ULHRA racers can race when it rains. They can race when it's very hot, like it can be in Phoenix, AZ. However, throw in high winds and a sand storm, well that's where flexibility ends, if not for the racers themselves, certainly for the crane operators that cannot lift heavy hydroplanes in high winds and maintain control. Thus, the 2010 season opener presented by Trafficade and WarningPower.com at Firebird International Raceway, just outside of Phoenix AZ. was ended prior to running the Final Heat.
Declared winner of the race was rookie driver Kevin Eacret in the UL-11 Power Punch Performance
Lubricants-ROXY Radio 94.5-K&N Filters. Eacret outscored Wil Muncey in the
UL-00 WarningPower.com and Bob Smets in the UL-20 Smetco.com. Those three qualified for the F1 Final on the three boat Firebird course, but high winds prevented the running of the Final.
Fourth place went to Kayleigh Perkins in the UL-72 Foster Care-Change a Lifetime. She and Smets tied for third place with 800 points but Smets had the faster overall elapsed time. Fifth Place went to Paul Becker in the GO NAVY-Miss Critical Logic UL-14 and sixth place to Dan McCulloch in the UL-77 Coulee Miss. Perkins, Becker and McCulloch would have been in the F2 Final competing for fourth place if the winds had subsided.
In other ULHRA racing at Firebird, Arizona's own Mike Schroeder in the E-23 Hot Spot took top honors in 8 cylinder stock in the Lighter than LIGHTS series, followed by Steve Clark in the E-222 Mattson Construction - Power Punch while Kevin Eacret and Joey Perkins shared the ride in the E-36 Kidd Mechanical and wound up third.
Bianca Bononcini was declared the victor in the four cylinder modified LTL series, outpointing Nick Bononcini by 1000 to 925.
The Crackerbox Pro series did complete its event before the winds made racing impossible. Jim Mathew driving P-87 In the Mood defeated Brett Marshall in the P-144 The Rebel. Matt Bookey in P-45 Sparkler took third with Bob Overcash in P-80 Hot Cinders taking fourth place.
Race number two for ULHRA racers will be at Chamberlain Oacoma SD on June 19th & 20th.
John Lynch
"Voice" of ULHRA Racing
