Classic Thunder News

The Classic Thunder News page has been established as a place to view breaking stories within and around the growing Classic Thunder community. If you have any news to share, let us know. It doesn't have to be related to the club or even our hobby. Feel free to attach a picture to go along with your news. Just e-mail me in the newsroom at mitchdillard@msn.com.

It looks like a new challenge is in store for Jon Zimmerman. Jon is obviously a good driver with a knack for giving good feedback to the crew. Well, Jon will bring his skills to the U-37 Schumacher Racing Team for the rest of the 2010 season. The team is preparing a leased Fred Leland hull to replace their primary boat which was destroyed at the Gold Cup recently. Jon will drive the boat full time and is relishing the opportunity that holds. The crew is thrashing on the boat and hopes to have it in the water in time to get a few laps in at the Tri-Cities race. Seafair and Qatar will follow. Jon is really excited by the prospect of driving full time at Seafair. This has got to be another dream come true for him. We all think it's pretty cool too. The boat arrived with no hardware in it, but the crew has got the stuff now and is putting it all in place as we speak. They've got their work cut out for them, but we're sure they'll get it done. The boat will have the wing and cowl painted yellow for Tri-Cities and the rest of the boat should be painted by the time they make their appearance in Seattle for the Seafair Parade. Good Luck guys and congratulations to Jon on getting a full time gig for the rest of 2010. Hopefully it will open up even more opportunities in the future.

Dave Helton's 54 Slo-Mo V project is now complete. He got the boat done and out for a little shake down at Sunday's CT Mapes Mile High in Lacey. The boat turned out great and there are only a few little detail things he wants to get done on it. Now the boat will undergo the new boat tweaking that all new boats have to go through. Look for this beauty to enter it's first competition at the Seafair Regatta coming up in a couple of weeks. Nice work Dave!

Here's a message we got from Jon Zimmerman after his first race experience in Madison: "Last weekend went well in Madison. We ran a lot of laps, I am fully qualified to drive an Unlimited now, and the boat is improving. There is a nice article in the Madison Courier. The boat is steadily improving. By Sunday morning we turned a lap of 146.4, improved our exit speed 10MPH, and raised our top speed to 186. The porpoising is gone.

The boat just sits there nice and level now. It runs great in smooth water, but is kind of a hand full in race water. We have some ideas for it." As you can see, being an unlimited driver has its perks. It looks like you get your very own private toilet facility with your name on it! Jon did a great job in Madison and we're all really proud of the progress he's making and what they've been able to do with the boat since he started driving it. At this point, we haven't heard when he'll be in the cockpit again as the good Dr. Muscatel is likely going to drive it in the Gold Cup and at Seafair.

It would be great to see him get some more quality seat time with Superior Racing's U-25.

We found out at Sunday's Diamond Cup that Brent Hall and his wife Elsa are going to be first time parents soon! They've been keeping this big secret for about five months now and ultrasounds have very recently identified their expected bundle of joy as a bouncing baby boy! Congratulations to you two on your wonderful news.

Tim's not the only one sporting a new set of wheels. Dave Sacry and his wife Kathy have just bought this shiny new white Mustang. Dave says it's their second childhood car. It was either that or a Ford Fusion. No doubt they made the best choice there. The couple has recently taken up rally racing as a hobby and the Mustang makes a great rally car. They are currently leading the points standings in their class driving their fine white chariot. Way to go you two! Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing.

Dan Clark sent us a photo of his new Miss Spokane. This one is the 1959 version. Mark Beatty built the hull and Dan, with some sound advice from Bryan on working with the mahogany deck, did the finish work on this pretty boat. Nice work Spokane Dan!

Here's some news from the Beatty workshop. Appearantly there are lots of folks looking for good 1/10th scale boats. Over the last few days Mark Beatty has sold his Beacon Plumbing to Charles Xuadaro, his Plumbing Joint to Ron Forister, his Gale's Roostertail to a guy in Arizona, the Olympia Beer to Dan Clark and he's got another guy in California who wants to buy the Vans PX! Believe it or not, he's got a bunch more boats still on the shelf. We'll be listing a few Miss Timex boats on the For Sale Page soon so keep an eye out for them. Besides those, he's still got five other boats in 1/10th scale! Mark, it's time to thin the herd some more. We're sure there are a lot of people out there who would love to have any one of his cool creations to show off.

