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Some FE news regarding the February 11th and 12th NAMBA Dist 19’s first district race of the year-Lake Havasu City, Az
We had a great 1st race of the 2012 season this weekend in Lake Havasu City, Az. Nice, sunny conditions all weekend and the Lake Havasu Model Boat Club hosts this event just south of the London Bridge (approx 1000 feet south of it). For those familiar with the area, it’s a hot spot tourist destination and the boardwalk along the channel is busy all day long. In fact, on both sides of the channel where the course is set up, I bet there were over 400 spectators each day. I’ve never seen anything like it. I mean, the crowd ohh’d and ahh’d with every close call, good pass, flight and collision! If you’re not familiar with the location, Google London Bride or London Bridge Resort and get a satellite image of the area. It’s quite impressive and will give you a nice visual for what I am typing further down. The hotel, restaurants, parks and, well, everything is within a quick walk of the site.
London Bridge.jpg
As I mentioned, it’s a popular site for tourists. Late Saturday, I heard that a NAVIGA FE racer (and I think a National Champion) from Ukraine was in the pits. I forget his name, but we spent some time discussing the 2 FE classes running at this event and got a photo. He has my contact information so we’ll see if I hear from him again.
Since this course is set in a channel, it’s narrow. Very narrow. Probably 20 feet radius…no, I mean DIAMETER turns. There’s some room to get the big boats around the course, but my guess is 15 boats hit the beach (aka Havasu Wall) after turn 1 throughout the weekend. The race has been run here for years, so racers know the course (and the hazards). It certainly is a popular race. 81 rounds completed on Saturday and we only got mid-way through round 4. Sunday they decided that 3 rounds would conclude the day, but I’m not sure how many rounds we completed. Probably close to 70.
Regarding FE, P-Ltd Sport Hydro ran on Saturday, and P Mono ran on Sunday. I also entered my Q mono in Open Offshore. For Sport Hydro, welcome Chris Reed, who has built a fantastic Whip. He’s a gas cross-over now-turned FE racer and he cleaned all of our clocks! His boat is set up beautifully, handling the wind, chop from the previous gas races (though not too bad this time), retrieval boat wake, power boat wake as they crossed through the channel between heats, etc. The rest of the field drove Insane 30’s, chalk up another win for the Whips! Ted McKay, District 19 Director, took 2nd place. I don’t have much memory of Dick and Gary’s racing because I was too busy trying to get my groove on that track and I never did find it. 3 DNF’s. Oh, I did win 1 heat! Yay for me. How soon is WW VIII??? Good news: Nobody had any damage.
P Mono ran on Sunday and we had a good mix of boats. Gary and I ran Titan’s, Ted has a Cyberstorm, and Steve Lopez and Dick Roberts were running the Insane 34’s. Dick was also running 1527 .5Y in his…!! Criky. On a Seaking 180, too. Man, that ESC is an impressive value. Gary’s is a new setup and he was chasing what appeared to be a low voltage cut-off issue. This was Ted’s first race with his boat and after clearing up the flex shaft (drive dog jammed into the strut), his boat was fantastic, and with such a mild amp draw, too. Steve Lopez’s Insane 34 is really getting dialed in and is very competitive on the course. I finally got my head on straight and had a boat that could shine on a course like that. 3 wins and a 2nd place gave me top spot at the end of the day, with Ted McKay getting 2nd place. Also, no damage for anybody!
In Open Offshore, I entered with 6 other gas monos on a course that could only be described as colossal. I’m actually surprised nobody lost signal. Follow me here. After the start and rounding turn 1, you raced down the back stretch and did a slight dog-leg left to the off-set buoy, which was (no joke) 500 feet away from the drivers stand. OK, maybe 450 feet…but it was OUT THERE. It felt like I was dang near rounding the pillar to the London Bridge. Hairpin that buoy, then come back 150 feet for the left hander (another hairpin), then OUT AGAIN to another buoy to round (and only seeing your rooster tail) before making your shot back to the start line. I swear that last shot, wide open, took me 8-9 seconds to get to the starting line, and my boat’s not slow. Open Offshore is a 6 lap race, not timed, but I wish I did time it, because it felt like (almost) a 4 minute FE Offshore heat.
