Saturday, July 07, 2007
Time to enjoy the friendliest boat racing town!
Ah, Madison! The race course within a hill setting ... the bridge the hydros race under ... the great residents, all proud of their regatta as well as their racing team ... and the best corn dogs on the planet! Yeah, it's also traditionally unbearably hot and muggy every year too, but so what? It's Madison, and I only wish I were there with everyone else!
One point I forgot to address during Evansville was the different hull Ken Muscatel is running this year, so let's bring that up now. The ABRA website hasn't mentioned anything about it and the blog story I read on KNDU's HYDRO INSIDER seems just as perplexed as I am as to whether it's the U-25 or U-2.25. They suggested it might also be known as the U-2.5. They also raised an open-ended question about the "generic" paint job on the hull (KNDU's quotation marks, not mine), as in whether people liked it or not. Dealing with that particular point, I personally don't think it's a bad move, especially when they're looking for sponsors from race to race and a "generic" paint job would be easier to work with whomever the sponsor name would be.
Anyway, back to my original point: which boat is this, anyway? Unless some MAJOR boat surgery was performed over the winter that I knew nothing about, it doesn't appear to be the Jim Harvey hull the doctor was leasing. His previous hull was sold to the U-21 team and consequently burned last year. Dr. Ken's kind of like Fred Leland in a way - ya never know just how many hulls he actually has, so I'm not sure which one this is. The old FREEI.net? Until someone writes about it, talks about it on the radio or drops me an e-mail, I guess I'll be a-wonderin' ... but I still think the paint job is fine.
As of the end of the day on Friday, eight boats have qualified of the expected ten to be in the race. Qualifying resumes Saturday morning. Here is the list so far:
Dave Villwock/U-16 MISS ELAM PLUS - 158.027
Jean Theoret/U-37 MISS BEACON PLUMBING - 154.418
Steve David/U-6 OH BOY! OBERTO - 150.436
David Bryant/U-10 MISS AHERN RENTALS - 150.310
Jeff Bernard/U-5 FORMULABOATS.COM - 149.882
Jimmy King/U-3 MISS CHRYSLER JEEP - 149.375
J. Michael Kelly/U-13 SPIRIT OF DETROIT - 148.473
Ken Muscatel/U-25 SUPERIOR RACING - 143.586
NOT IN PITS:
Mike Allen/U-1 FORMULABOATS.COM
Gregg Hopp/U-100 MIRAGEBOATS.COM
I won't be around to monitor the racing from Saturday's action, but I'll have a wrap-up in the early evening plus coverage all day Sunday. In the meantime, if anyone has an update on Ken Muscatel's team, give me a shout at readjames39@yahoo.com . Thanks - talk to you later today!
