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APPLE CUP 2007 |
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You
couldn’t have picked a better place to be on a warm summer day than where we
were. On July 22nd the guys
of Classic Thunder and some of our family members and friends entered the wet
and wonderful confines of Wild Waves/Enchanted Village Water Park for the 2007
Apple Cup. The place was alive with the
sounds of the rides and splashing water features all around us. When the gates opened to the public the park
filled up nicely and created a carnival atmosphere that is impossible not to
enjoy. The most difficult thing we had
to face was the very challenging race course we set up. It resembled the shape of a teardrop with an
immovable fountain lurking just outside a tight corner at the end of the front
straightaway. The water had its share of
small floating debrit and a few unseen hazards just beneath the surface, which
included some very massive carp. It was
certainly a driver’s course that tested all of our patience and skill. A few of us even went home with reminders of
what can happen if you flirt with the fountain once too often. 30 boats
filled the pit area on a spacious deck area overlooking the race course. 14 were on hand for Division 1 and 16 for
Division 2 competition. Bryan Deatherage
started the day off on a good note by qualifying as a driver and putting his
new Miss B&I into its first race.
The boat ran very well and it took only one attempt for him to get in
the show. Good job Bryan! Tony
Minalia launched his new Smokin’ Joes and got his first real test with the
completed boat before the racing began.
The boat looked good, but unfortunately Tony would be the first victom
of the fountain. In his first heat on
the first lap he went in hot and pushed it wide. The result was a broken right sponson that
will require some major rebuilding.
Clint Crain’s Coors Light would later suffer a similar fate, but
survived the head on hit a little better.
The tips of the sponsons are a little shorter now and I think about 3
inches of one of them is still stuck in the fountain’s frame. Don’t worry, both of these guys will return
soon after repairs are finished. The rest
of the Division 2 gang made it through the day pretty well. Mike
Krone drove his Design 360 to a spot in the Final Heat by winning the
Consolation Heat in fine fashion. He
joined Mitch Dillard’s Trendwest, Jeff Howard’s Appian Jeronimo, Dave Sacry’s
Circus Circus and Brent Hall’s Coors Dry.
The boat count per heat was limited all day long due to the close proximity
of the fountain. Trendwest hit the start
on time with all of the other boats coming to the line a bit late. Trendwest had a big lead before hitting
something under the water and violently swapping ends. Circus Circus inherited the lead before being
passed by both Trendwest and Appian.
Mitch then spun again coming off of turn two on the third lap and
decided that the boat wasn’t safely driveable with its damaged rudder and
pulled off the course. The Appian continued
to run well and went on uncontested.
Battery Dave kept the Circus clean and posted an impressive second place
finish. Mike Krone came from the trailer
spot to finish third ahead of Brent Hall’s Coors Dry. Jeff Howard’s win in the Appian Jeronimo
makes two in a row for the plastic sponsoned boat. It was no easy task considering that the boat
suffered damage to the right sponson early in the day when he was involved in a
side collision with another boat. Some
glue and tape got him through the rest of the day and paid off in the end. He became the first recipient of the brand
new Division 2 Apple Cup perpetual trophy.
Good job Jeff! The season points
race for Division 2 is really staying tight with only three races to go. It’s been happening this way for several
years now. It’ll probably come down to
the last race again this year. That’s some
really good fun. Division
1 racing was good all day with fewer incidents with the fountain. I’m betting this is due to the the boats not carrying as much speed
and that drivers know they have to slow them down more to get the smaller skid
fins to hook up in the corners. Good job
by all of the drivers because it wasn’t easy out there. Mark Beatty’s Miss Timex won the Consolation
Heat to become the trailer in the Final Heat.
He joined Bill McGraw’s Pride of Pay’n Pak, Tony Minalia driving Dale
Van Wyk’s Berryessa Belle, Mitch Dillard’s Slo Mo Shun IV and Jeff Howard’s 67
Parco’s O-Ring Miss. The Pak was across
the line first with the Belle on her inside and the Slo Mo sneaking up inside on
the buoy line. Slo Mo made it through
the fountain turn to take the lead up the backstretch ahead of the Pak and
Belle. Halfway up the backstretch, the
Pak took a hop, got up in the air a bit and then stuffed its front end. Parco took over third place at that
point. The Pak came to the surface
upside down and was very difficult to see against the water’s silvery
background. Timex ran fourth at the end
of lap one. The Slo Mo slowed almost to
a stop to avoid hitting the almost invisible Pak, but manage to get by as the
other boats gave chase. The Belle got a
lap penalty for hitting a buoy on lap 2, putting the Timex in third. The Parco would then cut a buoy and
relinquish second place to the Timex.
Slo Mo would hold on to the lead, capping off a perfect day. Miss Timex would finish in second after
starting from the trailer position.
Parco came around for third followed by Berryessa Belle in fourth. The Apple Cup win marks the fourth of the
2007 season for Mitch and the Slo Mo IV. We would
like to thank Steve Vaccaro of Offshore Electrics for sponsoring the event for
us along with the staff of Wild Waves/Enchanted Village. They sure treat us nice down there and we
appreciate it. We’ll be back at Wild
Waves again for our Seafair Trophy race on August 12th. They’ve got a major sponsor promotion going
on that day and expect to pack 10,000 or more people into the park. We’ll do our best to put on another great
race for them. It’s going to be huge fun
and excitement and I can’t wait. We’ve
got a couple of weekends off as the Unlimiteds will be racing in the Tri-Cities
and here on Lake Washington. Some of us
will gather for our yearly viewing of the first day of qualifying at the south
end of Stan Sayres pits on Friday, August 3rd and welcome you to
join us. Even before that, a group of us
volunteers will be putting on our 2nd Annual Hydro Fest for the
families at the Ronald McDonald House in Seattle on Saturday, July 28th. We’ll have a Casper boat race in the back
yard with the kids and give them a little taste of hydroplane racing during
Seafair time. It’s a great event that we
started last year and an excellent way to at least temporarily relieve the
stresses and worry of a child’s cancer treatment and share a fun afternoon with
their families. It’s incredible what
those folks do at the RMH for so many people, so we decided to bring a little
Seafair to them. So many people have
pitched in to help make this event happen again and I would like to personally
thank all of them. We’ll let everyone
know how it goes and post the photos after the event. Until then, take care and God Bless. Sincerely,
Mitch
Dillard Classic
Thunder Commissioner
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