Parker, AZ and Moses Lakes, WA Results

May 8, 2007…The Loud N Proud team had a busy couple of weeks of racing recently with back to back weekends of racing. The first was the annual Blue Water Resort & Casino SCSC Regatta at Parker, AZ over the April 21-22 weekend. With many hours of hard work going into preparing both boats and a complete refit of the teams SS68 Super Stock to have the two boats in matching all black livery for the 2007 season. Everything was set in place for a weekend of strong performance by both team boats.

11 Super Stocks were present for Parker and Maple Valley, WA driver Kip Brown made the trek down to drive the SS68 machine in place of regular driver and team owner Jeff Brochheuser. Kip looked awesome in testing on Saturday morning, very smooth and very fast. During the first qualifying heat Kip came into the corner side by side with the SS6 of Rob Devine on the inside and Paul Fitzgerald in Mike Beard’s SS63 on the outside. Some holey rough water in the first turn saw Kip and SS68 doing a fairly spectacular barrel roll as the boat caught the right chine about half way into the turn ending up, upside down. Most importantly Brown came out of the incident without a scratch on him which was really great too see and the team setup about replacing the engine and getting the boat dried out for Sunday’s racing. Unfortunately the Super Stocks did not get to run at all on Sunday due to the wind coming up and ending the days racing program early with water conditions way too rough to compete in. Overall winners for the weekend in Super Stock were 1^st place SS80 - Dave Bryant, 2^nd SS63 – Paul Fitzgerald and in 3^rd place SS7 – Greg Shirley. After only making the start in Saturday’s qualifying heat Kip finished 9^th overall in points with SS68.

Chris Kenner had a mixed weekend in the PS681 Pro Stock. 8 Pro Stocks made the call and in the first heat on Saturday Chris had a few issues going on and finished in 2^nd place. In Saturday’s final of Pro Stock an ignition problem plagued the engine with the timing moving dramatically, causing the engine to be down on power big time and thus relegating Kenner to the rear of the field to just make laps on the outside of the course to score some points. A lane infraction that was called on the PS52 of Brad Allerton escalated Chris to 5^th place but is was a disappointing race overall. Coming into Sunday’s qualifying heat the team had the ignition problems sorted after being granted a quick two lap test session early Sunday morning by SCSC race director Ross Wallach. The engine sounded strong and ran a 117 MPH straightaway speed on the GPS. Chris took a convincing 1^st place in his qualifying heat and moved straight in to the final that would never be due to the wind and extremely rough water conditions. Overall Kenner took 3^rd place for the PS681 team for the weekend, newcomer Rick Ortega did a great job finishing 2^nd overall in PS32 and our little mate from Minnesota Dale Hernandez Jr. took the overall win for the Parker event in his PS690. This was Dale’s first overall win for his 2007 season west coast swing and from all of us at the Loud N Proud team, congratulations on a great job!!!

The next weekend of April 28 – 29 the team loaded up and head to the great northwest at Moses Lake, WA for the Pappa’s Casino Moses Lake Regatta. After a busy turn around during the week between Parker and Moses Lake to get all general maintenance done on both boats the guys loaded up and headed out late Thursday night only to have a fairly major engine problem with the teams GMC truck that hauls the teams SS68 trailer about two hours into the trip. Chris Kenner and team member Travis Stearns were then stuck on the side of interstate highway 5 for the next ten hours until a tow truck arrived to haul the GMC truck and 48’ race trailer (as one) back to the nearest Caterpillar dealer in Redding, CA for inspection and repair. We then had to come up with another truck and trailer to get the SS68 boat to Moses Lake. A borrowed trailer from our friend Buddy was delivered to us (many thanks to Buddy for helping us out at the last minute) and then team owner Jeff Brochheuser arrived with his F250, the boat and all associated equipment was transferred over and again the boys hit the road. Fourteen hours later arriving into Moses Lake at 4.45am Saturday morning.

