Walled Lake Thunder 2010

Walled Lake, Michigan

June 12-13, 2010

J and Fae Report

 

Turn the key, and away we go for the 2010 Region 6 racing season. Action began at picturesque Walled Lake with a fine backyard regatta. Race Director, Todd McQuade does a fine job with limited pit space, thanks to the support of city officials. They close down the streets and build a race situation that works. Of course, John Semma, the Godfather of this race, provides his restaurant parking lot and strong support to make this race happen. You could call it the Bayside Sports Bar and Grille regatta and be pretty accurate. After three years we can hopefully count on this being a regular stop for years to come.

 

Here are the J and Fae boat totals: (T-4) (Y-6) (S-9) (A-8) (E-7) (NM-0) (GNH-5) Total-39.

 

T boats featured two bombs going at it. Steve Armstrong (CT-11) Total Chaos and Brandon Kennedy (T-1) Shameless Say What were side by side most of the time. That's the fastest Canadian versus the fastest American in an International battle royal. Steve took overall first with Brandon second and Janet Hoosick (T-27) Chaotic Dream a solid third. Look out next week as Steve and Brandon battle in a bigger field at Syracuse.

 

Y boats saw two perennial National high points leaders hookup. Dan Kanfoush (Y-1) Fast Eddie 2 is ridiculous but Sean Bowsher (Y-52) Roostertails Racing is absolutely a blur as well. What a show! Dan (Y-1) prevailed but lookout as Sean (Y-52) led a couple of laps. Becky Wilson (Y-131) Circus Circus took third going about 25 mph faster than last year. Hold on Becky!

 

E boats presented a strong field. Jim Martin (E-43) Keen's Machine and Todd Liddycoat (E-97) Team Extreme battled it out with Jim looking a little quicker. Tom English' (E-75) Fat Chance looked stout as well. Jim (E-43) blew his engine Sunday so Todd (E-97), showing speed and consistency, took the overall title. Tom's (E-75) and Colby Dentman (E-37) Hire Voltage completed the podium.

 

GNH boats are a Region Six strength. It is possible to muster as many as 8-10 boats if everyone attends. Having said that, five boats is an outstanding field by today's standards. Jimmy Deel's iconic (GNH-8) Deel Me In is always a headliner. Steve Kuhr Jr. jumped in to take on his dad, Steve Kuhr (GNH-317) Irishmen in a friendly war this weekend. Ah, sorry dad, Jr. prevailed in the ultimate GNH Warrior. Cadi Reiss (GNH-515) One Way took third in impressive fashion. Oh by the way, the travelin man, Dave Archiable jumped in and drove the (GNH-33) Tennessean. That's no Y boat Dave!

 

S boats had a strong, deep field. Keith Anderson (S-17) Bad Habit is a Region 6 monster. He was ready to take on eight challengers including Mike Monahan (S-9) Rewinder, Kent Henderson (CS-00) Bank On It and Doug Martin (S-33) Keen's Sunday Money. These four boats ran out front trading off positions. Not many boats in North America can take down this quartet. When the rootertails settled Keith (S-17), Kent (CS-00) and Doug (S-33) took overall honors. The racing was manic.

 

A boats had lots of speed and quality vessels. Tom Thompson (A-52) Fat Chance and Dan Kanfoush (A-600) Old Crow ran some extremely strong heats. Dan (A-600) spent some time in front of Tom (A-52), an unheard of feat in 2009. Brandon Kennedy stepped into the (A-7) Southern Magic and I think Glenn Koutny found himself a driver! Tony and Shannon Black chauffeured John Shewbrooks' (A-3) Sho Nuff to some consistent runs. Other top notch hulls suffered some gremlins like the mods always do. Officials sorted out the infractions and lo and behold, Brandon (A-7), Tony/Shannon (A-3) and Dan (A-600) took honors. It was confusing but it sure was fun!

 

Thanks to Eli Whitney for helping us with the standings as many times what we saw was not real. Overall, the Walled Lake Regatta was a fine show on smooth water. Head Ref Don Melilo had the boats pass the start/finish line at 1:15 which cut down the trolling. Also, this race course is plenty wide which led to some great side by side battles. All in all this race was very good and a good bet for everyone's schedule in 2011. See ya at Syracuse, J and

Fae