Classic Thunder has been around since 1993. Dale and the 1957 Miss Seattle have been around since the beginning. Dale's loyalty and longevity with the Miss Seattle was discovered by statistician Gene Melang, who brought to the attention of the Executive Committee prior to our last race. We decided to honor Dale with a nicely done plaque at the June 13th Freedom Cup event as it marked the 100th race that Dale has campaigned the Miss Seattle. This iconic relationship far exceeds that of any of other model in club history. Over the years, Dale and his six different models of the Miss Seattle have tallied 13 race wins, 16 second place finishes, 6 third places (35 podium finishes in all), 59 final heats run and 83,092 season points earned! We recently found out that his latest Miss Seattle, which he believes is number six, is the first one that does not have any parts from the original boat he built in 93! Dale has run a Miss Seattle in all but two seasons of the club. This is his 13th consecutive season since returning to racing in 1998 after a two year break. The Miss Seattle reached its ultimate achievement in winning the 2006 Season Championship in Division 1. We salute Dale and the Miss Seattle in reaching this landmark. The club wouldn't be the same without them after all these years.

Tim Becker knows how to have fun. He and his wife Barb are now enjoying a new black Chevy Camaro. This is one mean looking machine. Tim says it's his mid-life crisis, but you only live once so why not go for what you want! Nice looking ride Tim and thanks for sharing.

In case you haven't heard, CT co-founder and 5 liter hydro record holder Jon Zimmerman has been given the green light to drive the U-25 for two races in the 2010 H1 Unlimited season. Jon's been waiting for this opportunity for a long time and is understandably excited about it. He's been working with Ron Jones Jr and the rest of the team to get the boat ready for action. Jon will share seat time in 2010 with Ken Muscatel, but has been told that he will be the primary driver for the two events. With JR being involved and Jon behind the wheel, maybe the Superior Racing Team will make a good showing. Some of us went down to watch their recent test session on Lake Washington. It looks like they've got some serious preparing still left to do, but we hope their organization is headed in the right direction. Hopefully they'll get a rear horizontal wing on the boat and will be able to get the ride they're looking for before the first race. We wish them the best of luck. Congatulation Jon!

When he wasn't working on that cool new boat of his, Dave Helton took some time to hit the waters of Lake Chelan for some fishing with a buddy of his. Check out this 12 pound 11 ounce Lake Trout he caught. It was one of nine fish that they landed on the morning of their trip. Nice catch!

Congratulations to our Tony Minalia on a couple of things. Tony competed recently in the Kent Liftoff where the Kent District Schools competed in weightlifting competition. Tony was a part of Kent Meridian's lifting team which successfully lifted a combined total of 4999 pounds! This was good enough for fourth place overall. A couple of short weeks later Tony graduated with the Class of 2010 in a commencement ceremony in front of family and friends. Congratulations to Tony from all of us at CT, we're proud of you!

Dave Helton's been moving right along. Take a look at his latest update. Dave writes, "Here is what I have done so far, decks are on and they have had 3 coats of spar varnish applied to them just like the real boat. It takes 24 hours dry time between coats. The epoxy glass light weight cowl is fresh out of the mold and has the flashing trimmed off. Next I will start on the rear portion of the cowling, get the running gear located and build the chin spoiler for the bottom. The building progress goes fairly fast when you're semi retired and have most of the day on your hands." Appearantly semi retirement works great for boat building as this thing looks fantastic so far. You've got to love that mahogany work. At this rate, he should have the 54 Slo-Mo V on the water in no time. Excellent work Dave and thanks for sharing!

It's looking really nice from the start and it's now ready for mahogany decks from what I hear. Here's a couple of shots of Dave Helton's 1954 Slo-Mo-Shun V. He started construction about 5 days ago and is moving right along with it. the framing was done with Lite Ply and he has just received the Mahogany strips for the decking. It will be time consuming as he's got to lay it down in a 45 degree angle from the center line of the deck angling back on both sides. It will no doubt look awsome when it's done and we'll certainly be looking forward to progress reports and more photos. This is one of the all time favorite boats in this area. Dave's also got a mold for the cowling that he will be laying up in fiberglass. He built the 1952 version of this boat several years ago, but sold it when he took a break from the hobby. Luckily he kept the cowling mold. It'll save him a bunch of time and effort. Excellent work Dave.

It looks like we've got a new place to play. Matt Sanders has an off road R/C car and truck track cut into what looks to be a massive lawn area out behind his house in Monroe. Those are the benefits of living in the sticks. Matt and his son often race their vehicles out there and have invited any of us CT guys, who want to join them for a little fun, out to the track to do some racing. Sounds like a good place to keep our skills sharp during the off season. Talk to Matt about it when you see him. It looks like his son has the faster buggy, but Matt has more experience driving. Our money is on the kid, sorry Matt.

