It was a very eventful day at the races. Nearly 40 teams have made the trek to the Flathead River at Polson MT for the second annual Anderson Broadcasting Radio Waves Regatta. Thirteen Unlimited Lights and four Thunderboat teams were joined by 20 teams in the 5 Liter, 2.5 Liter Stock and 1.0 Liter classes in front of a sizeable crowd. Thirteen heats will conclude the racing action on Sunday.
Kayleigh Perkins and Greg Hopp driving the UL-72 Foster Care - Vitamin Water and the UL-1 Ratcliff and Barce @ Lambros ERA Real Estate - Pump Tech respectively, each won their first preliminary heat in dominating fashion. Heat 1C had to be black flagged before the start of the heat after the UL-00 Trafficade - Warning Power.com driven by Wil Muncey went dead in the water.
In the Thunderboats "The"Westport Series" Dustin Echols in the G-17 Miss Ted's Red Apple Market and Cal Phipps in the G-10 Titeflex-Wiggins Services and Supply traded victories. Phipps, in the second heat, made a classic flying start on the outside, crossing the line just after the clock struck zero. He led Echols by a roostertail length exiting turn one and was never headed. In the first heat, Echols used the inside lane to his advantage as he led David Warren in the G-329 Miss Ted's Red Apple Market Too, and Phipps over the line. RW Dick Lynch in the G-13 Jet Chevrolet.com - Tempo returned to the pits prior to the start with mechanical woes. For the second straight week the team was sidelined by a broken rocker arm, and the team has been forced to withdraw.
The UL-11 Power Punch Racing Team will be running a different hull on Sunday. During the warm-up for Heat 1B, Michael Flaherty's ride threw a propeller blade and severely damaged the bottom and transom of the hull along with ruining the prop shaft and other hardware. The Darren Bartels owned hull is done for the year but they will be racing on Sunday. A deal was made with Dan McCullough who was attending his first race as team owner of the UL-58 that he recently purchased form Pingree Conflitti. McCullough's boat wasn't quite ready to race today but now with the UL-11 crew on hand, McCullough's boat has been renamed and renumbered as the UL-11 Montana Brand Tools.com- Poppa Don's Grill, also sponsored by K&N Filters-Power Punch Performance Lubricants and ROXY Radio 94.5 .
In the 5 Liter class a wreck during the warm-up period for the first heat took out two boats with severe damage. Steve Clark, fresh from victory last weekend in South Dakota, spun out when his boat fell in a hole entering turn #2. Following behind Clark was Helena, Montana's Nick Enderes, a former Polson MT resident, and his boat struck the Clark hydro. Both drivers survived and Clark noted when his boat spun violently it occurred right in front of Enderes who had no place to go.
Jim Mauldin and Kip Brown won the preliminary heats and in the Final, Brown pulled out the win on the last lap over Mauldin., Travis Johnston, Kevin Eacret and Bud McKay rounded out the top 5.
In the 2.5 Stock hydroplane class, Dutch Squires won both heats but had to overcome teammate Brian Hanjy to earn the win. Third place went to Mike Hophine and fourth place to Austin Eacret. Three of the 2.5's were unable to start the Final Heat but expect to be ready for racing on Sunday.
The 1.0 Liter class was won by Robby Dahlquist with Joe Perkins taking second, followed by Bianca Bononcini, Nick Bononcini, and Jere Heiser.
Racing resumes at 10:00am Mountain Time on Sunday morning with UL Heat 1C followed by the full Sunday schedule totaling 13 heats of racing. ULHRA Video will have live coverage on this website.
John Lynch
"Voice" of ULHRA Racing
