Seafair Trophy Race 2007

We were back on the water at Wild Waves again for the second time in three weeks for the Classic Thunder Seafair Trophy Race.  The event was sponsored by Wild Waves and was a really exciting day of battling against each other and, in a few cases, against our boat gremlins.  We would like to thank Grant Clark of Wild Waves theme park for having us out there again.  We had a blast and the thousands of people enjoying the park got an eyeful of some really good competition.  By the time the final heats came around, we had people up against the fence, lined up all around the water to watch.  That’s a pretty cool thing to witness.   People came by all day long to ask questions about the boats and reminisce about the hydros they remembered from their younger days.  Younger people mostly commented on how cool they thought the boats were and how much fun it must be to drive one.  I’d have to agree with them on both counts.

We saw right away that the water level was down about two feet, but for some odd reason, the place looked bigger than some of us  remembered.  Maybe we were just getting more familiar with the pond.  27 boats were in the pits, the sun was shining and the water was excellent.  The 13 division 2 boats were up first, including one new boat for 2007.  Dale Schroeder showed up to drive his new Freddie’s Club Casino boat that he recently bought from the collection of Mark Beatty.  You can tell right away that he likes the boat more than the 76 Bud that he had before.  He still swears that boat was cursed or something.  We think he passed the curse on to Mark as part of the purchase agreement as Mark struggled with his Beacon Plumbing boat all day long with radio issues.  Sadly enough, the Beacon ended up suffering some damage when it ran out of control at full speed and up onto the rocks in the backstretch late in the day.  Don’t worry, Mark has another boat in his impressive fleet that has been itching to get some run time.  We may see the new Lite All-Star make its debut in Lacey.  We got a very fast glimpse of it at the New Year’s Day Fun Run, and have been waiting to see it again.  It’s top notch fast.

The Division 2 Final was one of the closest 1,2,3 finishes that I think we’ve ever seen.  That’s particularly remarkable given the somewhat challenging course at Wild Waves.   Mitch Dillard’s Trendwest set the stage by winning the Conny and advancing to the show as the trailer.  He joined Brent Hall’s Bubble Bud, Pete Schille’s Winston Eagle, Steve Dumanis's Shakey's Special (his first CT final heat, good job Steve!) and Mike Krone’s Design 360.  The Winston got out to a good start, followed by the Design 360 in a close second.  The Bud’s cowling popped off and it had to go to the infield.  Trendwest started making up ground almost immediately after the trailer start and Mitch was driving it as hard as he could.  By lap 3, he had made up all but about half of a straightaway on the leaders.  Winston and Design 360 were still dicing for the lead and Mike was doing everything he could to get a run on Pete.  Meanwhile the Shakey's had gotten upside down at the end of the backstretch.  At the start of the final lap, Winston still held the lead with Design 360 giving close chase and Trendwest closing.  At the apex of the final turn everyone made their move.  Pete carried his Winston to the line in lane 3, Mike took the inside for a dash to the finish in Design 360 and Trendwest came off of Mike’s hip, out into lane 5 to carry as much speed as possible.  At the line it was Winston first by about a boatlength, followed by Design 360 by another boatlength ahead of Trendwest.  What a race!  Congrats to Pete on holding off the vultures and claiming his first win of the year with the Lobster Boat.  Good show!  This puts a log jam at the top of the Division 2 points for a handful of guys with two races to go.  Winston has taken over second place overall, over the noticeably absent Appian Jeronimo, the very fast Design 360 and Circus Circus.  You can throw a blanket over the whole bunch and all of them are chasing down the Trendwest boat for the title. 

The Division 1 field of 14 boats showed some stuff of their own.  At the end of the prelims, five boats advanced to the final.  Mike Krone’s Dutchman, outfitted with a new simplified gearbox, and Dave Sacry’s Mariner Too ended in tie for the last two spots, so both got in.  What that meant was that there would be no trailer and all five boats would start on the front line.  Pete Schille’s Pizza Pete, Dale Van Wyk’s Miss Seattle and Mitch Dillard’s Slo-Mo-Shun IV were the other combatants who added to the suspense.  Everyone knew that hitting the start well and getting through the fountain turn first would be huge, but risky.  Berryessa Belle was the alternate boat after winning the Conny, but didn’t get the opportunity to run.  All of the boats hit the start on time with Pizza Pete on the inside going into a tight first turn, Miss Seattle also dove inside, leaving the Slo Mo on the outside next to the fountain.  Miss Seattle darted up the backstretch in first followed by Pizza Pete and Slo Mo.  Mariner Too and Dutchman followed close behind.  Miss Seattle opened up a lead as the Pizza Pete and Slo Mo battled for second over the next two laps.  Slo mo finally got past and set sights on the Seattle at the end of lap 2.  Slo Mo began to close the gap on the inside lane by the end of lap 3, but was not yet within striking distance.  Unexpectedly, the Miss Seattle bounced and rolled at the end of the backstretch on lap 4 while trying to hold on to the lead.  Slo Mo took full advantage and moved into the top spot, followed by Pizza Pete.  Meanwhile, the Dutchman had worked her way past the Mariner too and into third.  That’s how it ended.  The Slo Mo IV team took home their fifth win of what has been a great season for Mitch.  The Seafair win and a perfect points day has insured that the “Grand Old Lady” will be the 2007 Division 1 Season Champion!   However, we’ve got a fierce battle still going on for the next several spots in the standings.  All of these won’t likely be decided until the final race of the year!

I would like to also thank Brent Hall for putting together the fliers and prize for his free children’s raffle idea. He gave away  a cool electric boat at the end of the day to one very happy young lady.   Kids entered the raffle all during the day and returned for the drawing just after the final heats.  We also decided to raffle off some Wild Waves admission tickets to some other lucky kids.  We’ve got to do that again.  It was so much fun for the kids and for us too.  Good job everyone.  Next on the schedule is the Governors Cup in Lacey on August 29^th.  It’s bound to be another great race.  The event is sponsored by Valley Construction Supply, Inc and will be coordinated by Mark Beatty and Clint Crain.   Sounds like a good time to me!  See you there.

Sincerely,

Mitch Dillard

Classic Thunder Commissioner