Race day adorned us with 6 Super Stocks on hand. Brochheuser drove SS68 to a solid third place in his qualifying heat after a radio issue caused Jeff to miss the clock start by about 10 seconds putting him well behind the field at the start. With the radio sorted Jeff again took 3^rd place in Saturday’s final in some fairly rough water conditions as the wind came up across the lake. On Sunday Brochheuser drove his SS68 entry to another 3^rd place in the qualifying heat and had a great race in the final with Lenny Baker in his SS78 – Aquaholic Super Stock. With Brochheuser driving an awesome race, leading to the last lap when Baker got a run on Jeff coming out of a corner to take the lead and then the win with Brochheuser taking 2^nd place. Overall winners for the weekend in Super Stock were Lenny Baker - SS78 1^st place, 2^nd place went to Jeff Brochheuser – SS68 and newcomer Jeff Humphrey - SS535 took 3^rd place. Jeff Gibson was also very fast in SS31 taking out 1^st place in the first three Super Stock races of the weekend but unfortunately sat out the final on Sunday afternoon.

4 Pro Stocks were in attendance for the Moses Lake event. Kenner had a hard time in Saturday’s qualifying heat in the very rough water conditions and settled for 2^nd place behind Dale Hernandez Jr. in PS690. Fortunately the wind dropped off a lot for Saturdays final and Kenner made a great start hitting the clock right on zero and drove PS681 home to a win, closely followed by a hard charging Justin Davis who did a great job in 2^nd place. Again the wind was up on Sunday and so was the rough water with the PS boats getting launched in and out of water three times as the wind gusts went up and down. Finally the PS boats hit the water and Chris again settled for 2^nd place in the heat race behind PS690. But only just a George Woods Jr. driving Dave Villwock’s PS400 came up on the outside of Kenner on the last corner. It was then a sprint to the finish line with Kenner taking 2^nd place by about half a boat length over Woods. Sunday’s final came around and the water conditions were a little better but still not great. Chris had a better run at PS690 but Dale’s big course and rough water experience paid dividends as he again took the win. Dale also has a much heavier boat as opposed to the lighter PS681 Canary hull which helps. Hernandez Jr. took the overall and well deserved win in his PS690 for the weekend with Chris Kenner in PS681 taking 2^nd overall and in 3^rd place was Justin Davis in PS34.

Overall it was a great weekend at Moses Lake (Parker could have been a little better for us L) and it’s always good times to catch up with all of our friends up in Washington at the races. A big thank you must go to our hard working Loud N Proud crew. Hugh Gideon, Travis Stearns, Terry Lindblad, Jr. & Colene Davis, Cindy Brochheuser and the extra great help we had on hand in Washington, Tony Scarlata, Joey Grose, Craig Kinnaman and family. Thank you very much guys, everything you do is greatly appreciated. Racing is truly a team effort, without each and every one of you Loud N Proud Racing does not get to go play.

Our next event will be the 31^st IHBA Nitro Nationals in the quaint country town of Red Bluff in Northern California over Memorial Day weekend of May 25^th-27^th. Brochheuser will again be behind the wheel of his capsule SS68 for this event and all going to plan the PS681 boat will be converted to Super Stock trim for the “Aussie” Chris Kenner to drive. Kenner will also finally be back behind the wheel of Pat & Dian Breazeale’s K66 - Blown Brothers K boat entry. Some unexpected delays in getting some fiberglass work completed and parts made have prevented the K66 boat from hitting the water to date this year. Around 12 Super Stocks and 6 K Boats are expected to be in attendance for this years Nitro Nationals. Over 30,000 people will merge on the little NorCal town for what is always an awesome weekend. Kicking off with the Streets of Fire – Show ‘N’ Shine in downtown Red Bluff from 3.00pm on Friday afternoon and then racing action starting from around 8.00am both Saturday and Sunday. For further information about the IHBA Nitro Nationals go to www.rbdragboats.com