1994 Smokin' Joe's

 

 

  Boat Statistics

Boat Name:

 

Year:

Designation#:

 

 Smokin' Joe's

1994

 

U-10

Owner/Driver:

 

Year Model Built:

 

 Tony Minalia

 

2007

Builder:

 

Construction:

 

 

Tony Minalia

 

Foam, plywood,resin

Motor:

 

Speed Controller:

 

 Mega 22/30/2

 

Castle Barracuda 80

Prop:

 

Paint Colors:

 

 

 Graupner

 

Purple, yellow & white

Type of Graphics:

 Radio:

 

 

vinyl and hand painted

 

Futaba

About the Model: After starting the building process in December 2006 and going through enough wood to put a forest back up and enough foam to raise the Titanic, The Smokin' Joe's finally hit the water at the 2007 Apple Cup. Attempt #5 is the one Tony went with. Attempt #4 was going to be used but paint bubbled and alot of design changes had to be made to make the boat work.  Alot of experience was learned from building the hull 5 times. He even made a vaccum plug for the cowl on his own.  Tony says that no fingers have been lost yet in the Minalia boat shop, but just give it time.

The real boat: The hull was built by Jim Lucero in 1987 and ran as the Miller High Life with Chip Hanauer driving. In 1988 it ran as Miss Circus Circus.  It was the first hull to go over 170 mph in a timed qualifying or racing session.  In 1989 new sponsons were put on the boat.  In 1991, it was bought by Steve Woomer and became the Winston Eagle. It ran for 3 years under that name with Mark Tate behind the wheel until it became the Smokin' Joe's. It became the Close Call in 1997.  The hull sat for a little while until 2000 when it ran as Appian Jeronimo. It was the hull that George Stratton was killed in. The next couple years it ran under such names as York, Al Deeby Dodge, Sportsboat Northwest, and is the current U-13. Although with some minor upgrades. It is the only hull in the history of the sports to have won Gold Cups in 3 different decades. Talk about craftsmanship. It is also the oldest running hull on the 2007 unlimited hydroplane circuit.