June 30, 2008

Formulaboats.com team comes away from Evansville in better shape

TEAM CONFERENCE—Ted Porter, owner of the Formulaboats.com Racing Team based in Decatur, Ind., talks to Tom Anderson, crew chief for the U-5 boat crew, during a break in the action on Sunday leading up to the Thunder on the Ohio Gold Cup final. Other members of the team are huddled around on their dock. (Photo by Paul Beitler)

BATTLING FOR SECOND—Mike Allen, driver of the Formulaboats.com U-7 unlimited hydroplane craft, tries to keep up with Steve David in the U-6 Oh Boy! Oberto boat (right) during the finals of the Thunder on the Ohio race Sunday in the Evansville Gold Cup race. (Photo by Paul Beitler)

EVANSVILLE — “Both boats are right side up,” said Mike Allen, driver of the Formulaboats.com U-7 hull Sunday, after placing third in the final heat race of the 30th Thunder on the Ohio unlimited hydroplane race.

Allen was making reference to what happened last year when both of the Formulaboats.com boats flipped in the third heat.

The Formula boats were not the only ones that flipped. So did the boat driven by French-Canadian driver Jean Theoret.

Theoret also came out of this year’s Freedom Festival event in the Pocket City with much better results.

He was the overall winner of the Thunder on the Ohio, taking a big lead over Steve David in the U-6 Oh Boy! Oberto and Allen.

Allen’s teammate, driver Jeff Bernard of the Formulaboats.com U-5 hull, also had a better finish than a year ago, placing fourth.

“Overall, it was a good weekend for Formula. We would have liked to have done a little bit better obviously with a win, but both boats were chasing a lot of things over the weekend,” said Allen from Destrehan, La. “It was a tremendous effort by the crews. Nobody knows what they go through.”

After leaving the Thunder ninth or tenth in points last year and both boats torn up, Bernard was in concurrence with Allen.

“Everything worked great with the crew,” said Bernard, who is now third in the American Boat Racing Association (ABRA) points standings with 1,209 points. Theoret is first with 1,405 and David follows with 1,269. Allen is fourth with 1,102.

Six different boats won the six elimination heats for the first time in the history of the sport, so the final was wide open.

“I think the team did real well,” said Formulaboats.com team owner Ted Porter from Decatur. “We won heats with both boats and we both made it to the finals which was much better than last year.

“We’re optimistic. Like I said, the boats are better dialed in now. We can go out and run in heat conditions and do well. The drivers have more seat time,” added Porter whose team is in its third year on the ABRA circuit.

Allen’s team opted to go conservative with the U-7 in the final, five-lap race and be on the safe side and be able to drive the boat under the less-than-favorable water conditions.

“That kind of played into our favor,” said Allen.

He was able to handle the choppy water and windy conditions.

Theoret, out of Maple Grove, Quebec, maneuvered his Miss Beacon Plumbing hydroplane into the inside lane during the staging period before the flying start and took the advantage over the other six drivers.

“I made big a move getting lane one going to the backstretch, then put the Beacon Plumbing out and front and that was it,” said Theoret. “I still had some great racing with Steve David, but I was able to hold him off.”

Bernard was pleased to finish the race but was disappointed by coming up fourth. He knew that he had to get a better start instead of ending up in the fifth lane on the start.

“Had we had lane one, we had something for them. I know that for a fact,” said Bernard. “I kind of let down the team. I made a bad start and just got snookered on a new rule. It’s not my favorite thing, but I guess everybody has to run the same rules. Only we got beat by it today and hopefully next weekend (at Madison) and going to Detroit, we’ll continue on the pace that we’re going and pick up our final heat positions.

“It was disappointing for how hard my crew worked, but last year we were strapping these (boats) down pretty broken going into Madison and we’re not this year,” Bernard added.

The Madison Regatta is one of the oldest races and it has a storied past.

“It’s a pretty tough course,” said Porter. “It has extremely tight turns. It’s a narrower, but longer course. So, maneuvering is limited compared to here. When you have three or four boats coming down the stretch there, they’re real tight.”

Allen said that the team will have its work cut out with the challenges of finding the right setups for the race and putting all the variables together into a winning package.

“We’re looking forward to next week and to just keep going on,” said Allen. “It’s still early in the season, so we’re real respectable.”

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