Nope it's not a young Mr T., it's our Brent Hall sporting a new mohawk haircut! The story is that Brent, a supervisor at AT&T, thought he gave his team of employees what he thought was an unreachable goal. Appearantly Mr. Supervisor not only underestimated their determination and skill, but baited them with extra incentive as well. He told them that he would shave a mohawk into his hair if they achieved it. Frankly, I like it a lot and think the whole club should get them. Now that's a man who knows how to lead with his head. Good work Brent!

Thought the guys would like to see what the early days of our hobby looked like some 50 years ago. Here is a 1950s vintage gas powered tether boat from my collection of boats. Its powered by a 1950s vintage Torpedo Green Head 29 Glow engine and was built from scratch from balsa wood and covered with mahogany and finished with spar varnish. The old decals are interesting and showing age. They must have been custom made. Also the prop and running gear was all hand made, they did not have much in the way of pre built parts back then for the boats as we know today. If you look close you can see where the tether line connected to the boat at the brackets coming from the engine well, they used a 52 ft steel tether line in the races back then. The boat measures 34 inches long and 14.5 inches wide which is actually very near 10th scale. Of course back then they didn't have any such thing as scale, they raced these in classes based on the engine displacement A,B,C and D were the classes. Regards, Dave.

Yep, Bryan Deatherage has now weighed in with his addition to the "ugly boat" theme for division 1 in 2010. Bryan chose the outlandish but beautiful 1956 Miss Skyway as his subject and, as you can see, he did an outstanding job capturing the look of the boat. He is becoming known for his great mahogany work and put a great deal of detail into this model. He even has a little cigarette in the driver's mouth! Outstanding work Bryan!

The boat is making its debut at the Apple Cup at Twin Lakes tomorrow. Bryan will be trying to rewrite the history books and is tweaking the V-Belts in anticipation of its maiden voyage. Bryan also reports that very soon he will be sending a status report on his other 1/10th scale project for division 2, the Executone which is nearing completion.

Now here's the definition of fanatic. Gene Melang is that and more. Gene is a fan of the Red Man hydroplanes. He has three of them racing at the same time this season! His team consists of the 73 Red man U-8 in division 1, the 74 Red Man U-81 in division 2 and his newest addition, the 73 Red Man Too which is also running in division 2. We thought this was too cool not to tell you about it. Gene is also building a 1/6th scale version of a Red Man boat. I don't know if there are any other versions of the tobacco company sponsored boats from the 1970's but if there are, I would bet that Gene's going to have a model of them. Here's a photo of Gene and the Red Man Team pit area. We love the boats Gene!

Take a look at this one! This 1/6th scale boat was going to be a 2007 Oberto, but Mark Beatty changed his mind, changed a few other things and now we're looking at a cool model of the U-3 Chrysler/Jeep hydro. He has nicknamed it "Big Red". The boat looks great with all of its detailing, which includes deck hatch decals. Mark is going to be putting the last details on it which will obviously include what will no doubt be a really nice turbo Allison dummy motor which looks to be the last thing it needs. Hopefully he'll send us the final photo when the Allison engine is done. Awsome looking boat Mark.

"It is with great pleasure that I would like to announce the launching of the latest edition for Newton Marine, Newton Marine the Blog! (Official website for blog: http://newtonmarine.blogspot.com/) I plan to add new posts frequently, so make sure to check back and see the latest and greatest with Newton Marine. Giving the most back to the radio controlled hobby and community that I love is my goal. This blog is just one more step towards my goal. I encourage people with questions or comments regarding Newton Marine or anything boat related to share here or to my email, newtonmarine@gmail.com." - David Newton, Newton Marine

Many of you may not be familiar with who Tracy Osterhout was, but he was a pioneer in RC racing and a friend to all types of boat racers in this area. He was the guy who founded Electric Thunder 1/16 scale boats that became the starting point for so many electric boat racers in this area back in the 1980's. He's as responsible as anyone for getting many of us involved in the hobby. Some of the guys who raced in 1/16th scale with his models and who worked with him to improve those model kits are the same guys who founded Classic Thunder and the club that is now Puget Sound Fast Electrics. Many of us didn't know him personally, but he most certainly has contributed to what we enjoy so much as a hobby today and deserves to be recognized. Attached is a link to an obituary posted by Region 10 Racing.

