H20 Gassers Race #4 - Legg Lake

[properchopper]

Eighty-One heats Saturday; close to the same Sunday. Ran 4 rounds of P-Ltd Sport Hydro Saturday and 4 rounds of P-Mono Sunday. Camera was acting up so this is all I got; sorry. Gasserwater is bouncy but FUN !!

The pits Saturday morning as things got rolling :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpdaiEiih1s

Here's an unfortunately incomplete vid of our NAMBA National FE Chairman, Mr. David Newland bravely racing his red DF39 against a potpourri of angry sounding gassers; most much larger and blasting huge gasserwater-holes on the course in Open Offshore (run as a 6-lap heat). Of interest and pride to us FE's is the fact that Mr. Newland came to race #4 as the District 19 Points LEADER in Open Offshore (where anything can run including FE) , a fact that was not lost on today's competitors who told me in several casual conversations that they weren't pleased that one 'O them funny electric toys has, as of today's race, beaten their best drivers (and D19 has some ultra-agressive offshore racers) AND for today's race their rigs were pumped up a bit to even the score. Check out his driving

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIgQ8aYRvpY

[srislash]

Good driving Dave!He was running them down.
So Tony,what was the cat in the middle of the pits in the first vid? R-42?

[TheShaughnessy]

here are the videos my gf got from Saturday. Not the best quality but it gets the point across. For the most part she follows me so there is more of my boat thinking its a submarine then racing action. She did manage to capture when Mark goes flying off me after i veer into his lane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAXvoP6ogXc only a lap or so

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy6pZxc983s this is the one with the collision

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FQiLuhhFI

A little embarrassing to even post these.

[D. Newland]

At first, I didn't want Tony posting that Open Offshore video! I was pathetic. But, later realized that it's OK for me to show failure publicly as I try to represent FE in an open class. But, I've done well in the past and I will do well in the future. so it's OK.

Allow me to vent so I can move on with my day! (a bit of a joke...it was a great district race this past weekend).

Tony's video is the 1st heat of Open Offshore, and nobody got a practice run on the course. In fact, we had to do a "restart" because nobody was 100% sure what course we were to run. Fortunately, my boat hadn't launched yet, but the gas boats re-fueled and then we all got on the same page course-wise.

It's a huge course, taking 30 seconds to get around it. I just didn't have the mAh capacity on board to mill like I wanted, even propping down, which hurt me big time in the start. And, as Tony mentioned, I've got a target on my back with a few of the gas guys (all in good fun). I also forgot how that boat turns left, screwing up the left hairpin. And, going out to the second offshore buoy was a bitch (for everyone) because the boat is going away from you...hard to tell what direction it's going through your own rooster tail! Then I got taken out in the 2nd heat, right after the start, by the same guy that hit me in Havasu. He got DQ'd, so I got 4th place points.

I sort of pulled it together for heats 3 and 4, but Vance Zanin really was on that day, driving a big-block mono. I was able to beat him on a tighter course in Tucson, but not Legg. Also, I just kept chasing and chasing Tyler Gerrard for those last 2 heats, only to have a quick chance at passing him during the last 1/4 lap of the last round as he bobbled the left hander, then watched my chance fade as fast as it came! He ran very well and we'll have some good racing in June at the Nat's.

Shaunnessy's videos will show a few things. the 2nd one with the collision shows Mark Ferreira and I really putting together a great race for the lead, but the collision was between Mike and Mark and how I got through it is anyones guess. It also shows the speed at which we're running, which doesn't seem to translate when you're racing Legg's course in person because of it's size and a farther-out position it has, compared to other courses. You don't hear your boats like you do, or I do on other courses. The boats seem slower, but they're not! we're still pulling 16 second laps. 15 seconds would be better...but 16 is respectable in race water with 7 boats entered.

The third video shows the retrieval boat rollers we had to contend with at times. Not all of the time as we would remind the retrieval boat guy to slow down on his return, but sometimes he forgot. Lastly, there's a funny hole in the backstretch of Legg. See how many of us lawn-darted back there. I did it with both my LSH and P mono, with my LSH recovering, thankfully. Just a little local tid-bit for those coming to the Nat's next month. If you aren't paying attention, it will grab you!

We had some great P-Mono racing on Sunday, too. Again, 7 boat heats just like in LSH.