Planning any boat race is a major undertaking. Planning a Summer National Championship on an Army base makes the amount of planning increase exponentially. In addition to having to prepare and submit a bid to the IRC a year or two in advance, you also have to deal with all the rules and regulations set forth by the Army. Now throw in the fact that after you had your bid accepted, the economy went bad, and you begin to appreciate all the efforts that the Virginia Boat Racing Association put into the 2009 Hampton Cup Regatta.

Throughout the day, on Thursday, race teams rolled into the pits on historic Fort Monroe. Early on, it was evident that the 2.5 stock class would have a good field. By 5 p.m., there were already a dozen boats in the pit area. Chief Inspector, Sid Johnson, and his crew made sure every boat was in good seaworthy condition. Old friendships were renewed, and new friends were made. It was great to see several teams from the west coast, I have read about many of these people in the Propeller or on the internet, but it was nice to be able to put faces with the names. Hopefully, we will have more opportunities to race against, and spend time with, these people in the future.

Friday morning, the pits were unusually quiet. Due to a ceremony where one of the members of our Army was promoted to the rank of General, the base was locked down from 7:30 AM until the completion of the ceremony. Registration was completed and the drivers meeting was held during this time. Owners and drivers handled the delay well, despite the pressure of having to qualify for the Nationals, and not knowing if your engine would start. About 10 seconds after the announcement that engines could be started, about 80% of them fired up. The race committee opened testing to boats by class, each class had 5 minutes to take a lap or two and check out the course and their equipment.

Due to a less than ideal weather forecast, the committee decided to run the classes that required eliminations first, and then try to get as many heats as possible in before the wind and rain arrived. Most classes had good fields, the numbers are as follows 1.5 Litre Stock - 6 boats , 1 Litre - 8 boats, 2.5 Stock - 15 boats, 2.5 Litre Mod - 11 boats, 5 Litre - 10 boats, NM - 5 boats, GNH -1 boat, JS- 10 boats. With lots of room on the Mill Creek course, each class would be able to run the maximum number of boats allowed by the rule book for their final heat.

In the 2.5 Stocks it was clear that there were several very good boats, Kent Henderson’s CS-00, Mike Hofhne’s S-12, Sid Johnson’s S-14, Tina Wilson’s S-20, Doug Martin’s S-33, Scott Meyer’s S-81 , Sam Horner’s S-88 and Alan Bush’s S-711, were all dialed in. Whoever won the battle for starting position, hit the start and got through turn one clean would be hard to pass. Friday’s qualifiers were won by Jeff Bernard driving Hofhne’s S-12 and Jimmy Shane driving Johnson’s S-14.

The 2.5 mod field was the strongest I have seen in several years. Five Spider’s (3 Mashburn & 2 English) were challenged by a Henderson, Pfaff, Kelson, Isaac, Aid, and Staudacher. The winers of the first round of qualifiers were Jim Aid (A-33) and Tom Thompson (Randy English’s A-52.) Hats off to Buster Graham who was able to avoid a collision with Dan Kanfoush after Dan’s A-600 lost the bracket that holds the skid fin in place, lap one, turn one. L.E. Outlaw, driving Clarence Pfaff’s A-19 punched a hole in the bellypan causing the “A-Team” to withdraw from further competition. A-37 “Sonic Speed” owned by Bill McGowan and driven by Paul Brockson, received some damage to the hull and was finished for the weekend.

By the time the 5 Litre’s ran, the wind was starting to build and the front stretch was getting rough. The winner of the first heat was Scott Liddycoat in Ralph Cataneo’s E-50 with a time of 3:32.26. Mark Burghardt’s E-726, “X-ray”, the Eastern Divisionals Champion was plagued by engine gremlins he prevented him from performing to his usual high standard. L. E. Outlaw’s E-310 “Miss Outlaw” tore the bottom of the back of the boat during the heat spreading oodles of noodles around the race course, causing the team to withdraw for the weekend. L. E. has the dubious honor of sinking boats in consecutive heats. The second heat was won by Jeff Bernard in E-55 with a time of 3:36.75.

With the damage to L.E. Outlaw’s boat, the National Mods were down to four boats, but what a show. It ended up looking like 2 separate deck to deck battles with Jeff Bernard in Mack Elliott’s NM-33 and Chuck Miller in Bobby Murray’s NM-200 up front and Steve Short (NM-17) and Amy Brockson (NM-370) having their own battle a few seconds behind them. NM-33 “Mack Attack” took first with Murray’s NM-200 3 seconds behind him. This was the first time Chuck Miller had driven the NM-200 in competition, and the first time in four years that Murray’s “Lauterbach Special” had been on a race course.

