RACE REPORT
MAY 25-26, 2002

Warm weather brings an early start to boating. For a Floridian, this means it’s only a few weeks of cool weather, so “it doesn’t feel nice enough to go boating”. For a Canadian this means waiting for the lakes to thaw.

Our pre-season testing consisted of 20 minutes with temperatures near freezing. It was snowing in the morning when we prepared the boat. Five days later we were in Florida with temperatures near 80° F.

The Altamonte Springs course conducted on a small pond in an office park, consisted of a pit area on the sand dunes and grass. Hot. It was a shock to the system. That’s Florida. This year, it did not rain. The Sunshine State.

With 16 boats in Formula Three, we were randomly divided in two groups. Though one group was heavily weighted with the favourites, it was random but unfortunate I was in that group. I don’t recall the first heat now, but the second heat saw me jump the start. This is the first time I’ve ever jumped a start in now my 6th season. Why? The flagger lowered his lower elbow about 4”, I went, he raised his arm back up, then when I was 200’ off the dock, dropped the flag. Others noticed this and indicated their boats didn’t start and that’s the only reason they did not jump it too. Perhaps he made a mistake. I still left early, but we’re conditioned to go when the flag lowers.

The penalty for jumping the start contributed to me not qualifying in the top 4 in my group. This led to a last chance qualifier, in which only the winner would advance. In the first start, polesitter Bill Mastro rolled his boat in corner one. At the time I was in about 4th place. On the re-start, I got into second position behind Howie Nichols where I would finish about 5 seconds behind him. It was a seemingly perfect ride by Nichols. This time, the phrase “second place really is the first loser” certainly applies.

What a bad start to the season. Last season ended with this same event and I failed to qualify by a few feet. With one “throw out” race for the points championship, this may be it. Sure makes for a really long drive home.

With the sound of the F2 class ringing off the hotel walls, and after a quick swim in the hotel pool, we set out for home. Stopping for fuel in Savannah, Georgia, little did we know this would be the end of our travels for the day. We had planned to travel at least two or three more hours to lessen the drive on Monday. The water pump seal broke in the Astro van, so we poured cooler water in thru the radiator to get us as far as a hotel to inquire about room availability. Then we put more water in the radiator and drove to Wal-Mart on the direction that they might have a water pump. No luck. Back to the hotel on more water(a 10 minute drive with the engine temperature reading in the red). So, it was off to the hotel. The receptionist through the very inviting bullet-proof glass provided the three of us with a room. We entered the room and raised the light switch. No reaction. The television didn’t work. Can you believe there was no power to this room? The clerk indicated maintenance had been told about this before….THANKS, really helps us. I’d hate to mention the hotel chain, but this Inn had certainly seen better Days.

After Rainer changed the water pump on the U.S.’s Memorial Day Monday holiday, the remainder of the trip was relatively uneventful.