Well it's over and I thank everyone that helped out on the tow boats. And an extra special thank you to my wife Darlene for helping Saturday morning when the temperature was a chilly 58 degrees. I hope that all of you enjoyed the races as much as I did.
It was a great weekend of racing with some incredible boats and drivers from all over the US and Canada. Time trails and elimination heats were run on Friday and Saturday with the final races held Sunday. The races were held on Pontiac Lake on a 1 mile oval course.
There were several classes of boats running from the Vintage class up to the Grand Prix class. I was completely in awe of the Grand Prix's! The average speed was 140mph and on the straightaways they could reach speeds up to 170mph and throwing 70' rooster tails. I have never seen something running across the water at those speeds or heard anything that loud passing by you within 100 feet. Being in a tow boat is truly the best seat to be in for this event!
On Sunday one of my helpers Dave and I were sitting at the beginning of turn 2 when 3 boats were side by side coming into the turn and the inside boat (Desperado) seemed to catch the wake of another and the stern went straight up in the air spinning the boat like a top on it's bow and coming to rest right in front of us. All of this happened within a split second and the fortunately driver wasn't injured. SHE was a bit rattled but walked away without even a scratch. Nothing like coming to an abrupt stop at 90mph!! That was the only major incident over the weekend. Most tows we preformed were boats that broke down.
Another group of racers that were fun to watch was the junior class that ran on a 1/4 mile course. They ran a smaller scale hydroplane boat with a 15hp outboard motor. They also ran a junior class of first time drivers under 14 years of age and one of them didn't realize they were running the small course so off he went around the 1 mile track.
It had everyone laughing!
Looking forward to next years races.
I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
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