Parker or Bust!

[647and918]

Steve, I know how you feel, getting "old" is not for sissies. But if you are a gambler, I'll bet the majority of the boats in your division DON'Tfinish 9 laps in front of you--if you finish the race. You name the bet and I will match it, if you keep the bet gentlemanly and I can afford it. Rod

...and takes your bet, he's nuts! If I think we can get to 50 or so laps, your bet means that the majority would have to get to 59-60 laps...

I updated some of the pictures and added a video from last years race to http://www.bluemaniaracing.com/Race_Pictures.htm but I have to warn everyone of a couple of things:

(1) The video is very long (about 20 minutes!) and you'll probably need a high speed connection to have a decent shot at viewing it... It was about 100MB even uploaded at low quality...

(2) My (then) seven year old was running the video camera... I cleaned the video up as much as possible, but it is what it is!

[steve sr.]

I'd take you up on the bet but I don't like betting against myself. If we finish the race we stand a chance for a 4th or 5th in div 6. Thats still saying alot of boats have to break. I think we belong in division 2 but I guess that would be to much to ask for.

[647and918]

I'd take you up on the bet but I don't like betting against myself. If we finish the race we stand a chance for a 4th or 5th in div 6. Thats still saying alot of boats have to break. I think we belong in division 2 but I guess that would be to much to ask for.

Division 2??? Easy now old man... One of us is able to get the brick going a little faster than that... Not much, but a little...

I'm hoping to bring my laps times down from 3:50 or so to 3:15-3:30 max... I don't think I can get this beast going any faster than that; it's just too heavy... Of course, if my co-driver had a pair he'd be able to keep up a little this year!!!

[steve sr.]

I'm not sure where this old man crap comes from. If you would please keep in mind that we had you at a very young age and your not that far behind me. Should I tell everybody which birthday you have comming up????? I know when I turned the big -0 I thought life was over as I knew it. I'm not even sure which wife I was married to then.

On a serious note. When you take the blue brick out to test you need to run it hard for a solid hour to see if there is enough gas in the side tanks to make it for an hour + a few minutes and also to make sure the tanks switch over OK. The idea of doing well and running out of gas dosen't thrill me. Also with the smaller props you'll pick up a few RPM you might want to mark the tach with a red line.

goin out to eat yak at you later

By the way nice pics on the web site. Sorry with this old computer cant do much with the video.....

The Old Man

[647and918]

I didn't say I wasn't getting old... For the record, I was pretty sure when you turned 40 that your life was over as you knew it too!!! As far as not knowing which wife you were married to at the time, most people on here will think that's because of old age and not due to the sheer volume of options...

I'll run hard for some extended time period before the race... I'm considering having a center tank made for the race (and pulling the side tanks out)... I figure 40-50 gallons ought to do the trick (guestimating 32 gph for 1.1 hrs @ 90 mph to go 100 miles is 35.6 gallons)...

I'd mark the tach with tape like you suggested, but I can figure out how to do that with the digital tach! Seriously though, I wouldn't worry too much about it... I don't think I'd go lower than a 28, and I don't think we'll pick up that much RPM doing that...

I knew the video would be impossible for you to look at from home... You aren't missing all that much... I took the REALLY shaky parts out and it is still prone to causing motion sickness in places... I put in the loud obnoxious music that you used to love me listening to in order to distract people from the video quality...

When you let the seven year old run the video camera and take most of the pictures, you get what you get... I thought he did a pretty good job, but I did have to cut out the 15 minutes of following the butterfly around and the 5-10 minutes of water washing up on shore!

Hey Rod, how about this... If we run the whole race and crack the top 10, I'll buy you dinner... If we run the whole race and are outside that, you buy dinner... I'd be willing to substitute a round or two of drinks instead of dinner if you'd like!

[steve sr.]

Watch who your giving away dinner to. If the secret weapon drives we could be in the top three. You know the 200 or so pound savings over you will up the speed by at least 4 to 5 mph, and he's like you when you were much younger he'll wear a hole in the bottom trying to mash the gas peddle thru it.

If the side tanks work why switch them out. A center tank won't be real nice in a ski boat, but then I guess most of our "ski boats" had center tanks, and they were ski boats, at least someone skied behind them (even if it was guys like Chuck Stearns or Chuckie Jernigan).

Watch the race today. He has a real challange coming from 41st to the front. My guess is he'll be lapped by lap 30. Why do I always root for the pack fillers. I guess I just like the underdogs (sorta like racing Fords).

Well all for now, and by the way it was number 4..........

[647and918]

I was actually thinking that the center tank would pretty much be in just for races and I'd use the side tanks for playing... It's easy enough to take them in and out... Right?

I'm going to try to go to Parker even if I don't run Nostalgia... It's an excuse to see how we're running on the GPS at the river... If you can talk your wife into letting you go, I'll cover the hotel (you're on your own for your room if she wants to come with you)... All you have to worry about is gas to get there and food... If you can get Jodie there, we can get him some time behind the wheel... I'm sure someone has a vest he can borrow for a little bit... It's not quite a 200 pound difference (smart a$$), but I'm sure it will make a big difference...

I don't know about your buddy being a lap down after 30 laps... Did he run that many laps? You should have known better than to think he was going to do well... He's at his best when they have to make RIGHT turns too (apparently that confuses most of the rest of them)...

[vishus]

I'll bring some props to Parker. I will have my boat as well. Where is good to stay? The Bluewater has been booked for the last couple of weeks...
I have heard that the Kofa Inn, Best Western or El Rancho may be good options.. I want some place that the family will be happy with. The kids are going to be pissed that they can not go to the waterpark at the Bluewater...

sid

[647and918]

Sid,

I haven't stayed at any of the others. I know that they're on the "overflow" list, but not whether or not they're decent... When we went last year we stayed way up by the dam... It wasn't too bad, but was quite a hike to get back for the race... The owners were pleasant enough and we had lots of space to work on the boat, but not much for the kids to do (mine entertained himself trying to find out how fast he could run while he was carrying the GPS around with him)...

Suggestions anyone?

Steve...

[steve sr.]

Hey you were in charge of rooms this time not me. Boy I'm glad I'm off the hook for this one. You know your right the place we stayed wasen't that bad. I could bring potato salad and we could have brauts and burgers. One of the nice things was that they had kitchens and everything you needed to cook and eat. I'm not picky just let me know.....