The skiffs were up next and, as usual, put on a great show for the crowd. Darby’s JS-13 grabbed the lead coming out of turn one and held on for first place, with Rob Garratano’s JS-62 less than 1 second back. Trevor Kirsh’s JS-100 with Jimmie Stewart had engine problems and pulled to the infield, as did Eastern Divisional Champion Tom Pakradooni’s JS 7.

At this point the storm front came through and racing was called for the day. Several people were excited to show their pictures of the funnel cloud that appeared on the horizon. The pits that were muddy to begin with, got even worse. Race teams were very creative in finding alternate routes to get their boats back to their spot in the pits.

Saturday’s weather was better, but again there was a prediction for strong winds late in the day. The 1.5’s and 1 Litres would run their qualifiers first and then Saturday schedule would begin.
In the first attempt at the 1.5 Stock heat, Jason Browning blew over in his T-999. Jason was able to get out of the boat unassisted and was not injured. In the restart Brandon Kennedy’s T-1 opened a 14 second lead over Kasey Browning and the rest of the field. Jimmy McMullen had engine problems in Wayne Hagatha’s T-5, and failed to make the start.

The 1 Litre hydros had several boats to challenge the favorite, Jim Sechlar’s Y-1, driven by Dan Kanfoush. In the first qualifier, Joe Sovie (Y-44) drove his Accelerant to a first place finish, with Sean Bowsher in second. Kanfoush brought the Y-1 home third. Andre Rossuea’s Y-3 had a small fire in the engine compartment during the heat, Andre spent the heat bailing water into the boat to extinguish the fire, the damage was minor and he was able to compete later in the weekend.

The 2.5 Stock second qualifier saw Bobby Kennedy drive the S-88 to a first in his heat and Jimmie Shane drive the S-14 to a first in his heat with nearly identical times. Mike Hofhne and Kenny Walton (S-999) decided to leave their boats on the trailer, as they believed that their time from the first round of qualifications would be good enough to get a spot in the final. After having a DNF on Friday, Scott Meyer’s S-81 “Meyers Auto Tech” with Jesse Robertson driving ran a strong second in his qualifying heat, as did Kent Henderson in his CS-00, “Bank On It”.

Several 2.5 mod teams decided to save their equipment for the final, however Randy English’s A-52 “Fat Chance” driven by Tom Thompson still blistered the course, followed by Debbie Welte’s A-23 “Geezer Boat” driven by Mike Monahan and Don Mashburn’s A-60,Mr. Bud, driven by Nicky Pellerin. The A-600, Mr. Bud Too, driven by Dan Kanfoush broke another skid fin support bracket and returned to the pits before the start of the heat.

Like the 2.5 mods, several 5 litre teams decided to stay on the trailer and not risk missing the final. 5 Boats took to the course and four of the jumped the gun. This gave Nicky Pellerin an easy first place finish in Terry LaBlanc’s E-61.

The second skiff qualifier had JS-7 first on the course, but a gun jumping infraction gave the win to Darby’s Rapture JS-13 once again, followed by JS-100 and Burturla’s JS-1. The 1.5 stocks had Brandon Kennedy 1, followed by T-5 “Trophy Hunter” driven by Jim McMullen and T-24 , owned by Jim Dixon and driven by Kenny Walton. The 1 Litre’s had Scott Liddycoat’s Y-97 “Team Extreme” 1st, followed by Y-1 (Sechler/Kanfoush) and Y-80 (Bob Wilson/ Keith McMullen.)

The finals for the Summer Nationals could now begin. In 1.5 Litre Stocks, pre-race favorite Brandon Kennedy in his “Shameless Say What?” had a strong challenge from Kasey Browning’s T-15 “Hot Stuff” Kasey ran her fastest time of the weekend (4:39.67) to win the title by 1.5 seconds. Brandon finished second, Jim McMullen T-5 took third followed by Jim Dixon’s T-24 and Fred Benzinger’s T-18 “Legacy”.

12 2.5 stocks answered the gun for the final heat. The battle for lane selection was a chess game played by 12 players. Drivers were trolling early trying to grab lane one, some were to early and had to go around, other to late, and the desired lane was gone. Jeff Bernard showing why he is one of our top drivers, grabbed the inside lane in the “Liquid Lizard” (S-12) , nailed the start and was in front for good. Jimmy Shane (S-14)lead the pursuit. The order of finish on the course was Bernard, Shane , Kennedy (S-88) , Martin (S-33 Keen’s Sunday Money) Walton (S-999 Capitol One). However, the S-12 and S-14 did not pass tech inspection. The final order of finish is 1- Sam Horner (S-88) “Playin Again”, 2- Doug Martin (S-33), 3- Ken Walton (S-999), 4-. Alan Bush (S-711, “One More Time”), 5- Gene DeFalco/ Howie Schnabolk (S-173, “On the Edge”), 6- Tina Wilson/Scott Liddycoat (S-20, “Hot Flash), 7- Valerie Wilson/ Richard Sechman (S-54 Pink Panther). The S-12 and S-14 teams both showed that they are class acts, both on and off the water, it is not easy to be gracious when you come so close to a championship, only to have it taken away because someone made a simple mistake, but they were.

