Sport Hydro, and P Mono.
All of the classes qualified with three
or more boats with B Mono have six
boats at every race. It wasn’t as
competitive in nature as other races.
Don’t get me wrong. We raced hard but
the fun factor was definitely way up
there. Some of us entered anywhere from
two to five boats so we made sure that
there was no pressure. The most
entertaining part to me was watching all
of these radios come out to the race with
long antennas.
I took care of the donuts and Kim
Grim (Mark’s wife and racer) took care
of the coffee and lemonade and arranged
for Subway sandwiches and dessert for
lunch. Other than lake fee costs, the
entry fees collected went back to the
boaters. For awards, we gave out gift
cards. Amazon, Bed Bath and Beyond,
Panda Express, Cold Stone Creamery,
Starbucks, and Subway. Awards were
given out to the top two in a three boat
class to the top four in a six boat class
and the more boats in the class, the more
value the gift card for winning.
The races were so successful, that we
had a meeting at the end of the year and
the guys wanted us to do it again.
During this same period of time, the
Southern California Scale Thunderboat
Association club was having difficulty
with their turnouts. Mark was the
President of the club at the time and
came up with an idea of our races
merging with the scale clubs races.
PROPWASH
10
April 2016
Nitro Strong in 19
By Al Waters
NAMBA Executive Secretary
A couple of years a go, Mark Grim
(host of many NAMBA Time Trials and
current NAMBA Vice President) and I
were talking one day at a race and
wondered if we could get the nitro boats
back out of the closet and on the race
course.
In District 19 there is a rule (and one
that works very well) that a minimum of
five boats must enter a class for the class
to qualify at a district points heat race.
Too many times there were classes with
three boats entered and sometimes a
person couldn't make the race. A two
boat class is no fun and we couldn’t get
through the day with the bigger classes
as it was. With that being said, nitro
really fell by the wayside.
Mark and I sat down and put a plan
together and approached District
Director Richard Romero for his
permission to run a couple of stand alone
single day district nitro races. Don
Maher, another District 19 model boater
suggested asking the FE boaters if they
would be interested in joining us as they
really didn’t have a series to race in.
After all was said and done, we put
on three one day races for nitro and FE.
We ran A Mono, B Mono, CX Mono, A
Tunnel, B Tunnel, Sport 40-2, 1/2 A
Hydro, A Hydro, B Hydro, CX Hydro, P
Ltd Tunnel, P Ltd Tunnel, P Ltd Sport
(Continued from page 9)
News In District 20
have helped so many get up to speed in
these classes. Even the most diehard gas
and nitro boaters are making the move
to classes like Q Mono, Q Sport, Q
Rigger and now Q Tunnel which is
coming in 2016.
It has only been a few short years
since we were 95% gas and nitro on any
given weekend of racing only now to
see Spec and Q FE classes filled. I have
a Q Sport being built and I am already
looking to add a Q mono very soon,
which is only one of six FE boats being
built in the district over the winter. Of
course there are always some under-
cover building going on.
We have also seen a growth in clubs
over the last year and a half in Colorado.
Mile High Modelers and 5280 Racing
and a new club in Utah called Throttle
Up Utah Boaters which takes our club
total to seven between three states. The
VP of TUUB wanted me to share this
message to everyone. “We thank
District 20 and NAMBA for the ability
to create another club and are working
very hard to provide a FUN filled
astrosphere that everyone will be proud
of”.
The entire district looks forward to
seeing the growth of all of our clubs for
the 2016 season. You can expect to
see Mile High Modelers and Throttle Up
Utah Boaters hosting FUN run events
this year in preparation of bidding for a
heat points series race in 2017.
I am greatly looking forward to
seeing everyone at the lake soon!