Over the course of the day, 3 boats dropped out for various reasons, but vision may have been a key issue. Even with a prop-down on my Q mono due to the length of runtime on that course, I was able to sweep the class, not getting distracted by the CD Lenny calling my boat the Singer Sewing Machine every time it crossed the line. And, with each win the crowd applauded! I think I got a little red in the face. I did suffer a little damage in round 3 as the 2011 Offshore Champion came in a little hot on the left-hander and got me in the side, but it didn’t cost me any time or handling issues…and he DNF’d because of it.
The Kids class also had mixed power types. My boys ran P-Ltd Monos against 3 gas boats! Due to the lack of entries, they put them all together and it worked out just fine. Well, except for 1 gas boat that may have been propped a little too hot for the operator, causing him to ramp off of 1 of my kids dead boat and while he landed and DNF’d, his wave/splash caused my other kids boat to DNF. I wish there was footage of that! FE came out on top here, too. In fact, Luke and Josh tied for 1st place! The crowd dug that, too.
Other notables. On the Gas side, this was the first race for GX-2 and there were 2 flights of riggers running these big block motors. They were very impressive, even on such a tight course. With a little more tuning and a more rigger-friendly course, there’s going to be more sub 1 minute runs. Dale Roberts, Dick Roberts son from District 7, is a constant entrant in Dist 19 races and he consistently mops up the wins! He and District 19’s Roger Payne, again, made it very hard for other racers to pick up a class win. It’s impressive to watch those two guys on the water. I mentioned that 81 rounds got completed on Saturday, with random engine teching, too. Two gas-powered retrieval boats, a steady pace by the CD’s Richard Romano and Lenny Blake, and District 19’s new Director Ted McKay making sure questions got answered and that everyone was on the same page with how District 19 is going to be doing business for 2012. It was a great start to the 2012 season!
Not related to racing, but for those of you with kids that watch the Camp Woodward (reality?) show, my boys were scootering with a “star” of that show, named “Lucky”. They thought that was pretty cool.
We had a great 1st race of the 2012 season this weekend in Lake Havasu City, Az. Nice, sunny conditions all weekend and the Lake Havasu Model Boat Club hosts this event just south of the London Bridge (approx 1000 feet south of it). For those familiar with the area, it’s a hot spot tourist destination and the boardwalk along the channel is busy all day long. In fact, on both sides of the channel where the course is set up, I bet there were over 400 spectators each day. I’ve never seen anything like it. I mean, the crowd ohh’d and ahh’d with every close call, good pass, flight and collision! If you’re not familiar with the location, Google London Bride or London Bridge Resort and get a satellite image of the area. It’s quite impressive and will give you a nice visual for what I am typing further down. The hotel, restaurants, parks and, well, everything is within a quick walk of the site.
London Bridge.jpg
As I mentioned, it’s a popular site for tourists. Late Saturday, I heard that a NAVIGA FE racer (and I think a National Champion) from Ukraine was in the pits. I forget his name, but we spent some time discussing the 2 FE classes running at this event and got a photo. He has my contact information so we’ll see if I hear from him again.
Since this course is set in a channel, it’s narrow. Very narrow. Probably 20 feet radius…no, I mean DIAMETER turns. There’s some room to get the big boats around the course, but my guess is 15 boats hit the beach (aka Havasu Wall) after turn 1 throughout the weekend. The race has been run here for years, so racers know the course (and the hazards). It certainly is a popular race. 81 rounds completed on Saturday and we only got mid-way through round 4. Sunday they decided that 3 rounds would conclude the day, but I’m not sure how many rounds we completed. Probably close to 70.