Dave Helton is back racing 1/10th scale again after taking some time off, selling his house in Skyway and relocating to Federal Way. He's also got a place in Arizona that he and his wife spend part of their time at. Sounds like they're ready for retirement in a big way. Dave's purchased Pete Schille's Boss Marine, a carbon fiber Thousand Trails (for NAMBA rules racing) and most recently an unfinished carbon fiber hull from Terry Harmer which he plans to make into a 82 Design 360 model for racing in CT as he thought it would be cool to have the 81 and 82 boat in the same club (Mike Krone has the 81 version). He got a great deal on the hull as Harmer has decided not to race in 1/10th scale this year. The price was right and Dave couldn't pass it up. He's got David Newton working on paint plans and drawings for the cowl so that he can work on the boat as a summer project this year. It looks like he's back in a big way. Welcome back Dave!

Bryan Deatherage sent over some info about what Scorpion Motors is doing. This might be old news to some of you but Scorpion is getting ready to release a whole pile of new inrunner brushless motors. With diameters of 26mm to 53mm and different lengths and kv's there are literally over a 100 different motors being offered!

From what I've read, they are priced at about 1/2 to 2/3 to comparably matched Neu motors. This should be interesting to see how these motor play out in the r/c market. Thanks for the info Bryan!

We have received notice that Dale Schroeder will be driving the refurbished Silver Dollar Casino boat which was recently stripped down and repainted into the 2002 Miss Trendwest by our busy boat builder Mark Beatty. Here's a photo of what Mark has done with the boat. I think Dale and everyone else will be happy with how it turned out.

Brent Hall has purchased a modern carbon fiber hull from Craig Bradshaw had Mitch Dillard do the prep work on the rough hull and then shipped it over to Mark Beatty for the paint job into the current Oh Boy! Oberto boat. Brent made the extra committment to get the boat done before the first race of the season. The boat turned out really nice and it looks like it's going to make it. Great work guys. Brent will team this boat with his returning Turbine Pay'n Pak which is being prepped by his buddy Harold Mills. They should be a tough combination to beat in division 2.

Well you had to figure that he'd held a little back and we're certain there's more we haven't seen yet. Here's Mark Beatty's completed 1/6th scale Lite All-Star ready for gear. What a beauty! If that wasn't enough, he found time to finish another boat he had laying around.

Here's a 1966 Miss Madison that he just painted in 1/10th scale. He plans on opening the season with the 55 Thriftway, but the Madison could see some action during 2010.

Here's an update from Dale Van Wyk on his 1990 Circus Circus project. He doesn't think it will be ready in time for the 2010 opener, but hopefully not too long after that. We're looking forward to seeing it on the lake. It's bound to be a good looking boat and a hot performer.

Matt Sanders is breaking into Division 1 racing in style. He's purchased the very popular 1968 Miss Bardahl from long time CT racer Pete Schille and is excited about getting to race it in 2010. Matt's put in some carbon fiber reinforcements for rigidity and fiberglassed some of the seams. He has been out testing and loves the boat ride, describing it as very stable and almost boring. We're guessing that will change when he lines up with a few hungry drivers at the first race. He really likes the long run time you get with the CT division 1 motor setup too. Matt's sure to have a good time with this boat.

Mitch Dillard has been busy working on lots of different things, but has found time to put in some time on his two new boats. the 55 Zephyr Fury is pretty much as it was on New Years Day. In order to save a little mess in the garage, it was decided that his division 2 boat would be built and brought to the same stage as the first boat. That way he will be able to shoot primer on both at the same time and only have to mess up the garage, mix primer etc only once. So far he's pretty happy about the building of the 88 Mr. Pringles and he's pleased to say that it's nearing time to got to primer! Within the next week or so, both boats and their parts will get a primer coat and then the fun of detail work and fitting parts will begin. Mitch is itching to have a boat to run and tweak on again as these are the only race boats he's got. Talk about withdrawals!. He can't wait to go testing and launch a couple of new boats. It looks like it won't be too much longer, but there's still some work to be done before he can head out to the lake and actually drive a boat again.

Yes, I said welding. Appearantly Kent Meridian offers a welding class and Tony Minalia is in the midst of a major welding project. Tony decided to learn the art of welding by building a tilt trailer for his new Circus Circus. He says the trailer weighs a lot, probably about 20 pounds! He's got a lot of gringing to do on the welds, but he obviously put a ton of detail and a lot of metal into it. Good work Tony! The boat looks really cool on tilt too. In case you're wondering, NO he will not be taking orders.