6 2’5 Mod’s it the start with Tom Thompson taking the lead in Randy English’s A-52 Fat Chance, followed by 2- Jim Aid (A-33, In Cahoots Again) ,3- Mike Monahan in Debbie Welte’s A-23 Geezerboat, 4- Chuck Miller (A-54, Whoopee) and 5- Nicky Pellerin in Don Masburn’s A-60, Mr. Bud. English’s Fat Chance did not skip a beat as it powered it’s way to the championship. The top four boats finished within a 20 second span, making this great heat to watch.

The National Mods looked to be a two boat show with NM-33 being a slight favorite with the crowd. Chuck Miller (NM-200) nailed the start and had a slight lead going into turn 1, Jeff Bernard (NM-33) was charging up the inside about 2 boat lengths back, as he rounded the entrance pin to the turn, Jeff hit some rough water and the boat stood on it’s tail, by the time Jeff had the boat settled, Miller was gone. Bernard was able to close the gap a little, but with Miller controlling the course, Bernard could not get around him. Miller held on to win by 4 seconds. As in the previous heat Steve Short and Amy Brockson were running deck to deck for the third spot, Short was able to open some distance on lap 4 to take third over all.

Nine Jersey Skiffs answered the gun for the final. JS-7 “Rolling Thunder” grabbed the early lead, but had to pull to the infield when a water line came off. Darby (JS-13, Darby’s Rapture) grabbed the lead and never looked back. Jimmie Stewart and Peg Ewancio in Trevor Kirsh’s JS-100 Summer Storm finished 2nd and Rob Garratano took third in JS-62 “Smoke on the Water.”

Once again the wind kicked up and racing was postponed until Sunday.

The 1 Litre’s had a great race with Sechler/Kanfoush taking first in Y-1 “Fast Eddy Too” by 2 seconds over Scott Liddycoat’s Y-97 “Team Extreme”. Sean Bowsher’s Y-52 “Roostertails Racing” was 2 seconds behind Scott despite trying to blow the boat over on several occasions and Keith McMullen was 1.5 seconds behind Sean in Bob Wilson’s Y 80 “Outlaw”. The top four 1 Litres ran times that were faster than half the 5 Litre and National Mod fields.

During the 5 Litre heat I was driving the rescue boat near turn one. As the pack headed for the starting line, Ken Smith said “point the boat toward the third pin, that is where it is going to be.” Sure enough, as they came through the turn, the lanes got smaller and smaller until Gordy Oakley’s E-990 had no room, rode up a couple of tails and went over. Fortunately, Gordy was not injured, and was able to ride in the JS-13 later in the day. On the restart, Jeff Bernard in his E-55, “My Way” took the lead in turn lane two and was never headed. Jim Martin (E-43, Keen’s Machine) finished second with Tom Thompson in Don Thompson’s E-816 “Batt Racing” finished third. as is often the case with the competitive five litre class there was some controversy regarding possible lane changes. Referee Don Melillo directed that all boats be sealed, and stated that instead of holding up the race for a very long time, he and assistant referee Jerry Glass would talk to the turn judges at the end of the day. After a lengthly conversation, it was determined that there was no driving infraction and the E-55 owned and driven by Jeff Bernard, was the champion. Don took time to get as much information as he could before making a final decision.

One of the highlights of the Hampton Cup Regatta is the annual soft ball game between the Flat Bottoms (skiffers) and the Hydros. Jim Robinson organizes the game each year and many of our friends are eager to display their lack of talent in this area. The Keystone Cops have nothing on us. The game started off with a broken windshield during the warmup. They hydro team was loaded with J Stock drivers and the Skiffers were just loaded. George Kennedy, Sr. was the umpire with his own special way of calling balls. (Detective Frank Drebin of the Naked Gun movies could learn a little from George). Several batters found the “resident roller” between the starting line (home plate) and turn one (first base.) Others developed a strong thirst from running the bases as they had to stop at second to take a sip of a nice cold beverage. Still others were attacked by the turn monster as they rounded the bases. It took several innings to have all 23 people in the lineup get a turn at bat. The crowd was outstanding, the heckling non stop, and very creative. A good time was had by all.

Submitted by Dave Shaw

Note: Sundays separated day of racing recap to follow soon.