Emerald Cup Final winner - Ryan Hickam
Flanked by race sponsor Jack Carson
Emerald Cup Connie winner - Gene Gager
Saturday September 24th
18 nitro and 4 Gas boats made the field of participants of this years Emerald Cup, the final race in the 2011 UNW season. The competition was close with every heat. The format for this years Emerald Cup was the same as the Apple Cup, in that with a short field of boats, the top 5 and winner of the consolation would make up the fleet of the Final heat.
In the consolation it was Gene Gager and his ultra Fast 1964 beautifully painted mulit-colored Blue Notre Dame which managed to survive and cross the finish line first. After refueling, the final heat was put on the clock. With Paul Jackson driving the "Edge", Adam Putich and his Red Formula, Gene Gager's 1964 Notre Dame, and Doug Kirk driving his son's 1972 Notre Dame, Mike Bontoff with the Miss Houston, and Ryan Hickam rounding out the top 6 with his Coor's Light.
Every driver knows that the key to most races is locking up lane one and positioning ones self in a fashion where you don't jump the gun during the mill. Ryan with the Coor's Light discovered Paul Jackson was following him like glue during the mill, something that had also happened in an earlier heat. At about the 19 second mark Ryan cut hard at the exit pin to the right turn and started to head towards the entry pin of the same corner looking for that coveted lane one position. Alas, though, Adam with his Formula and Gene with his Notre Dame, already had both lanes 1 and 2 locked up. Seeing this, Ryan took a different line , which swung the Coor's Light out wide, keeping its boat speed up. Paul decided to follow the "trollers" inching their way to the starting line, by choosing lane 3, with both Mike's Miss Houston and Doug's Notre Dame wide out on the back stretch, also taking a wide line as Ryan had done. As the clock wound down to zero Ryan had the Coor's light going Full Bore, in lane 4, hitting the line perfectly! The other three racers on the inside were caught with their boats still not fully engage to their Pipe and Ryan rounded the corner alone with the others literally trying to catch up. By the next corner Adam had the Formula almost up to Ryan, taking the shorter route in lane one with the Edge hot on the Formula's tail. Ryan, even going wide, kept that Boat Speed up and was Flying around the course. He had another half a backstretch lead by the time the Formula managed to catch up for a second time. This went on one more lap, with Ryan leading, until unfortunately for Adams Formula, catching a left sponson in a wake, as he was setting up for the right turn, causing the formula to go over. This had a cascading effect with the boats trailing him, with the Miss Houston and Edge making it through the mess at the entry of the right corner. With the last lap to go Ryan slid out a little wide to avoid the wreckage in the right corner, which almost gave Paul and the Edge the chance to catch him, but Paul just ran out of race course, and Ryan crossed the line to the checkered flag first.
In the Gas class, John Olson had his Tempo VII, Marty Shallenberger his Olympia Beer Boat, Rick Backus his Orange ELAM Plus, and Jeff Snell with his new "Spirit of Dayton Walter". After 4 heats and the final, Jeff Snell and his Spirit of Dayton Walter was declared the winner based on accumulated points.
Emerald Cup Gas Scale Hydro winner - Jeff Snell
A big Thanks to ALL the People of Monroe and the Parks dept. for allowing us to race at Tye Lake Park. A Big Thanks to all the participants, and especially John Hruby for pulling the trailer, and an extra Thank YOU to Jack Carson for sponsoring the race. I'd also like to thank Bob Vandenakker who showed up to enjoy some good racing, and ended up corner judging when we got short of people. Thanks MUCH Bob!
Another Bob I'd like to Thank is Bob Greenhow! Our resident expert on all things Hydro, we've enjoyed his stumper trivia question all year long. Thanks Bob for all you've done this season! YOU make Racing fun!
Next Race will be Marty's Northwest Championships Oct 7-9, at Twin Lakes park in Marysville. Hope you can all make it! Also please don't forget to get your reservation into Doug Kirk for the Awards banquet being held down at the Ye Old Spaghetti Factory in Tukwila. That should be lots of fun too.
Your Race Day Correspondent
Tom English