Please welcome the newest sponsor of CT, Jim Williams of South River R/C Boats http://southriverrcboats.com/. Some of you know Jim, but to those who don't you won't find a nicer guy in fast electric boat suppliers. Jim (formerly Williams Racing Products) builds outstanding and innovative motor mounts and other driveline hardware. He provides fast, personal attention to his customers. Jim was one of the first who developed a watercooled motor mount for outrunner use. He also carries Neu motors, Scorpion outrunners, Etti brand controllers, and LH props from ABC! We all know his close friend and neighbor in South River, NJ, Eddie Hansen. Needless to say he carries Eddies line of products too.

Please show your support to Jim by giving him your business in future boating purchases, he certainly appreciates it and will reward us with some great and innovative products. South River R/C Boats will be an associate sponsor of our Henley Memorial and Governors Cup races. Thanks Jim, we're glad to have you with us!

Pete Schille finally figured out how to post onboard footage he made to YouTube. Here's a link of his driver's view of a blowover a while back. Thanks for sharing Pete!

Mark Beatty has officially dragged the 1/6th scale crowd into the 1980's. Here's a couple of new shots of his 84 Lite All-Star under construction. We now understand that some evil person is drawing up plans for the 1985 Miss 7-11 in 1/6th Scale. You guys are too much!

It looks like Mike Krone will campaign yet another Cabover Miss Bardahl in the future. Mike started out in CT racing a model of this boat that was eventually retired and now he's just purchased Pete Schille's old cabover for refurbishing and racing. Mike's always liked this boat and he's getting it ready for the season. Mike Schultz is also getting a new ride for 2010. Steve Dumanis was commissioned to build him a brand new boat.

Mike will get the Such Crust IV from Steve as soon as the finishing touches and some tweaking have been completed. He should be very pleased with the results as Steve's building some pretty fast boats these days.

Take a look at the progress of Tony Minalia's 1988 Circus Circus. The boat is now painted and it's moving right along. Good work Tony, it looks good! Next it's time to finish the cowling and wings and he'll be pretty much done. He also says he's planning on building a new Frosted Flakes too.

This is what happens when left Mark Beatty is left unsupervised with a 12-pack of beer. These are Mark's latest updates. He's now decked the 55 Thriftway with real mahogany which must have been hard enough to do. He didn't stop there. He must have gotten bored because he's now started on a project we all knew was coming sooner or later. Yep, a 1/6th scale 1984 Lite All-Star, his favorate boat.

We know these two are going to be beautys like his other boats. He's building quite a fleet over there. What would happen if we dropped off a few bottles of good scotch?!

In case you haven't seen it yet, this is pretty cool stuff. They did a nice job on the production. Here's a Link.

Dan, Mark, Pete, Jeff and Bryan (there could have even been others) headed down to Lacey to test 1/10th and 1/6th scale boats. They even got some excellent video footage! You can view the photos and the videos they sent us using the links below. Thanks guys!

We were out in force again to welcome another new year. Coulon Park was where we gathered and had our 2010 New Years Day Fun Run. Some of our old favorite boats were there, like Jon Zimmerman's Vacationville, Pete Schille's Pizza Pete and Dave Sacry's Schweppes. Brent Hall was out testing his new ride, the Parco's O-Ring Miss formerly built and owned by Jeff Howard. Jeff had sold it to a guy in Idaho, who sold it to Brent. It was a great boat when it raced a few years ago and it's obviously still a great boat from the looks of it with Brent behind the wheel. New member Nels Enquist brought out his Squire Shop, recently purchased from Brent Hall. Steve Dumanis showed up with a brand new 86-87 Frank Kenney hydro that he is almost done with. Mark Beatty and Jeff Howard both brought out 1/6th scale boats and ran them. Mark has the Valu Mart and Jeff's got the Miss US. Both are outstanding boats. Mark also brought out three 1/10th scales. His new Formula Boat and Miss Olympia Beer are finished and look great. He's now building a 1955 Thriftway that is under construction. Tony Minalia also has two boats under construction that he brought out to show. One is a 1988 Circus Circus for himself and the other is a new 74 Pay'n Pak for his dad Danny, being built as a Christmas/Birthday present. Dan Clark gave us a look at his newly acquired Shanty which he is doing some work on for 2010. We got a look at Mitch Dillard's project, the Zephyr Fury which is coming along nicely too. It's now ready for primer. We even had a new Ugly Theme recovery barge on the scene. Battery Dave Sacry took it out for its maiden voyage and it worked like a charm. He plans to make a few adjustments, but it was successful in recovering a dead boat with little effort at all. We had a good time hanging out and talking boats. Thanks to everyone who showed up and contributed to the camp fire, food, coffee and fun.