Waterford, Michigan-Quake on the Lake

July 17-18, 2010

J and Fae Report

Region six was up and running this weekend as the hydros rolled into Waterford, Michigan. Steer around the orange cones on 59 west and you find a gem of a race course here on Pontiac Lake. The Oakland County Community Club, the Marine Prop Riders and many volunteers come together every year to put on a fine event. The water was raceable on Saturday and very good on Sunday. The field was a little off in numbers this year but top notch equipment put on a good show anyway. Once again the Rainbow Connection was involved and this puts a warm feeling into the event as we all love to see the kids have a wish come true. So let's get to the action.

Here are the J and Fae boat totals: (T-1) (Y-7) (S-11) (A-7) (E-7) (NM-0) (GNH-5) Total-38  In addition there was a tremendous field of Vintage hydros and they put on a great show.

GNH boats featured Jim Deel's (GNH-8) Deel Me In as the favorite. Steve Kuhr Jr., rehired by Donald Trump er Jim Deel, is a strong shoe and he proved it by dominating the event. Saturday's final on Sunday saw Steve (GNH-8) hold off Patrick Sankuer (GNH-6) Showtime Racing and John Grigg in the one and only (GNH-52) Wannabe. Sunday Steve (GNH-8) defeated Patrick (GNH-6) as everybody else broke. The groundpounders, thanks Bob Blazer, put on a good show.

T boats were lonely so Alexis Weber (T-10) Flirtin With Disaster prepped for Cambridge by running with the Y's. It will be more crowded next week with 10-15 T's at the Nationals.

A boats had a high quality field with lots of speed generated by their exotic engines. 2009 saw Tom Thompson (A-52) Fat Chance dominate this class. This year Tom (A-52) is still running some blinding speeds but Dan Kanfoush (A-600) Old Crow has absolutely blasted off. Dan (A-600) seems to hit every start at top speed and more times than not he prevails. This weekend the Old Crow was unbeatable. Everybody else was running for second. Tom (A-52) took one  second with Mike Monahan (A-23) Geezerboat coming to life for a strong second Sunday. Tony Black (A-3) Sho-Nuff and Buster Graham (A-66) Mr. Bud 3 took thirds. The announcers loved to scream Buster Graham's name. What was that all about? Dan and Tom deserve the screams this year and the anticipation of their battle at Cambridge is extreme.

Y boats seemed strange with Sean Bowsher's boat sitting in the pits even though Sean was home resting his back. Get well soon Sean! Three top dawgs were ready to rumble. Keith McMullen (Y-80) Outlaw, Joe Sovie (Y-44) Accelerant and Dan Kanfoush (Y-1) Fast Eddie2 are always tough. Now, can we say gremlins? After two boats finished the qualifier, Rookie Jeff Maurer (Y-16) Liquid Fun ran one lap and was declared the winner in the final. Sunday saw things back to normal as Dan (Y-1), Joe (Y-44) and Keith (Y-80) took honors.

E boats had a small but quality field. Todd Liddycoat (E-97) Team Extreme, Jim Martin (E-43) Keen's Machine and Tom Thompson (E-75) Fat Chance can run with anybody in North America. Todd (E-97) likes the inside and when he got there in Saturday's final it was game over. Jim (E-43) and Tom (E-75) followed him home. After some late night repair work Jim (E-43) looked supersonic in holding off Tom (E-75) and Joe Sovie (E-61) Crazy Cajun on Sunday.

S boats presented a very strong 11 boat field. Keith Anderson (S-17) Bad Habit led a good region six contingent trying to hold off National powers Mike Monahan (S-9) Rewinder, Alan Bush (S-711) One More Time, Kent Henderson (CS-00) Bank On It and Doug Martin (S-33) Keen's Sunday Money. Several boats jumped the gun in the Saturday final which scrambled the field. Mike Monahan (S-9) came on time in lane one and poured it on for a wild victory over Kent Henderson (CS-00) and Steve Bering (S-57) Fang Racing. The Fang is starting to run like it used to when Cadi Reiss drove it and that is a good thing. Sunday saw Mike nail the start and rush to the win over Kent (CS-00) and Keith (S-17). Mike and Mark Johnson do an excellent job in Greg Barker's cool hull.

Well, that's the way we saw it. We are relying on the announcers and Dave Archiable's cool Champion interviews for accuracy. We enjoyed some solid racing on a superb track this weekend. Backyard regattas are off in numbers this year. However, things are like those old New Martinsville, West Virginia races that held traps on Saturday and racing on Sunday. There are not a massive amount of boats but there are lots of speedy ones. The show turns out pretty good. We want to stress that these race sites always put on a maximum effort to have a great event. Waterford's Committee is outstanding. Having said that, if ya got a boat and a decent job, please support your own region's races or we will be like the Unlimiteds this year. See ya at Cambridge. J and Fae