2013 FE Nats

[hydroplane44]

04.jpg
thanks, that one is especially for Todd and Allen!!!
(last run of DV in Doha)

[D. Newland]

Ted and I drove through the night Saturday to get home early Sunday. Still not quite functioning 100%, but close. We had a good time @ Lake Minden and the low turnout was never an issue. In fact, they had almost identical racer turnout in 2008. It really doesn't matter if there are 6 guys or 60 guys attending, it's how the heats are populated and we had great competitors running in every class.

It's a beautiful site, on a lake that is in the center of an RV resort. Large trees in the pits provided great shade to where you didn't need an EZ UP. The newly built drivers stand was very nice and we had our own dock to launch from. I really like racing there.

The weather was not really an issue, until Saturday. Well, open water on Tuesday was blown out, but Wednesday, Thursday and Friday AM we had near perfect conditions. The heat started kicking Friday afternoon, then completely throttled us on Saturday. Humidity and bugs, too. We decided to start early and go right through lunch so we could be done early. It worked, we were done by 2:00.

Thanks to Mike Pags for making the trip. Not only did he bring all of his toys from New York, He cryo froze meat, pork and wings and we enjoyed BBQ'ing a few nights with his food! He and I had a few scores to settle from last years Nat's when I took Q Offshore and he took P Mono. Well, we swapped this year and got the planets back in alignment. He took T Offshore (we both ran Q boats) and I took P Mono, but Mr Offshore is mine this year! That will give him something to chew on for the next 12 months.

Congratulations to Jim Osborne for winning both P-Sport and LSH with his Insane 30. Those were his first FE Titles, so he got thrown in the lake @ the banquet. Also, David Newton swept 1/8th scale for his first FE Title, and he went swimming, too. For some reason, a few people thought that Wilmer's 3 title wins were his first, too, and were working on throwing him in. He had to quickly remind them that nobody has been to more FE Nat's than he has (true-I think he's 11 for 11), and he does, in fact, have previous National titles to his name.

The 1/10th Vintage, Modern and 1/8th scale class racing was superb. All 3 classes had racers that weren't afraid of throwing their boats around the course, rubbing decks, making inside passes, etc. Great spectating.

This was Allen Cordy's first race ever, and I think he's hooked. he and his daughter spent all week soaking it all in! He has a very impressive Mr Crabs rigger for P-Ltd, but it did something I've never seen before. He had some minor boom damage/loose screw and right at the finish line on about lap 4, the boat folded up like an origami Pterodactyl.

There were a few heats that stick out for me. First was the nearly perfect deck-to-deck racing Ted and I had in P-Ltd Cat for 18 laps. I caved at the beginning of the 4th round, flipping my (well, his) cat just after the start in turn 1. There was also a P-Ltd Offshore heat where Ted was chasing Pags, and Osborne was chasing me and all 4 of us were within 1/4 lap of each other for the entire race. The order changed a bit when Mike bobbled a turn, but all 4 of us finished on the exact same lap count. You could have heard a pin drop during that 4 minute run! I also had great P Mono heats with Pags, but I just don't have a competitive Q Offshore setup to put the pressure on him (who does, right?). His Q boat turned the highest lap count for any offshore class. I don't have the exact figure right now, but for those that have seen that boat run, you know what I'm talking about.

Formal results will be posted on the NAMBA website, including racer photos and complete racing data from each class. it will take some time configuring the data, but it will be there as time allows.

Thanks to Dave Bestpitch and the rest of the Dist 9 crew for helping put on this event, and thanks to Steven @ OSE for picking up the title sponsorship!

I will formally announce that the 2014 Nat's will be held in Michigan, June 25th-28th. This is exciting as Michigan is THE PREMIER FE race host. More information will be made later by the Michigan crew on another thread.

[Newtonmarine]

This was a great event and I had a blast! It was great to meet new people and see old friends. Thank you to everyone involved, I look forward to the next FE Nationals that I can attend!

[Namba328]

All I have to say is dam does District 9 now how to run a FE nats and even tho we had a small crowd we all still had a lot of fun racing. If Dave could post the full results, im sure people would like to see. Anyways got home and now its time to plan for next year and get things dialed out and ready to win some races. I would love to see the vids for the last heat of PLH.

[namba98]

I will have the rest of the results up later this evening but for now
David Newton won concurs de elegance in 1/8 scale with Nelson Holmberg taking both 1/0th scales Vintage & Modern

[namba688]

The results are also posted on the Namba web page. Not sure if all pics are up yet but they will be.

[D. Newland]

Most data is up on the NAMBA website, but there is some fast time data that needs to be reviewed/corrected.

http://www.namba.com/content/race_results.asp?EventID=84&ClassID=

[T.S.Davis]

I will formally announce that the 2014 Nat's will be held in Michigan, June 25th-28th. This is exciting as Michigan is THE PREMIER FE race host. More information will be made later by the Michigan crew on another thread.

Thanks Dave. Hang on to your butts.

[kacordy]

Where can I see or get a copy of some of the videos that were recording at the Nats?

Thanks, Allen

[madmikepags]

Hey guys, I just wanna thank all the guys in D9 that ran the Nat's, I had a great time and met some great new people and we had some great racing. Dave Newland, Jim O, and Ted McKay are some great racers, I had the pleasure of battling against them for most classes all week. As always at the Nats I learn a lot, but mostly what I come away with is the knowledge that I'm not really as good as I think I am!!!! It was a small race but the competition for each class was extremely solid. If you won a title here you might only have beaten 5,6,7 guys but all of those guys were QUALITY racers. I think the Theme for this Nats was Quality not quantity. When you're a pretty good racer and there are 3-4 guys on the drivers stand in every heat that are capable of kicking your A_ _, thats quality. Hats off to all the competitors and to Dave Newland the new High Points Champ and Mr. Offshore!!! noone has won both since Doug Twaits Jr in Michigan in '09. Thanks for a great show guys!!!!

[namba98]

Hey Mike thanks for coming out it was a pleasure having you there
Mike please email me your address so I can send out your plaque award.
[email protected]

[namba98]

Okay back brace is on and now trying to get back to work...
Besides Allen, Randy and David who else needs shirts I am placing an order for them this week.
David a medium...Randy a triple...Allen ?

[D. Newland]

Received a nice overnight package today. Boy, I take the Mr. Offshore title from him, and then he sends me and my family a weeks worth of beef, wings, lamb, salami and cheeses from his butcher. Still frozen, too.

Pags-You're the best!

Meat.jpgCheese.jpg

[madmikepags]

I figure maybe you wont race me so hard nexy year!!!!!!! Enjoy and Happy Birthday brother!!!!!

[kacordy]

I will take a large and a medium. Thanks. Please PM me and I will pay by paypal. We're going to build out Kristine's woodstuff. We're planning on going to the Winter Warm-ups 2014.

Allen