As the Michigan racing season starts to wind down, a fan favorite Wild Ones Regatta in Grass Lake, Michigan was in full swing. As I left the RV at 6:30 am the wind was already whipping and my hopes for racing were very low. Fortunately, Mother Nature was very kind to us and the wind never picked up. The water was lumpy throughout the day but it was more than good enough to get a full day of racing in. I am going to attempt to recap every class from the day, with the exception of marathon(too confusing to see who is winning for a simple short course guy like myself.)
J Classes:
JH was a classic heavyweight battle between the Hearn Motorsports drivers. With Kori Ladd nailing the start, the fans were convinced that she was off to the races. Not to be outdone by her sister, Ava sat back and took her time and ended up passing Kori for the win. If memory serves me correctly, Dom Trolian followed the HMS drivers in third.
Kori Ladd and Dominick Trolian's season long battle continued on Saturday as they raced deck to deck for two heats. Dominick's 62-N prevailed as he won both heats by a slim margin over Ladd.
AXR and AXH were an absolute clinic from Karissa Mitchell. She had the 50-S dialed in and had no issue with the competition in either class. Will we be seeing her in Seattle come February?
Stock Outboard:
ASH was easily the most exciting race of the weekend. Josh Toccolino and Laura Wheeler had a race that had the entire beach on their feet. They didn't leave each other's side for the entire 3 laps of the first heat and I am not afraid to admit I was almost brought to tears just watching the race. The 2nd heat was another awesome heat, but with Toccolino earning the inside lane, he was able to slightly pull away and secure the overall win.
ASR was once again the Peter Lauer show. Winning the first heat confortably followed by Wheeler and Nate Mitchell, he knew he just had to close them out heat 2. Mitchell jumped out to an early lead but was plagued by steering cable issues and Lauer was there to eat him up to win both heats.
15SSH was a blast from the past as Michael Sheperd won with a Hot Rod. With the ever so close competition, it was one of the most fun races to watch.
Peter Lauer once again proved that sometimes all you need to do to win is to be smart as he was the only boat to stay legal the first heat of 15SSR and the three time defending national champion took that to the bank for a race win.
Joel Kiddy of Georgetown, KY was the winner of an extremely competitive BSH class. A big shoutout to rookie Tyler Graves for running close to the front both heats in his third weekend in a boat.
CSH was the typical bloodbath you expect from Crazy Stock Hydroplane. Colin Smith took two heat wins over Mikey Pavlick to bring home the victory for the 199M. Quite a solid early birthday present.
12 CSRs took to the lake and put on a show. Defending champion Dean Sutherland took two heat wins but was not without a challenge. Perennial frontrunners Ryan Burdick and Tom Smith both crashed attempting to catch Dean in consecutive heats.
25SSR was another full field with 11 or 12 Yamato and Mercurys hitting the water. Dustin Pearson redeemed himself for his Lock Haven incident and won 25SSR going away. Tim Sidor had an excellent run but unfortunately fell out in the lumpy turn 1.
Colin Smith and Mikey Pavlick picked up where they left off at Wakefield and ran out front both heats in 20SSH. Pavlick played it conservative at the start and was rewarded with a heat one disqualification for Smith for jumping the gun. Expect years to come of these two doing battle weekly.
Finally, 300SSH was a masterful performance from Karl Armstrong. Off of his strong showing at the Wakefield nationals, he started where he left off and won both heats in 300ssh to secure the Saturday victory.
Congratulations to all the winners and we hope to have another great day of racing on Sunday!(P.S. This was thrown together driving back to the hotel from the pits so please excuse all the grammatical errors, remember it is about telling and not spelling :)
-MP
