Polson review
- Victorious!
Friday night:
The
boat is in the pits, had a bit of work to do after Chamberlain. The Red Dart
was freshly rebuilt before River City Racin’ so
we had to pull the engine, drain the oil and check the filter. Seemed pretty
straight forward – except I was on top of
Never fear…. But beware
trolls under a bridge
Saturday night:
Something
still isn’t right. We finished the final at Chamberlain with about 90% of
the power we should have had. Began the day with the same setup but were even
further down on power. Fortunately an afternoon test session opened and we were
able to make some changes and get out on the water to test. This combination
feels much better.
Sunday:
What a
difference a day can make. Heat 2 was great – we ran deck to deck with
Greg Hopp until I hit a buoy in turn two at the end
of the third lap. Backed off and took second place – but we knew the
combination was right. This still left a fair bit of work to do. The course at
Polson is long and narrow, only four boats could run on
the front line. That meant the winner of the BMain was
on the front line and the second and third place finishers would be trailers. Everyone
knew the stakes. After a decent but not great start we were able to get by the
UL-8 in turn one and then pulled away through the rest of the heat. A second
consecutive BMain win gave us a legitimate shot and
we took it! Made my best start of the season and held the lead through the
first turn. Paul Becker in the UL-14 kept Greg Hopp
outside in the UL-15 and that gave us breathing room on the back straight. By
the end of the first lap it was our race to win. When the UL-40 died in turn
two and we were able to push Greg outside going into the final lap it was all
over.
Sunday night:
Megan,
Bryn and I are back “home” relaxing at our cabin on
Fantastic work by the crew. My great
thanks to Dean, Jim, Chris, Dwain, Kathy and Donna for their perseverance and hard
work. This is the first race win by Celtic Racing and is a testament to
the time, energy and effort they put forth throughout the pre-season and each
week to prepare a boat capable of winning on the water each weekend.
