louietherigger

We had a 3 day vacation with all our friends, got in Thursday night,Friday set up at the pits, enjoyed seeing everyone, The Marina or wet pits had a great party for us, with prizes and auctions (bought a painting of and old Chris Craft Race Boat),
the band was great, the fans were great. Saturday we tested props, the water way was a little congested with boats looking to see the race boats, so we had to be extra cautious testing, this could also be why the kilo run didn't happen. (though we wanted to run it, the safety issues rule). Both days were close to 90 degrees. Sunday it was clouding, as we completed our physicals the storm blew in, it was on and off till noon( the start of the 1st race) when it came down in buckets. Around 2:30 the course was checked and visiblity was limited and the race was officially called off, 2 hrs later, to put salt on the wound it cleared up. The shore line was packed with spectators, A guy stopped us on the road and said he had 200 people at his home on the water, he told us thanks for making the trip and the effort, and he will see us at St.Clair , good guy, he lifted our spirits. As far as pictures go, we will be posting them in the next few days. "Strictly Business 206" thanks Smitty, Boomer, Al, Mike, Doreen, the OPA, GLOPRA,the People of Michigan who worked hard putting this together. And we thank the Racers, Old and New(watch out Tyler and Dukes, RG3 is on a mission!)

Thanks,Louie

PS. Wahoo and Unleashed dodged a bullet, there's gonna be 2Fountains in Ocean City.

Lucididee

Just got home, I'll have what pics I got soon.

Just wanna thank a few for making my 1st race on MI a blast. The entire crews of Strictly Business, On The Chip, JC Perfomance, Papa Dukes, Wanted, Wahoo & Wicked. Smitty thank you for letting me be part of the event. And a Big thank you to Ray and his crew on the Sea Ray on turn 2. They made an outta towner feel at home. And huge THANK YOU to those that volunteer and expect nothing in return. It was also great seeing you guys again and meeting some new ones. So, if I don't see you MI boyz in OC, I will see ya again in St Clair.

RG! I miss u already

(Sorry for not posting pics earlier the wireless connection in the room prevented me from posting pics the same day as the race, plus I had other duties to tend to during the day. Give me about 1-2 hrs to get what pics I took up and available)

sleepy_pirate

It was not a excalibur, sorry to get yout hopes up. It was a predator.... The Sleepy Pirate was running the Motorcity Offshore 519 #'s. A decision that was made at about 1am sunday morning.

special thanks to Smitty and all the OPA guys who jumped through hoops to get us in the sho at the last minute. these guys were calling in the fire department for a physical for me and checking out the boat all in about the last 45 minutes before the race. We really appreciate the extra effort to help a new team get in the race!!!

Damn you mother nature!

nocigarette

I love boat races so dont get me wrong.. But how many of those boats even ran on saturday.......I am not here to start chit, i just wish there was more i could due to help the sport.......I get frustrated that it is not advertised enough.......

Every friend i have brought to the races wants to come back every year..........

32tempest

Hello Everyone,
Just wanted to put things in perspective for the Algonac Race. When the OPA arrived in town we had found out that the advertising group had some issues with advertising the race. However, we were shocked to see the 2 large set of bleachers, 3 huge beer tents (sponsored by local Algonac Restaurants and pubs) and at least 12 smaller tents that had spectators in them. The town had a limit of time for the testing on saturday (which was quite a beautiful day considering the weatherman predicted downpours) which was from 1pm to 4pm. This is the first time where we had 14 boats that wanted to test. The usual count is around 6-8. No race boat is allowed to test until their registrations are complete. Since it is the first race of the season, it took time to complete that. The Kilo Runs did not go off because of the timeframe we had for the testing permit. The fans did get a taste of boats running on Saturday. This is what brought them back on sunday, umbrellas and all.
Sunday was quite an eventful day. It started off clear with a thought that we really had a good window to race early. We got the crane guy to start putting boats in early so that we could possibly start the 1st race before the storms hit. (Thanks to Pete the owner of the marina to get that started)However, We had medics giving physicals in the morning, and while all of the racers were in the building they all sat there in awe when we saw a huge crack of lightning go across the sky and the downpours were unbeleivable. One storm came in after another. We were still adamant that the race will go! I pulled out into the rain on the start/finish boat with every intention of seeing a boat race. The sun gods were obviously not present! While I sat there on the start/finish boat hoping that we would go, I could see every one of those tents filled with race fans along with people sitting in the bleachers in the rain under tarps. With the downpours and the storms, we were all quite unhappy that we could not get a window to race. The coast guard permits only allow us to race until 4pm and at 1:30pm the race was officiallly called off. There were a few racers in the water though that had a chance to parade around the race fans at the spectator area to at least give them something. If someone could please bring the sun gods to the next race, we would appreciate it.
The Algonac Harbour Club was quite accomodating with allowing us to use their facilities for registration, drivers/volunteer meetings, drivers physicals, and storage for our registration equipment. Although Sunday was a rain out, I can't beleive all of the positive attitudes that the racers had here in spending their time and money to come up to this race event and not be able to run. Thank you to all of the 23 boats that participated in the hopes of racing that day. OPA Registrars

Wazzup Racing

I think some are confused. Algonac was scheduled for testing only on saturday. A speed run is completely different from a kilo run. To set up a proper Kilo run, can cost more than an entire race. The amount of equipment and officials, that you need is staggering. Smitty

Racegirl3

Same Girlie! Long bad day today. Ill call you tomorrow

Raypanic

I was there by boat both days, I seen most of the boats test on saturday. Sunday was a complete washout, I came from anchor bay and just before we go to the dry pits the fog was like a wall, very thick. We anchored at the west end and waited until they called it. I was bummed. I think it was the weather casters that messed up saurday as they were calling for rain all day. Sunday was just a rainy foggy day, nothing could of saved it. Usually the Race is very well attended and very exciting. too bad this year.

Thanks OPA for a great effort!

TylerCrockett

iTrader: (1)

George and I ran the Crockett Rocket Saturday to a blistering 69.9 for the first water test on the new Joker boat

SHARKEY-IMAGES

Perhaps this was where the confusion started Smitty:
Schedule of Events

I was only going by what was advertised. I thought it to be a bit strange myself.

That was why I was asking....