Well time for another old story so cuddle up to the fire and have some popcorn while Wizard here tells you the story of the Castaic Nationals...

Must have been about 1978-79 and Nationals were scheduled for the lower lake at Castaic near Magic Mountain, Valentia CA. Huge turnout most classes had at about full classes of 12 boats even the three jet classes except KJ which had 6-7. The night before everyone went to magic mountain and we closed the place.  Wild boat racers at a theme park with a lot of wild rides is a formula for disaster but that is for yet another fire side chat...

Morning of the race at the Drivers meeting the race director stands in front of us and the first item on his list is. " Well boys the lake is a little low and turn one meshures about 9-10 lanes wide.  If anyone in a class with more than nine boats feels uncomfortable about running raise you hands and well have to split it up into qualifying races before the heats in order to keep the count down. Of course if you don't qualify you won't be running in the Nationals. So now anyone here not want to run twelve boats in a heat?" Not a hand in the air. Most were kept in pockets to make sure APBA understood. After all when ever did twelve boat get to turn one at the same time?  Head dude's next item... "Ok then all of you here know how to race your all qualified from previous experience. We launch over here and we pick up over there. Have fun Meeting over."

There is your "Heart" we all ran a too small course with too many boats.  No one ended up on the beach, no one ended up mad, we just ran it cause that was the way it was.

Of course there are other stories about that race too. Like my class SKI JET but that's for another day so hop into bed and sleep tight little racers dream of your next big race, but remember the ones you think you don't like may be the ones you'll love to remember forever.

Nice story Wiz

The "Bullring" ain't got nothin' on these guys

http://

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL58hUAGQu8

need i say more

Yaaaaa Ralph....Sht happens

Dude u r a ....."Brads Junk."

I really hope that was a drunk post.   If not he has a few problems.

I can tell you from my limited racing career on the rivers, not only does it cost everything you have money wise, but the time commitment is rediculous.

Although Circle racing is (or maybe should be) easier on equipment than whitewater rock dodging, there are a lot more races to get to.

We only had three or four races a year in this country, so unless you had an endless supply of the green stuff to ship your shit overseas (New Zealand, Austraila and Canada) then there was no way to win a World Championship..

I would agree with the comment about unless you have run it, don't discount it. If you were to look at the Trinity River in Willow Creek Ca., you would have to be 2/3 insane to think you could run a 100MPH jetboat up it, but they do, and from what I am told, the most fun you can have fully clothed....  Our "junk" never ran well enough to run the Trinity, wish we had. The race was normally pretty close to the Rogue River time wise, couldn't thrash hard enough to get our Band Aids to stick...

I saw a race several years ago, all the "B" class boats were a DNS except one, came in third overall and only averaged 45 MPH, beat most of the boats that normally averaged over 90 MPH, his exact words at the end of the race, "Boy, we passed a lot of broken shit! Glad she only broke simple stuff". That shows you how often a $2 part can park you and make you feel insignifigant and small....

I have a ton of respect for anyone with the good fortune to get to go racing, only because I know first hand what it takes to do...

You Comp guys are going with one boat one motor....Try one boat, two motors and enough crap to build a third....The expense is almost stupid.

I will not be racing this year, even though I had somewhat planned on it, the economy is too wierd and I am struggling to keep my shit together economically right now, but if I fix my situation well enough, next year looks pretty promising... I am not running a fiberglass hull though...It goes against my instinct of what works...

If time becomes available in the near future, I would love to offer some of my time and help out with crew duties...lemme know..

GT

I'm sure Lance is refering to Brads Junk, like My Junk, and His Junk.
Brad's Junk wouldn't start, Lance's Junk lost oil pressure and My Junk blew up.
Cake is the one outta line here. If he wants to be a Brad groupie or start an 888 fan club thats fine, but I dont care to be refered to as one of those fockers.

Thanks Ron, at least someone understands what I mean

im not sure cake meant exactly, but it obviously ruffled some feathers.

no one wants to break down, no one here wants anyone else to break down.

ya, racing is racing, but racing wont happen if you dont have boats either.

One of the coolest things that happened that thanksgiving weekend happened on thanksgiving day. The R&D Family invited us all down to their place south of parker to test. 313, 21, 888, 426, and 515 were all there hangin out, watching each other run, bullshitting, getting rides in the 313, etc. Yes, we are all competitors to each other, but we were there helping each other out getting all the boats ready to run for the race. That day amongst everyone there, 2 motors were lost during testing. it was a real bummer because i was really looking forward to run amongst all of the people there. That being said, it bums me out when this groupie term is being tossed around.

Lance was using 'Junk' loosely. We all have engine woes...and that weekend, each and every one of us were fighting demons and gremlins in our boats. When my engine wouldnt start, I was so pissed i could have pulled the plugs and let it sit on the bottom of the river. We all have dumped tons of money, blood, sweat and tears into our boats and when shit goes haywire on race day, it is the most frustrating thing ever. There is nothing you can do to prevent every single thing from happening. nothing is reliable on a race motor. nothing.

as far as enginedoctor gettin all wound up, I dont blame him. Hes got a ton of hours into my motor, of course hes gunna take offense if someone calls it junk. He machined one hell of a motor for me and theres no words to describe how pleased i am with his work and craftsmanship that he did on it. He really takes pride in his work. yes, he did misunderstand the context of the term used. I hope dave reads this and understands where lance was really coming from. I personally didnt take offense to it, but I could understand where others would.


and yes, its winter time. let the drama roll on. 

it's ALL junk eventually........hehehe.