Regarding FE, P-Ltd Sport Hydro ran on Saturday, and P Mono ran on Sunday. I also entered my Q mono in Open Offshore. For Sport Hydro, welcome Chris Reed, who has built a fantastic Whip. He’s a gas cross-over now-turned FE racer and he cleaned all of our clocks! His boat is set up beautifully, handling the wind, chop from the previous gas races (though not too bad this time), retrieval boat wake, power boat wake as they crossed through the channel between heats, etc. The rest of the field drove Insane 30’s, chalk up another win for the Whips! Ted McKay, District 19 Director, took 2nd place. I don’t have much memory of Dick and Gary’s racing because I was too busy trying to get my groove on that track and I never did find it. 3 DNF’s. Oh, I did win 1 heat! Yay for me. How soon is WW VIII??? Good news: Nobody had any damage.
P Mono ran on Sunday and we had a good mix of boats. Gary and I ran Titan’s, Ted has a Cyberstorm, and Steve Lopez and Dick Roberts were running the Insane 34’s. Dick was also running 1527 .5Y in his…!! Criky. On a Seaking 180, too. Man, that ESC is an impressive value. Gary’s is a new setup and he was chasing what appeared to be a low voltage cut-off issue. This was Ted’s first race with his boat and after clearing up the flex shaft (drive dog jammed into the strut), his boat was fantastic, and with such a mild amp draw, too. Steve Lopez’s Insane 34 is really getting dialed in and is very competitive on the course. I finally got my head on straight and had a boat that could shine on a course like that. 3 wins and a 2nd place gave me top spot at the end of the day, with Ted McKay getting 2nd place. Also, no damage for anybody!
In Open Offshore, I entered with 6 other gas monos on a course that could only be described as colossal. I’m actually surprised nobody lost signal. Follow me here. After the start and rounding turn 1, you raced down the back stretch and did a slight dog-leg left to the off-set buoy, which was (no joke) 500 feet away from the drivers stand. OK, maybe 450 feet…but it was OUT THERE. It felt like I was dang near rounding the pillar to the London Bridge. Hairpin that buoy, then come back 150 feet for the left hander (another hairpin), then OUT AGAIN to another buoy to round (and only seeing your rooster tail) before making your shot back to the start line. I swear that last shot, wide open, took me 8-9 seconds to get to the starting line, and my boat’s not slow. Open Offshore is a 6 lap race, not timed, but I wish I did time it, because it felt like (almost) a 4 minute FE Offshore heat.
Over the course of the day, 3 boats dropped out for various reasons, but vision may have been a key issue. Even with a prop-down on my Q mono due to the length of runtime on that course, I was able to sweep the class, not getting distracted by the CD Lenny calling my boat the Singer Sewing Machine every time it crossed the line. And, with each win the crowd applauded! I think I got a little red in the face. I did suffer a little damage in round 3 as the 2011 Offshore Champion came in a little hot on the left-hander and got me in the side, but it didn’t cost me any time or handling issues…and he DNF’d because of it.
The Kids class also had mixed power types. My boys ran P-Ltd Monos against 3 gas boats! Due to the lack of entries, they put them all together and it worked out just fine. Well, except for 1 gas boat that may have been propped a little too hot for the operator, causing him to ramp off of 1 of my kids dead boat and while he landed and DNF’d, his wave/splash caused my other kids boat to DNF. I wish there was footage of that! FE came out on top here, too. In fact, Luke and Josh tied for 1st place! The crowd dug that, too.
Other notables. On the Gas side, this was the first race for GX-2 and there were 2 flights of riggers running these big block motors. They were very impressive, even on such a tight course. With a little more tuning and a more rigger-friendly course, there’s going to be more sub 1 minute runs. Dale Roberts, Dick Roberts son from District 7, is a constant entrant in Dist 19 races and he consistently mops up the wins! He and District 19’s Roger Payne, again, made it very hard for other racers to pick up a class win. It’s impressive to watch those two guys on the water. I mentioned that 81 rounds got completed on Saturday, with random engine teching, too. Two gas-powered retrieval boats, a steady pace by the CD’s Richard Romano and Lenny Blake, and District 19’s new Director Ted McKay making sure questions got answered and that everyone was on the same page with how District 19 is going to be doing business for 2012. It was a great start to the 2012 season!
Not related to racing, but for those of you with kids that watch the Camp Woodward (reality?) show, my boys were scootering with a “star” of that show, named “Lucky”. They thought that was pretty cool.
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