IMPBA Oval Record Trials April 15-17, Franklin, VA

[HOTWATER]

They issued a tornado warning for Franklin and when I saw the flag next door to the hotel go from be being stretched out full to dropping to nothing in about 2 seconds I knew things were serious. Steve Sutton and I went out onto the balcony to listen for that "freight train" sound and watched the tornado cell pass directly over the hotel, the circular rotation was something I'll not forget. Got a call from Kentley a little while later to find that it did in fact touch down just up the road in Carrsville where he lives. All I can say is wow.......

Man, you guys got to see right up Dorothy's dress...LOL!

Well, i'm glad you guys are all ok....pretty scary stuff out that way today!

-Kent

[Chilli]

Well it was an interesting weekend. It went from boaring watching the wind blow on Saturday to scary on Saturday evening when the T-storms blew by. Sunday started breezy but the winds got better after lunch and allot of records fell. I'll let Doug cypher through all the paperwork and post all the records when he recieves them. Here is my quick recap.

Don Ferrette came ready to play and took a bunch of records in the S and T class. I must say, when the man does something, he goes all out. D12 tunnel guru Dick Loeb did a great job in the breezy conditions and significantly upped a few records with with the ML tunnel boats. Dennis Hayden "D&D" fought the chop all morning and he couldnt stay all day to wait for the winds to die down. But after seveal attempts he smashed the very old P-Tunnel record by almost eight seconds. Great job Dennis!!! Ben "Meniscus" busted his butt fighting technical issues and the chop all day. He briefly held the 1/4 mile P-Hydro record. I was very impressed by Bens driving. He did a great job running the buoys for the first time. I look foward to seeing him take some records in the fall.

Due to the crappy weather this spring, my son and I hadn't run a boat since last fall. And to make matters worst, all three of our ovals boats never touched the water till Sunday. My son went for the P-Sport Hydro record with his Insane FE 30. With a few set up tips from Tony the boat ran awesome fromt the first time it hit the water. It rocketed down the straigts, was rock solid in the chop and turned well. Wth the Egneg "Chuck Genge" prepared prop she was fast and had no hop in the rear. John took the turns very wide on the first few runs and was way off the mark. But he improved on every run. On the last attempt of the day he got within a second of the record and fell a bit short. With a seasons worth of heat racing over the next few months, I'm sure he and the boat can take the record this fall. John did take the 1/4 mile P-Sport record which was open so we got him into the books.

As for me, things started out bad with my Seaducer. I know they are picky on set up so I did a few runs to try to get her close. On the second run I stuffed her in the chop and seven inches of the top deck at the bow peeled back and broke off. Thank God for flotation!!!!! My new boat is trashed. Everyone assures me Jerry will make thing right so I'll send her south to hopefully get a new deck. The JAE also ran great for it's first day. I'm still getting used to driving her so Kentley Porter asked if I wanted to team up with him. I said hell yes! I wanted to see what the boat can do. KP turned a 21.4 taking two seconds off the P-hydro record set a few weeks ago. The boat still needs some more tuning and prop testing but I know we can get more out of her. I also took the 1/4 Mile P-Hydro record myself which was open. So personally the weekend for us wasnt the best, but the knowledge I gained and the friends I made were priceless!!!! Cant wait till the fall.

[Doug Smock]

Results

Congratulations Fellas!!!!!!!!!!
We have a few first timers in this bunch. Well done guys!
Kentley Porter 1/3 mile A Hydro 19.596 sec
Kentley Porter 1/4 mile A Hydro 19.719 sec
Aaron Alberico 1/4 mile D Hydro 15.982 sec

Jim Skelton 1/3 mile Thunder boat 29.858 sec
Jim Skelton 1/4 mile Thunder boat 26.057 sec

Michael Chirillo 1/4 mile P Hydro 22.431 sec
Porter/Chirillo 1/3 mile P Hydro 21.423 sec
Don Ferrette 1/4 mile S Hydro 20.909 sec
Don Ferrette 1/3 mile S Hydro 23.480 sec
Don Ferrette 1/4 mile T Hydro 20.940 sec
Don Ferrette 1/3 mile T Hydro 21.351 sec

John Chirillo 1/4 mile P Sport Hydro 27.417 sec
Don Ferrette 1/3 mile S Sport Hydro 27.382 sec
Don Ferrette 1/4 mile S Sport Hydro 26.884 sec
Dennis Hayden 1/3 mile P Tunnel 32.557 sec
Dick Loeb 1/3 mile P O/B Tunnel 33.382 sec
Dick Loeb 1/4 mile P O/B Tunnel 30.589 sec
Don Ferrette 1/4 mile 1/8 Scale 26.542 sec
Don Ferrette 1/3 mile 1/8 Scale 25.918 sec

Doug

[egneg]

Congratulations Guys !!!

[Meniscus]

Congratulations all!

Mike, I'm glad you let me talk you into breaking my record Just a shame we didn't have the opportunity to trade it back and forth some more

[HOTWATER]

Great job guys!!! Man...what a crazy weekend!!! Mike, I hope you get your Ducer back together for P-Mono...it would be a sad thing to not see you running in that class...

[don ferrette]

Man I'm STILL tired! I lost not one but two 1527 NEU's, one locked up and on the other one 2 of the 3 motor leads fell out of the end bell on the first run! (this was the "new can" version I posted about the other week and run for the very first time, needless to say I'm not happy about that). I wound up using my last (and oldest) 1527 1Y and one ESC switching boat to boat to boat all on Sunday, when I wasn't running I was thrashing on boats. Glad I did well but that was toooooo much workin' and no sittin'!!!