2014 AZ WW X February 21st-23rd

[rayzerdesigns]

had such a great weekend..results weren't what I wanted..but the heats I finished went really well..thanks to everyone I met..to many to mention..but the Milwaukee guys..Detroit guys..and of course mr pags..lol..had a blast guys..plans are in the works now to make nats

[T.S.Davis]

I keep saying this but surely there is a law against having this much fun.

[PatrickM]

Here's the results from WW10:

P Offshore
1. Ted McKay
2. Doug Peterson
3. Dave Newland

P Ltd Mono
1. Dave Newland
2. Sean Kewley
3. Doug Peterson

P Sport Hydro
1. Sean Kewley
2. Jim Osborne
3. Fred Siewert

P Ltd Hydro
1. Dave Newland
2. Mike Paganelli
3. Jim Osborne

1/10 Scale Modern Hydro
1. Gary Rose
2. Dick Roberts
3. Ted McKay

P Ltd Offshore
1. Dave Newland
2. Ted McKay
3. Sean Kewley

P Ltd Catamaran
1. Jim Osborne
2. Doug Peterson
3. Tom Castellani

P Ltd OPC
1. Dave Newland
2. Doug Peterson
3. Pete Wijatyk

P Ltd Sport Hydro
1. Sean Kewley
2. Dave Newland
3. Jim Osborne

P Mono
1. Dave Newland
2. Mike Paganelli
3. Doug Peterson

1/10 Scale Vintage Hydro
1. Leonard Feeback
2. Don Ast
3. Gary Rose


High Points Champion: Dave Newland

1/10 Scale Concourse: Ted McKay

Racers Concourse: Adriane Gambino

Rat Rod Concourse: Bruce Lewis

Mr. Consistency: Pete Wijatyk

Mr. Salvage: Bruce Lewis

EPA Award: Terry Davis

[Flyguy55]

Great time
Weather was about perfect. Cool mornings , 50s , warm afternoons , 70s . Wind was never a factor . lots of sunshine !
Looking forward to next year !

[brooks93]

It was good to meet a lot of you and to catch up with some of the old timers. Hopefully next year I can call more of the race then one day and put a boat or 2 on the water.

Kelly

[D. Newland]

Another one in the books. I haven’t done an official boat count of previous years, but I think this was our biggest event. And, we were missing regulars Howard Tucker, Dan Proulx, Tony Heller, and even Quiet Lee Simonson.

The weather was perfect. Absolutely perfect. And the racing? Damn perfect, too. I can count the number of “mishaps” on 1 hand. Actually only need a few fingers. What a great group of fast and consistent racers!

It’s always great to see new talent enter the hobby and immediately add to the competition, as well as fit right into the mix. Racing hard when they’re on the stand, and helping out retrieve and pit when not. Adrien “Penske” Gambino, from France, is here on a work Visa and is an FE boater in his homeland. He has a P mono that finished all 6 heats (only racer out of 12 to do it) for an overall 4th place and a very nicely build P-ltd Cat, complete with video mounts, in his fleet. And, Ray Presnall has joined us from the car racing scene with a very impressive and tuned Geico cat. He pulled off some very impressive heat wins, and provided some very good pitman assistance throughout the event.

Having the Michigan group here for this event was a treat. I mean, these guys are busy getting the ’14 Nat’s organized, but they took the time to venture out here to race with us. Thanks to Terry Davis, Fred Seiwert and Tom Castellani.

And, Mike Pags gets his own paragraph. What a commitment this guy has been making to our hobby the past few years. He was to come out last year, but a Kid Rock concert in New Orleans got in the way. Fortunately, there was no tour getting in his way for ’14! Though he and I have great racing in any class, P Mono is where we’ve had the strongest rivalry the past few years. This year didn’t disappoint, either.

Doug Peterson was the longest tenured traveler this year, and he again brought along Sean Kewley, who just can’t be stopped with his P and P-Ltd Sport Hydro. Doug built a beautiful 32” German Cat (forget the make), but I found it rather interesting that he skimped out getting a water cooling jacket for the motor. It’s not like Doug to penny pinch like that. I would have given him one.

Leonard Feeback and Don Ast came out to clean everyone’s clock in 1/10th Scale Vintage. Leonard needed 5 heat wins and a 2nd place to take the win to Don’s 4 heat wins and 2 2nd place finishes.

A few observations while scanning over the final heat sheets. P-Ltd Cat, by far, had the highest boat count of our event. 15 entries. Alan Grossman was the only driver to get 6 finishes. Tom Castellani was on his way, but the 6th round got him a DQ for cutting off a driver. In fact, he showed up at our event was a newly scratch built cat that was giving him fits during open water. However, he got it tuned and had a heat win and 4 2nd place finishes for a 3rd place overall. The winning boat was Jim Osborne’s Geico cat with some nicely tuned modifications.

