I thought the "waterfowl" was going to get the cover. if i had a subscription i would cancel.

U3-Unlimited===> Piston Power
 

It would be very interesting to see if the Vacationville U3 Unlimited would consider running. It's running a WWII Allison and set the lap record of 160+ around a 2.5 mile course at the races in San Diego.
marc

on the fly
 

swoosh

I havent seen my copy yet I hope they put a good picture of both of the Callen boats are very sweet. It was said the winner would be on the cover of Powerboat to much temptation for Bud to let that slip by. I to can remember the days when boats that ran LOTO won the two classes sounds like a good idea dont know how you could make it work.

There has always been a few retired raceboats running in the shootout. The first one I went to was 1990 and Dan Campbell ran the retired K.C. Aerospace boat and won. Then there was a series of true pleasure boats including a pleasure turbine boat that took the top gun honors. Even Bob Morgan ran a bunch of pleasure boats until the last few years. But the boat that raised the bar to a level where raceboats were needed was Dave Scotts first 36' Skater.
He was beating retired raceboats with that one and it was a true pleasure boat, I saw it out many weekends just cruising the lake. When he started running over 150 MPH I didn't blame him for wanting a canopy but that changed the compexion of the event.
I think of the Callan boat as being on par with Howard Arnesons boat. It truly should be in a seperate catagory. I asked Howard once if he thought that turbines would ever be a good power plant for a pleasure boat and his reply as he looked at his boat was "I think they already are". In his mind that was a pleasure boat. To the rest of us it was an exhibition boat.
I dont feel at all bad about Miss Bud winning. Unless you want to restrict it to boats that are running every weekend at the lake you are going to get people with real raceboats coming in to take the prize. The event has grown way beyond what it was in 1990.
The Top Gun Honors are going to go to purpose built boats from now on. The rest of us will have to step up or be happy with class wins.
Steve

You're still missing the point. It's not the fact that Miss Bud entered and won the Top Gun honors. That's fine if they want to enter her in the race. It's the fact that they ran her ALL weekend with the intention of just exhibition runs and then put her in the competition after Bacardi got beat.

Buck
#183

And I still do not understand your problem with that. They ran competition and exhibition and it was clearly stated which runs were for the title. As spectators we got the benifit of watching both.
Miss Bud won by the rules in place at the time of the competition. What else is there to understand?
Steve

I was at the shootout as well, and I agree that it wasn't that the Bud boat won, it was the fact that it wasn't entered until Saturday night! It seemed like a very suspect way of winning. Add that to the fact that the Bud boat had been there MANY times before and only run as an exhibition boat. What changed this year? Callan kicked some serious ass, that's what changed.
I think they deserve a big atta-boy for their efforts, as well as David Scott for his PISTON powered boat. He was awesome too.
My opinion is have turbine classes, but the Top Gun should still be the fastest boat on the lake! If it is a race boat, so be it, just enter it BEFORE the race like everyone else.:rolleyes:

I agree...S.O. If the Bacardi boat was whipping everyones ass then the BUD boat would not have entered...kinda like their ace in the hole...Maybe this will bring on change...after all..who would have expeted Turbine boats to be so commen...?..and fast...sooner or later they have to look at the safety issues to...the boats will only be getting faster and faster...Classes would be a good Idea...not sure of the breakdown but their could be many class winners and still be a overall topgun award...it seems that their are only a handfull of contenders now...which forces alot of guys with nice boats to hang it up...look at Big Thunder....all of a sudden 4000 hp is not enough...a pic..

4000HP
 

4000hp might be enough, except Morgan says he needs more distance to get that big SOB up to speed. It takes a mile to get rolling, rules state that you have to start from the same place as every one else. I say lets open it up to run on a regular weekend with all the waves and see who can do what! After all we run in that stuff every week. Actually just kidding, it would be to dangerous to run in the LOTO rollers at full speed. Even though in the beginning of the Shootout they did not have it a no wake area.