The 2007 SCSC Nostalgia Jet season was very tough. There were a lot of ups, downs & close calls for Code Blue Racing. It was very difficult to make each race, with rising costs & work schedules. We somehow managed to make each race at the last minute. I think the trip to Burley stands out the most. We gave ourselves plenty of time to get there, at least one day ahead. Sometimes no matter how much time you give yourself, it just doesn’t workout. About an hour outside of Las Vegas, we lost a speedometer drive gear. Any of you who know electronic transmissions, know they don’t work worth a darn without input. So we drove the remaining seven hours at 55mph, all the way to Burley, hitting more rabbits than I knew existed, using twice the fuel & shot our travel budget all to hell. We show up in Burley Friday morning at 11:30 am, just in time to suit up for the Comp Jet Shootout Qualification runs. Being this was my first trip to Burley, I had to do a ballpark tune up in the boat. We were close enough to qualify & take a Comp Jet Shootout 3rd place finish. The overall Burley experience gave me more drive & excitement to carry me through the remainder of the season.
The SCSC has been a great organization to race with, Ross Wallach and his staff did their best to get the jet boats on the water at each and every event. Rolph Salmons gave the Nostalgia Jets an opportunity to put on some exhibition races at the NJBA drag boat events in Bakersfield. I would like to thank All the NJBA staff for allowing us that opportunity. The SCSC season finally had a fantastic showing for the Nostalgia Jets. We had one incident & no injuries, but a lot of good racing. The Parker 300 Enduro has been my nemesis since 2005. In October 05, I was lucky to make 8 laps, and then in October 06, we broke on lap three and were able to squeak out one more lap. The 2007 Parker 300 basically was a huge victory, even though we were only able to complete 87 miles. I feel very fortunate and thankful for the help and support that I have received in the past season. We finished second overall for 2007 in the Nostalgia Jet Class.
Our sincere thanks go out to the following very important sponsors:
Ranchos Havasu Estates & David Varty, Veronica Paladori and Guy Hargreaves
Atlas Plastering & Toby Clark
Anaheim Chevrolet & Jay Photoglue
GS Marine & Greg Shoemaker
Marrone & Sons & Ben Marrone
Foxwell Motorsports & Scott Foxwell
ARS Marine & George Pataki
Just Jet Boats.com & Shawn Demerit
Jet Boat Performance & Tom, Rhonda and Josh
Highflow Dynamics & Paul Kane
Tour Havasu Homes.com & Lew Jabro
Boat Racing Facts.com & Ron Hill and Family
Triad Performance Marine & Don Baca
Steve Neville Trucking
Socaljetboats.com & Brad Martin
Chuck & Son Signs & Chuck Eichelberger
Independent Street Rods & Josh Edwards
Wet-n-Wild Twisted Motorsports & Brian and Dave
D’Cucci Boats & Don and Joey Cucci
E Performance Marine & Donna, my wife, and Amanda, my daughter, without whose help and support none of this would have happened.
There are a few special individuals that have helped Code Blue Racing through this fun & exciting season. These individuals offered support & technical insight throughout the season. Some of these people helped me at the races on different occasions. I want to thank Tony Wagner for stepping up, assuming the position of crew chief. This is all new and exciting for him and it has taken a lot of his spare time. For this dedication I thank him. Art & Ray, without the two of you, those 87 miles at the Parker 300 would not have been possible, my extreme thanks to both of you.
I would also like to thank:
Scott Foxwell – Foxwell Motorsports
Paul Kane - Highflow Dynamics
Dave Jones - Aggressor Jet Drives
Roger Finney – Wild Injun Racing/Finney Powder Coating
Shawn Demeret - Advanced Computer Management
Mike – Rex Marine
Tom Papp
Bob Prigmore
Chris Starkweather - Marine Performance Design
Dave Sammons
Terry Valore
Don & Joey Cucci – D’Cucci Boats
Chris Straub – Straub Technologies
Carl - Cars By Carl
Brian Irish
