July 23, 2009

Thunder Alley:

The roar of hydroplane engines was heard across the valley with the return of the Radio Waves Regatta to the Flathead River

By Aaric Bryan
Valley Journal

POLSON — Wind gusts reaching nearly 20 mph Sunday were enough to silence the roar of the engines capable of reaching speeds of 140 mph.
Most of the racing on the second day of the second annual Radio Wave Regatta on the Flathead River just below Polson’s Armed Forces Memorial Bridge was cancelled because the wind made it unsafe for the hydroplanes to race.
The racing was called off before many of the nearly 40 hydroplanes competing in the Unlimited Light Hydroplane Racing Association sanctioned event touched the water.
After bringing back hydroplane racing last year after nearly a 20-year hiatus, Dennis Anderson and his wife Nila, the owners of Anderson Broadcasting, did everything in their control to make sure the second year of racing ran more smoothly — unfortunately the two can’t control the wind.

Sunday, while things were running as smoothly as possible on land, things were choppy out on the water, as a steady wind blowing out of the southwest kept all five of the classes except the larger classes from running and kept causing delays. Eventually the gust of winds became too much and the racing was called off for a day.
Much like how Anderson went to work on fixing traffic flow and bringing in more food vendors after the inaugural Radio Waves Regatta last year, he is already working on a solution for the wind in next year’s regatta, by trying to bring in more entertainment to keep the audience engaged if there are delays or race stoppages.
“Obviously, you can’t control the wind, but you can keep the crowd entertained during the down time,” Anderson said.
After finishing second in a heat Sunday, Kelly Stocklin, the driver of the Unlimited Light-40 King and Bunny, said driving in the wind is tricky and there was about a 40 mph difference in his boat on the homestretch and backstretch. Stocklin said the pit crew can change the trim of the boat to adjust to the wind, but ultimately it’s up to the driver to keep the boat safe.
“You have to be really attentive and make sure it doesn’t go to the point of no return,” Stocklin said.
The unlimited lights were unable to run their B-heat and final-heat Sunday and the finishing results were based on the preliminary heats. Kayleigh Perkins, driver of the UL-72 Foster Care-Vitamin Water, was named the winner after winning both of her preliminary heats. With three races of the Unlimited Light’s Hydroplane Racing Association’s eight-race circuit finished, Perkins has a commanding lead in the unlimited lights.
The thunderboats, the largest of the five classes in the regatta, was the only class that was able to finish all four heats Sunday, with the G-17 Miss Ted’s Red Apple Market driven by Dustin Echols winning the class. Echols, who was also the winning driver in the Thunderboats in the Radio Waves Regatta last year, finished in front of the G-10 Titeflex Special-Wiggins Supply driven by Cal Phipps. Milton Wiggins, the owner of the G-10, and his seven-man crew traveled from Alabama for the regatta.
“We came a long way to see you,” Wiggins said.
The three inboard classes, the 5-liter, 2.5 liter stock and 1.0 liter classes were unable to run Sunday.
The weather was calmer on Saturday, but the action was wilder with a full day of racing and two boats crashing into each other and another running into a pier. During the warm period for the 5 liter class, the E-222 Power Punch driven by Steve Clark spun out entering the second turn on the 1 1-4 mile course right in front of the boat driven Nick Enderes. Enderes had nowhere to go and the two boats collided. Kip Brown, the driver of the E-55 won the class.
Last year, Anderson signed a three-year contract to sponsor the Radio Waves Regatta at the same site where his father Andy promoted the races in the 1970s and 1980s. At this year’s regatta, there were about 15 more boats than in the inaugural race and Anderson said the ULHRA has told him that the event in Polson had more participants than the seven other race sites.
While the number of participants was up, the number of spectators was down. Anderson predicted that the paid attendance was down by almost 50 percent from last year, but noted that the regatta fell on a weekend when there was a lot going on in the valley. The economic downturn and the heat also may have been a factors in the drop in attendance.
Despite the decrease in attendance, Anderson is committed to making the Radio Waves Regatta better each year for many years to come.
“I’ll keep doing this as long as they let me,” Anderson said.

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