Ron;
Had a voice mail this AM from Mike, from Saturday night.
He was sitting in second place points at the end of day one!!!!!!!!!
Ok, just got off the phone with Mike, said he had a fantastic time, the guys out there are some of the nicest people he has had the pleasure of "playing boats" with.
There driving is just phenomenal, he says you better hold your lane out there, in one of his heats, he went into a turn with 5 boats abreast, and 5 boats came out of the turn, in the same lanes.
If you had'nt read there race format, the run five qualifying rounds, top 6 boats transfer into the final, the next 5 boats transfer into the second concy, the next 6 boats go to the 1st concy, I think I have that right????
The winner of the 1st concy transfers to the second concy, the winner of the second concy becomes the trailer boat in the final. WWWWOOOOO thats a lot to remember????
So here' how Mike stacked up
Saturday had 3 Qualifying heats Mike finished 3rd, 2nd, and 1st, putting him in second place points
Sunday would see 2 qualifying heats remainimg, 2 concy's, and final
Mike finished 4 in the 4th qualifier putting him 5th in over all points.
In the 5th and final qualifier the racing gods did not stay with Mike, when he went to start the boat for the 5th round, his eingine was flooded, when the boat finally started, it was running backwards, once they realized that, and shut er down, it became full of fuel again, and would'nt start, so the DNS put him so far down in the points he had to run the 1st concy, he would need to win it to transfer to the 2nd concy.
Unfortunatly, Mike could only muster a second, ending his run for the North West Scale Championship.
He was definitely not down on himself, says he plans to go back out again next year, and hopefully some of his Florida running mates will be able to go with him, sounds like a lot of fun, we'll see???
Needless to say, and the way we all know Mike, being around ALL of those scale boats, he just could'nt stand it, he is coming home with another addition to his stable, I will not spill the beans, I will leave him something to write about once he is back home.
Ok boys from District 3, we now have another seasoned racer to contend with????
He is spending the night at Roger Newtons house, to be closer to the airport, and will be lifting off brite and early, heading back our way.
So there you have it, I'm sure the story's will be running wild in Miami, and I can't wait to hear some of them.
Race report by Rick "cucumber" Bellinger
See ya all in Miami
then i will head up to the hotel /lake area....HOPEFULLY my scale has arrived in one piece so from that i hope some of us can get togeather for dinner if possiable.... Thanks everyone for all of your help with directions etc.... Ive got a long flight but well worth it....bringing a dvd player on board to kill some air time....
