World OB Tunnel Championships Race Report

[Richie R]

WOW what a great weekend of racing. I think there should be another tunnel race at the end of the season maybe closer to Wisconsin. Would like to thank the CMB club for putting on a great race and all there hard work on making everything. I did not get a chance to talk to all of you but we will be back next year. The food was great too, the weather was good for part of saturday but that is racing. Would also like to thank Mike Z. Dunny and Russ for letting me pit with them and also being my pit people. Thanks again. Would like to say thanks to Mark Hopper for one heck of a race in the 3rd heat of D tunnel my heart is still pounding. Would have to say that tunnel racers are a great group racers. It was cool to meet everyone that you only here about on the net. We got home at 10:30pm Monday nite had Really bad weather for about 100 miles to drive in but we made it. Hope everyone else had a safe trip home too.

Here is what we drove in on the way home.

Richie R

 

[John Knight]

Hey Guys:
Is this the CMB race site?

<a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&...&iwloc=addr" target="_blank">http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&...&iwloc=addr</a>

It is indeed the club lake, the large one that is shaped like a utility knife blade. The race site faces the east and the pit area is on the west (long) side of the lake. The surface of the lake is set almost 10' below the ground level. The winds (about 10 mph) all week were from the west and the water was smooth. Then the front came in Sat about 1 pm and the winds shifted to the ENE with about 20-30 mph and the temps dropped about 20 degrees. Sundays temps were not any warmer but the winds shifted to the north and due to the heavy trees around the lake, it smoothed out a lot.

Regarding the spectator areas, we set up 2 large areas, one right of the pits and one left of the driver's stand just for the spectators. A safety fence was installed for their protection and a sand pile was put in one end for the kids to have fun and give Mon & Dad a chance to watch the races. We had a lot of spectators that came and some will become club members. From Dec until now, we have had 12 members join the club, and many were instrumental to the success of the race. The entire cooking crew, the Corbin family, all joined in Dec. It was a great team effort and a huge amount of planning went into the race.

The next CMB race will be the Fall National Championships Oct 11th & 12th. All classes, tunnels, gas, nitro monos & hydros, Scales and Sport 40's, will be featured. Put it on your calendar.

 

[Mike Larson]

Did my 1100, and HOME!........ Gonna throw out the thanks again to the CMB club for the massive undertaking this event entailed...... the weather being what it was, there was still great racing to be had by all.......

Congrats to all the winners, kickin it to ya Richie!..... maybe I shoulda pushed harder in the third heat?........

A lifetime of freindship and memories to be had once again, in a single event.......

Gonna give special thanks to John, and Brenda Knight, and Marty Slater Racing tunnels for allowing me to make the big show......

Wired, and gonna decompress..... maybe in a month I can test some more boats!.... ..

mike

 

[big al]

Way to Go Grim........

That rinker boat is Aaaaaawesome....

and as usual your driving is Second to none!

Big AL

 

[Grimracer]

Thanks Big Al.

The CMB did a bang up job of running the race. Just think guys.. The world champs and in our back yard.. FANTASTIC.

I would like to thank Russ for pitting and calling for me. He never missed the call on a dead boat or missed a lap..

It was fun seeing old buds and making new ones..

Lets do this again next year.. what do ya think? I say GAME ON..

Grimracer

 

[Russ Williamson]

Like to thank the CMB club and the land owner, great job with the race! Anybody on here that knows somebody in the club who worked at the race and not on this forum, please tell them thank you for all the hard work!!!! The site, the preparation, the accommodations, the races, the concessions, AWESOME job!

It was great to finally meet those of you I hear and read so much about. Can't wait to attend another event and see you all again. Great people, the best in the hobby world!

Richie / Dunny; glad the both of you made it home safely and good job racing! Had a lot of fun pitting with you in the GrimRacer pits.

Mike, thanks for all the help my friend, could not have done it without your help!!!!!!! Congrats to your TQ in Sport 20 and winning Sport 40!!!!

Rw

 

[Jerry Dunlap]

This event just keeps getting bigger and better. A big ATTA BOY & GIRLS to the Charleston Model Boater for the time and effort they put forth. Also, kudos to Grim for selecting a pit area 25 yards from the chow tent.

JD

 

[vision race boats]

Wow another great race thanks to the Charleston crew!!!!Takes some time to drive back, put all the equipment away and evaluate everything. First off we want to give all the winners their propers. Speccial notes to Gary Irwine in D-mod and Rich Junker in Mod-VP, both driving Junker built Vision hulls. I said before a Florida boat would win Mod-VP just not the order I hoped for. Can't leave out Steve Hearl lawn/n/garded Tunnel Champ. These are the guys we get to compete with on a monthly basis making us all better competitors.

Would be remiss if I left out my friend Grimracer. Thanks Mike for saving the day for HTV pride. We talked last summer in Ohio and plotted the mystery driver. The Sport D winners hull came from Florida.

Congrats to Russ and Rich in the 20's and David Ashnmore in his Hornet hope we see you at Atlanta. And lastly we can't forget Mark Hopper who is a class act, great driver and Championship caliber every heat.

All the best from Mic, Jay & Audra at HTV boats

Mic Halbrehder

Thank You for the good words Mic and thank's go out to all in the cmb club we had a great time. Rich Junker

 

[VansRacing]

The CMB club can get some rest now. I know a lot of time went into all the pre-race details. Mike Talley Mike Rushing and myself all had a great time. On the way home we talked about how well planned this 250 boat race was. Open water was very well managed by the race officials. We will be back next year.

I saw some old friends that I hadn't seen in some time and if it were not for this race, we probably would not see each other at all as our paths don't meet any other time. Martin Tidwell: Designer and builder of the Pro-Glass 7.5 & 11cc O/B tunnels, Wade Daughtry " Wade-N-Nator" I can remember when wade fed Tommy Lee a few Rostertail sandwiches and not many people can say they did that! Shafer had something that we all enjoyed watching and that was the late Karl Sturm's Proglass boat. Karl was a great racer and we all miss him and his fast boats. It was almost like he was there in a way. Karl was sponsored by Henery Day back in the mid 80's and Drove the Twister Craft Tunnel Boats with Henery & Dusty Tranium.

Kevin Lee, The Attwells, Shafer, Premo, Whiddon, Norris, Eddelman, Hall, Zuber, Ashmore, Hopper, Johnson, Grim,

Dunlap, just to name a few. I can't name everybody (actually I just named the ones I thought I could half way spell LOL)

Among resent friends, I have been talking to but had not yet met in person Kently Porter & Jimmy Johnson. They both came down to meet with us and discuss their plans to bump the SAW and 2-lap records this year and to also see the new "TABOO" our new 3.5cc model. (This is not a production boat at this time) These two guys are after the 70 & 80 MPH patches for 2008 for the 3.5cc O/B Tunnel Class.

Good luck guys!

We will be in Huntsville this weekend for the Spring Time Trials.

Jon is working hard to build the L ynx and will hopefully be building the Shaman and Warhead soon.

Great Race! I ate too much....My girlfriend handed me a diet coke when I got back LOL.

-Carl,