Continue reading »]]> The points race is tight and GP-88 entered the weekend in 2nd behind GP-46. In Beauharnois the weather was beautiful after some wind on Saturday died down. Rolling Thunder ran very fast but a phantom P5 took away a win resulting in two thirds on Saturday. Sunday a P1 placed GP-88 in lane four for the final. A fast and furious 8 boat final ended without GP-777 or GP-88 finishing and GP-444 limping across the line with damage. GP-50 driven by Ken Brodie Jr. won the final win. Now we third in points with GP-46 still in the lead and The Crush GP-777 in second heading into the final race in Webster this coming weekend.

Continue reading »]]> We took the jersey speed skiff to Hampton, VA for the annual Hampton Cup Regatta. The race is held at Fort Monroe which is the last remaining fort actively used by the military but they are in the process of leaving. The fort is 6 sided with a moat completely surrounding it and is famous for holding Jefferson Davis after the Civil War. The race itself is held on Mill Creek and is viewed from East Mercury Boulevard Bridge. Unfortunately for the many spectators there were not many boats. Hopefully next year with the Summer Nationals being held at Hampton there will be a better turn out of boats. The skiffs had the largest field by far. JS-7 Rolling Thunder finished 1st in 3 heats but came in 2nd in the final behind JS-99 Veri Cheri driven by Dave Greenlaw Jr.

JSS Heat 1 Hampton 2011 from Michael L Pakradooni on Vimeo.

Continue reading »]]> We made the long haul up to St-Felicien and watched the wind blow on Saturday. On Sunday the Grand Prix had two sets of heats and a final making for a very busy day. This race is the farthest north we travel, about 7 hours north of Montreal. The town is on one side of a narrow river and the pits are crammed into a small lot across from it. Next to the pits is a small VIP area with a bar, DJ, and wooden bleachers. The DJ really gets into pumping up the VIPs, a lot of who have traveled from Valleyfield to attend. As for the racing… GP-88 finished 1st and 3rd in qualifying and secured lane 3 for the final. A full field of Grand Prix had the crowd excited and they were did not disappoint. GP-88 ended up 4th in the final with GP-46 edging out GP-444 for the win. Mike Monahan was driving for Marc Theoret in GP-444 and nearly came from behind to beat Maheu.

Continue reading »]]> JS-7 headed out to Waterford, Michigan for the APBA Summer Nationals at Quake on the Lake. Rolling Thunder took home the championship with JS-100 Summer Storm in 2nd and JS-45 The Menace 3rd. We will be headed WAY north this weekend to St-Felicien, Quebec for round 4 of the ACHA GP Championship watch live on HydroplaneQuebec.com. To everyone headed to Cambridge have fun and we will try to send some cool air South.

Continue reading »]]> GP-88 won the final on Friday at Valleyfield! In a very exciting race Rolling Thunder beat out GP-46 ADF Diesel in a special race. It was a new experiment to have a separate day of racing on Friday at Valleyfield. Have a look at the race video from Friday, the race got a lot of people talking afterwards. Unfortunately GP-88 did not go on to win the final race on Sunday. Saturday we finished 1st and 3rd in heat racing. In Sunday’s heat we jumped the gun and ended up with lane 5 in the grand finale. The boat was flying, finishing 2nd on the course, but had been a fraction to early at the start. Congrats to Pierre Maheu and ADF Diesel GP-46 on the Valleyfield victory.

Continue reading »]]> Saturday GP-88 finished 2nd in heat 1a, which turned out to be the only GP heat run. GP-12 Long Shot driven by Eric Langevin had a very bad blow over. At the end of the race he crossed the finish but his boat lifed 40ft into the air turning 540 degrees. Langevin landed upside down but was able to get out of the boat and he is going to be okay. You can watch video of the hydroplane flip on Hydroplane Quebec. Rolling Thunder went on to finish 5th in the final on Sunday in the usual rough waters of the Saint Lawrence.

Continue reading »]]> GP-88 was 2nd fastest in time trials and finished 2nd in heat 1a at Long Sault on Saturday. Sunday did not go as well… the team discovered serious damage to the flywheel. The boat was started on the trailer but when it went in for the first heat on Sunday it would not start. GP-88 missed out on a very good GP final which was won by GP-444. Congrats to GP Valleyfield.

Here is a 3D video from onboard 88 during the time trial:

Continue reading »]]> We took the newest addition to our team down to Portsmouth, Virginia this past weekend. She is “The Rock” E-99 5 Liter last owned by Billy Sewell. Tom fixed her up and M&M Performance refreshed the engine. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with strong winds both days and no boats were able to race. Hopefully we will get a chance to put the 5 Liter into action later this year.

Next up is the return of boat racing to Greenwood Lake in New Jersey on May 14-15. GP-88 will be on hand to do some testing in preparation for the first ACHA GP event in Long Sault, Ontario May 28-29. Both these events will be livestreamed on Hydroplane Quebec.