Valleyfield, Quebec

July 14-15, 2012

J and Fae Report part 2

 

Now, let's start over. After crowning Friday's champions everybody had a clean slate and a fresh chance to get the job done. Back to the ACHA format- three elimination chances, consys and finals.

 

Saturday morning about 10 am the action revved up with the stockers. Again, the water was choppy for a little while leaving turn two a tricky proposition. That became obvious as the heat 1b field got to that area. Steve Armstrong (CS-11) Total Chaos and Nicolas Rousse (CS-225) L'Oiseau Bleu hooked out. As they both attempted to restart a collision occurred with Nicolas' boat ending up propped up on top of Steve's. Thankfully, both were ok and both hulls returned later. Meanwhile 12 manic heats set six finalists followed by adding two more in the consys. Eight hard chargers survived. Before we discuss the final how about a shoutout to Dominic Demers (CS-44) Wave Dancer. He missed the final but he is improving every week so lookout for him next week. The final saw several gun jumpers to confuse things. Donald Leduc (CS-48) Cannonball was battling Rob Stevenson (CS-10) Wet Spot all the way for what looked like third place but was actually for first. Donald (CS-48) drove the wheels off in the middle lane to nip Rob (CS-10) by a foot. After coming through the consy that was one whale of a win. Mathieu

Lemelin (CS-7) Lemelin Racing took third in a wild final.

 

T boats again belonged to Leanna Richards (T-777) Steeler. She got the cool dock interview after a smooth victory in her immaculate hull. (A mini version ofthe GP). Her dad, Jeff Richards won a few Valleyfield titles over the years. John Shaw (T-1) Trophy Hunter and Michael Tremblay (CT-11) Timothee Special  completed the podium. The T's put on a good show.

 

H boats put on another "on the edge" show as Stephane Racine (H-44) Dreamer found out in the scoreup for heat 1a. He was a little late and oops, he blew it over on the backstretch. He was ok and the hull sustained some damage and could not return. Nine elimination and two consys later we were set for the final. Could anyone stop Stormin Norman Ensbury? Norm (H-99) Ocr Racing had the pin with Mathieu Daoust (H-9) The Dog and Marc Lecompte (H-104) Napa Racing alongside. Mathieu (H-9) ran into Niagara Falls in turn one so it was Norm (H-99) and Marc (H-104) cote de cote for five laps. Norm (H-99) pulled it out and headed to the interview dock but Marc (H-104) had jumped the gun. Marco Poirier (H-333) Inferno and Claude Bergeron (H-007) Bergeron Racing moved up to the podium. Marc's boat was the (H-666) El Diablo last year. The H boats were quick!

 

GP boats collided in nine eliminations to set up a final with five boats on the front line and three trailers. After watching the heats and studying the web sites we thought we had a handle on who those eight positions would be. Wrong!  We were about 45% off. Anyway, eight bombers roared out in a heat that RDS TV will be proud to show later this year. (RDS is the Canadian ESPN). Patrick Haworth (GP-57) Why had the pin as the field thundered into turn one. However, he looped back around as if he missed a buoy. Now, Marty Wolfe (GP-93) Renegade took over with incredible acceleration off the corners. Was it Marty's turn at Valleyfield? Uh oh, here came Bert Henderson (GP-777) Steeler going at warp speed, turning like a tunnel boat, and going on by. See ya. He ran to the checkers ahead of Marty and Norm Shannon (GP-104) Pieces D'Auto Valleyfield. The (104) is really coming on lately. Bert is a popular champion and the  crowd was ecstatic for his interview. The GP class has unreal speed but we think it is that wonderful noise that blows up your senses. They are tres excellente bateaus!

 

Well, that's all we got except one final fact. A giant salute to Leanna Richards, Donald Leduc, Norm Ensbury and Bert Henderson for becoming clean sweep champions on Friday and Sunday. Can anyone believe that is possible at Valleyfield? That's what I thought.    See ya at Waterford.   J and Fae