February 2012 Issue 13 Page 1
APBA National Meeting APBA Annual Meeting, Hall of Champions, Honor Squadron and Category Awards in Chicago, Illinois, January 25-28, 2012 Marriott Chicago Northwest 4800 Hoffman Blvd. Hoffman Estates, IL 60192 Phone: 847-645-9500 Rate: $109 - King/Double Any questions, contact the APBA office at 586-773-9700 or apbahq@apba-racing.com DEADLINES: The 15th of each month prior to each issue. Page 2
2012 Racing Schedule Region 10 April 21/22- Inboard Lawrence w/ outboards (not sure what classes yet) May 4/5- Mossyrock, WA (tentative) May 19/20- Bremerton, WA May 26/27- Newberg, OR June 2- Everett, WA June 23/24- Seaside, OR July 7/8- Tacoma, WA (American Lake) August 25/26- Eatonville, WA Sept. 8/9- Moses Lake, WA Sept. 21/22/23- Yelm, WA Outboard Lawrence Region 12 February 8-12 LA Boat Show February 18-19 Havasu Landing, CA CANCELLED March 2-4 Salton Sea Sea Week March 24-25 Puddingstone April 14-15 Parker, AZ WESTERN DIVISIONALS August 4-5 Long Beach September 15-16 Bakersfield October 27 Parker 300 Enduro November 23-24 Parker, AZ Red= Divisionals/Winter Nationals/Nationals/NA Champ Blue= Record Runs Side Notes: Salton Sea Speed Week is Kilo Runs Long Beach is the nationals for Flat bottom classes only. Page 3
Off the Water Capsule training in Parker, Arizona Thanksgiving weekend Above: Marlee Hill about to get dunked for her capsule training. Left: Mike Schatz in Long Beach, CA. after he got thrown in after his first win in Cracker Box. Page 4
The Splash Section Driver Quote: Sorry Mark! Kyle Lewis Kyle Lewis crashes in C Hydro while racing Mark Tate s CSH in Lock Haven, PA. Rider: Shelton Ogg Driver: Scott Schatz Driver Quote: Oooooops! Scott Schatz Scott Schatz and rider Shelton Ogg crash in Bakersfield, CA Page 5
The Splash Section Over and Out! Jared Wallach crashed in his first A Hydro race, in Parker, AZ; Thanksgiving weekend. Also see cover picture. Below: Cracker Jack Dunk Tank Driver Blake Stump with rider Dave Laws dump the P-24 Cracker Box; the Cracker Jack, in Long Beach, CA. Scott Stump, Blake s brother said, They broke the crank shaft in 4 places and locked up the motor and the prop. It spun the boat sideways and did a 360, flipped, and threw both driver and rider out of the boat. Page 6
Looking Back Young Ronnie Hill working on his engine. A boat blowing over. Page 7
Our New Drivers Dave Hale One of the new drivers to Region 12 is life-long boat racing fan, Dave Hale. Growing up in Seattle, Dave found himself at the Seafair all the time. Getting to see the Unlimited Hydroplanes run gave Dave a dream to pursue; a dream to race boats. He moved to California, but never gave up on his dream to drive a Hydroplane. On a trip back home last year to visit his parents, he went to the Wooden Boat Show on Lake Union. The Seattle Outboard Association had an exhibit there of several Stock Outboard Hydroplanes there in various states of construction, which is how he discovered the existence of our kind of boats and then decided that he would try to build one. When he got home he started looking into how to go about that and happened upon a complete, ready-to-run Hal Kelly Wetback 12 for sale on craigslist, priced less than it'd cost to build one. He bought it as a trial for himself, to see if he'd like it enough to make it worthwhile to build one. As soon as he got on a plane in it for the first time, he could feel his childhood imagination become a reality, of what it'd be like to drive a hydroplane. In that B hydro with a fishing motor going probably no more than 25 mph he believed he finally knew what it was like; and he LOVED it! After that, he started reading everything Page 8
he could find online about how to get into racing (boatracingfacts.com, hydroracer.net, stockoutboard.net, primarily). He had never seen these boats run anywhere before and knew that the speed limits wouldn't allow for them so he didn't really understand how he would be able to run outside of a race. He couldn't believe that racers only drove in actual races so he made my first post onboatracingfacts.com, "where do people practice?" Ron Hill replied first and invited him to come and hang out with people testing at Lake Irvine. Knowing only Ron's name he came to Irvine the following Wednesday. That's when he met me, Bunker, Ron, Kenny and his daughter Nicole Knudson, for the first time. He had half a dozen people that didn't know him telling him everything he wanted to know until it got dark. He went to the race in Bakersfield a month later, and was made to feel like family, and it's been like that ever since. Dave said, Really, driving home from Bakersfield I felt like I'd just been adopted into a new family. The next week after Dave s first trip out to Lake Irvine, we had planned to go again to do some more propeller work, but we had some extra time. Ken and Nicole Knudson were nice enough to allow Dave to take a ride in the boat! Dave went testing and he came back in with the biggest smile I have ever seen on his face! He came back into the pits yelling, I ll take one! He had more fun than he could even begin to describe, and right away he called up Ernie Dawe and got a new A Hydro! Page 9
After Dave s boat was finished, we were able to all go testing once before our first race, and I have never seen anyone look so good in a boat their first time out! The way Dave took the boat through the turns and how low he sat in the boat was better than someone who has been racing for a whole year sat in the boat! He came back in after his first run in his brand new boat, yet again with a huge smile on his face! The next week was our first race of the season; in Parker, Arizona. He wanted to run as many classes as he could, so he ran AXH and ASH. Crazy thing is, his first race was in a heat with 9 boats! He again had more fun than he could describe, and didn t want the weekend to end! He walked away from Parker that weekend with a podium finish! He placed 2 nd place in AXH in his very first race, with a boat count of 10 boats! I am SO proud of Dave and I honestly cannot believe how great he is doing so fast! I really look forward to many more races and seasons to come with Dave on the water with me. By, Marlee Hill Page 10