I found some interesting stats for P Offshore and P-Ltd Offshore. Keep in mind we only ran 3 rounds of P Offshore on Friday, and we ran 6 rounds total for P-Ltd Offshore over Sat/Sun. The highest lap count for a single heat of P Offshore was 13 ¼. For P-Ltd Offshore? 13 flat. The average lap count for P Offshore was 8.32. For P-Ltd Offshore? 10.55. For P Offshore, only 1 racer, out of 7, finished all 3 heats. For P-Ltd Offshore, out of 11 racers, 5 finished all 6 rounds.

A special thank you to Kelly Brooks for helping fill in for Lenny Blake this year as CD on Sunday. Kelly was neck-deep in this hobby just a few short years ago and I hope the bug comes back. Also, thank you to Richard Romero from Tucson for helping CD Friday and Saturday.

Thanks to our sponsors, and thanks to the racers that made this event happen! We hope to see you again next year.

[rayzerdesigns]

i did have a blast...and am now fully commited to going to nats..just got get a couple of boats going..really after racing cars competively for last 25 years..this boat racing is so much fun..very laid back..everyone seems to help..and as for mike..well yes he deserves his paragraph..lol..the work he did on my prop to get it back to any shape to race the final round..i thik it was actually faster as i won last round..had a blast pitting for everyone..see whoever is going to nats soon..

[G.Rose]

Great time, Great guys, Great food, Great drinks, Great course, great weather......who can ask for anything more

Great job Dave

[T.S.Davis]

Although my results were......poor, I learned a lot about my boats that I can use to make them better for our local series and for the nats. That's kind of the point of the Winter Warm Ups I think. For warming up. Dave mentioned that on day one. Fresh boats with no run time racing against guys that have been running all winter is tough.

I still don't understand all the electronic failures. 3 baked motors on existing combos. Taking an irreplaceable Hydra120 speedo with them. ugh. I checked with the cheese heads and they said they didn't have to prop down for AZ. Hopefully it was just the difference in water density from AZ to MI. PAGS told me to slow my P mono down 17 mph and then it will be competitive. The new Stealth cat needs a bunch more work. Tom's new cat is really close though.

All in all I had a fantastic time. It was great to see old friends and make some new ones. After hours as usual was heaps of fun. I figured out that my back was sore from laughing so much. Hope Jim's wife doesn't think less of us now that she's had more exposure.

[Darin Jordan]

Sounds like a great time, guys. I need to put this on my list for next season. We'll have to see what I can work out.

Cats, Cats, Cats... Sounds like it was a really good thing for NAMBA that the exhibition Cat heat racing classes were added to the 2012 Nationals. Seemed a no-brainer at the time. Looks like that's proving out. Nicely done!

[T.S.Davis]

Mean machines were the kitties to beat in AZ. Those guys have the MM figured out. Gave me some great ideas.

[madmikepags]

All I can say is WOW!!!! what a great event, Dave, you and your guys really did a fantastic job, the organization, the CD'ing the raffles, the lunches, everything was well thought out. The racing was extremely competitive, when you have a field of guys like Dave, Ted, Jim, Doug, Sean, Fred Terry, Tom, etc you have got decades of FE racing experience on the stand in any given heat!!! I personally did not do too well but I know the boats I have are compettitive and a bad motor and a bad prop choice cost me in a couple of classes and a bad driving move cost me in another. I was very impressed with all the driving, lots of guys just laying down solid heats.
I was especially impresssed with Sean, hes been around for a while and is great compettitor but his boats and his driving were just really spot on this weekend. Also Newbie Ray...not really a newbie, he is quite an accomplished car racer who has been bitten by the FE bug, his boat was fast and handled great and looked awesome. He just had a couple of little mishaps that cost him a podium spot.
Dave, you were a gentleman and on fire racing this weekend, we did have a few really good heats, but he clearly outclasses me on the drivers stand, proving it by passing me on the outside in turn 3 in the last P-mono heat!!!! Great job Dave I had a lot of fun in that heat!!!
The CD's were great, Rich was fantastic and it was great to see Kelly Brooks back out at the pond!!! I met him 6 years ago at the Mi cup race and he taught me a lot in those 3 days, we/ve kept in touch but I havent seen him since then, I look forward to him getting back into racing.
the crew of guys to hang out with was amazing, my boys from Mi, Doug and Sean, Ray, Dave, Ted Jim and Tracy Osborne and the list goes on. We went out each night and had a blast, dinners were good but the company was even better, lots of jokes, stories ball breaking and one of the most fun races I've ever been to. Thanks to all who attended and all who organized and helped. This will be on my calendar each year to attend. I think Terry said it best, "If they knew how much fun we have at these races they might make it illegal"

[T.S.Davis]

......um......did I really lay down in the driveway of the hotel? I did didn't I?

[madmikepags]

OH yes you did!!!!!!

[T.S.Davis]

This is what we saw when we left the parking deck in Detroit. It must have rained a lot while we were gone. Getting small. At least the temps were good and low for us when we deplaned.

That thing is at least 30 ft high.