to win the Consolation and advance.  It’s too confusing to explain, but thanks Craig for the selfless act.

The Final Heat began as a knock down drag out battle between Bill McGraw’s Turbine Pay’n Pak and Pete Schille’s Stroh Light.  Dave Helton’s American Speed Printing was the pace boat on the outside of the front row and brought the boats to the line.  The Coors started a roostertail behind the others as the trailer.  John Dyer’s Atlas Van Lines and Dave Sacry’s Weisfields hit the line a little behind the the three other front line starters. 

The two lead boats bounced precariously as they sped around the course, completing the first two laps ahead of everyone else.  The Pak held a small lead at the end of lap two.  The Stroh was breathing on him pretty hard all the way around the course.  Coors Dry was making up ground and had managed to get past the Speedy Printing, Atlas and Weisfields to take over third place.  In the third lap, the constant pounding of the water finally took their toll on the Stroh.  A noise that could only be described as “gut wrenching” came from the challenging blue beer boat as she made her exit from turn two.  The motor mount had come loose from the bottom of the boat and the strut had broken.  With the motor having been shoved forward, the propeller proceeded to make a mess out of the bottom of the hull.  The Stroh came to a stop and immediately began taking on water.  She would end her promising day with pickle fork pointing to the sky.  Coors Dry took over second place and gave chase, but the Pak’s lead would not be contested.   The surviving boats included the Weisfields in fifth place.  The 76 Atlas would finish an impressive fourth.  American Speed Printing finished third.  Coors Dry would take second from the trailer spot.  Congratulations to Bill McGraw’s ever improving Turbine Pay’n Pak, winner of the 2004 Classic Thunder Seafair Trophy Race in Division 2!  The first Division 2 win for Bill!  This class of racing is getting very competitive very quickly.  I love it!

I would like to thank Mike Krone for putting on such a cool race.  It turned out to be very interesting with the flag starts and the challenging water conditions we had to endure.  Check your boats out really well before the next race.  That water pounding on them can do some serious damage.   Good racing everyone.  It was a fun day in the sun.  I would also like to thank Judy again for helping me out by taking notes during the final heats.  Thanks to “Shakey” Tim Knowles for keeping track of the points and working the book for us.  Thanks to all of you racers for making the adjustment as drivers and officials for our flag starts.  You guys did a good job with that.  Thanks for respecting each other and working together to make it fun.  I really appreciate that.  This has been a great season so far. 

Next up is the big one, race #9.  The Classic Thunder Gold Cup at Lake Waughop is on August 29th.  The event is sponsored by RC-Hydros.com, Classic Thunder and Gary Simpson. This should be a fabulous race with great racing and plenty of excitement.  We’ll start the day with qualifying, where you’ll have a chance to score some extra season points.  We will have an extra flight of heats too, so prepare your battery charging strategy in advance.  We will try and get the course ready by no later than 10:30 and have the driver’s meeting at 11:30. Looking forward to seeing you all there.

Sincerely,

Mitch Dillard

Classic Thunder Commissioner