Region News Region 10: The eerie quiet of the winter is upon us racers, most of us at least. Rumor has it there have been test sessions taking place in western Washington these past months. For the rest of us, its time for the annual maintenance, repairs, new construction, ordering props, and fixing trailer lights. The next few months will be filled with these activities and upcoming events for us in the Northwest. I ll move through our local event calendar: February 4 th : Seattle Outboard s Commodore s Ball April 1 st : Seattle Outboard Work Party Following these two events will be the season opener in Parker, Arizona featuring Western Divisional Championships in Stock classes. Details will be finalized and likely covered elsewhere in the issue. Next month s Northwest news segment of the Shear Pin will have an updated schedule of events for our region. Until then, I wish all safe travels to the APBA National Meeting in Chicago. Region 12: Kyle Lewis Hydroracer93r@gmail.com Well we ve wrapped up another season, and officially wrapped up the first full year of publishing The Shear Pin! I d like to start by saying thank you so much to all of my subscribers and readers for all the support; you guys keep me going! I d also like to send a huge thank you to everyone who has helped me out this past Page 11
year in making this all possible: Mark McLaughlin, Ross Wallach, Bunker Hill, Mike Guardalabene, Jeff Conant and Kyle Lewis; without you guys there definitely would not be a Shear Pin. The 2011 racing season was a pretty successful one for Region 12! In the A Hydro class alone we got 5 new drivers! My goal for this next season is to get elimination heats in A Hydro. At the Parker race we had 12 A Hydro s; which I find fantastic for Region 12, considering last year we were struggling to get more than 4 boats. It s been a very successful racing season for our region, with few incidents, nobody seriously injured, and only having to cancel one race. As we begin the 2012 racing season, we are trying to start up 2 new classes in Region 12. Ron Hill bought 4 Dawecraft ASR s for people to drive in both ASR and AXR, hoping to draw in more people and to get a couple new classes going. I have wanted to drive a Runabout since I started racing and I am really excited to finally get the opportunity to drive one and to have a class of them down here. Also coming up this season, in a few weeks we have been given the entire entry way to the LA Convention Center during the LA Boat Show (February 9-12) for our race boats to be out on display. By doing this we are hoping to bring in new drivers and get more people interested in our sport. Mike Quindazzi and I (mainly Mike) have gotten together a bunch of race boats to be on display for the show that weekend and have gotten a bunch of drivers to help work it and be there to talk about our boats. We will have a variety of boats, such as multiple ASH s, a Pro Stock, a COR boat, multiple SST45 s, and hopefully a Cracker Box as well. We should have a really good turn out and I m really excited; hopefully we ll be able to bring in some new recruits! After the boat our racing season will pick up again where we plan to have the Salton Sea Speed Week, and then the racing begins for our second race of the season at Puddingstone, unfortunately our February Havasu Landing Page 12
race had to be cancelled due to a low number of entries. After Puddingstone we get further down the schedule where we run into April, which means the annual Spring Classic in Parker, AZ. This year the Parker race will be the Western Divisionals for all the flat bottom Inboard classes as well as Stock and Modified Outboard classes. It will definitely be a fun weekend; we re hoping to see a lot of boats make the trip down from Regions 10 and 11. The more boats, obviously, the better! Hoping to see full fields of boats in as many classes as we can! Parker has always been one of my favorite courses and it will be great to see a lot more boats out there racing for a Divisionals title. After Parker, we take our break and racing doesn t pick up again till Long Beach in August, where it will be the Nationals for all Inboard Flat Bottom classes. I unfortunately don t think I will be able to make the Long Beach race this year, as we plan to head to Grass Lake, Michigan for the Stock/Mod/J Nationals, which is going on that same weekend. This looks like we have a very good and promising racing season in front of us, where hopefully we will continue to bring in new drivers into the sport, and help making our sport bigger and trying to further expand APBA. Good Luck this upcoming season everyone! Make it a safe one, and have fun! Safe travels to everyone planning on heading out to Chicago for the National Meeting, I m looking forward to seeing everyone out there and meeting a lot of new racers! See you all on the water! Thanks again for a successful year! Marlee Hill 32-C 1-C TheShearPin@yahoo.com Page 13
Behind the Wheel A Year in Review Splashes The final heat of 20ssH at the Wakefield 2011 SO/Mod/J Summer Nationals. http://youtu.be/azgrxxi4bw0 Kyle Lewis racing CSH in Lock Haven, PA. http://youtu.be/fhv8ct CxlpM Page 14
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