Gold Beach 2007The last time this race was run all the way to Foster Bar was as the last race of the 2000 Worlds. Since then, when it has been run, it was to Lobster Creek and back, which is basically the part of the course where you finally exhaled on your way back down river. The race was not run at all in 2005 and 2006.
Ryan Ringer and Tim Harding, and many others did the work and spent the money to get the long race back. It has to have been a lot of work as they pretty much had to rebuild it from scratch. They had several new environmental hoops to jump through, former sponsors to re-contact, new ones to acquire, lots and lots of co-ordination to work out. They also had to rebuild lots of the infrastructure, everything from signs at the boat ramps and beaches to a fleet of safety boats. Some of the people I saw doing all of that stuff where Tad Bell, George Edwards and Larry of Lex’s Landing. I am sure there were others.
It is true that the race this year was a shadow of its former glory days. Realistically, you couldn’t expect more than that, first run back out of the box, and I think there is more to come. All the parts are still there, the Calcutta, the dedicated former fans that came out for the race and of course the magic of Gold Beach racing on the lower Rogue River. All the stuff they set out to bring off happened and I think you could safely call this race a success. Look for bigger and better things in the future.
The turnout of race boats was thin, lots of carnage at the previous race, lots of carnage at this race. The basic facts are that 12 jetboats started Saturday morning in Gold Beach and 6 made it to the top, and then back to Gold Beach. Sunday, 8 boats started, 7 made it back to Gold Beach.
The Rogue was low, as low as I have ever seen it. The lower 20 miles had some shallow sandbars, the upper part was obvious lines and rocks way out so it was easy to read. Hugh McGinnis took us all for a preview run in one of the Mailboats big triple engine boats and pointed out all the really get-you stuff to us. A few places, like Shasta Costa, he ran us through a couple of times to get a really good look at it.
Saturday Racing
Starters:
Paul Bagshaw A-277 "Unpredictable"
Terry O’Keefe A-211 "RipTear"
Guy Anderson A-234 "Fluid Drive"
Ryan Ringer A-309 "The Kid"
Sam Heath BBFX-69 "Addicted"
Duane Carmont BBFX-55 "Revelation"
Grant Kudlac BBFX-75 "Miss Port Orford"
Jude Hostler BBFX-88 "Hoopa Rocket"
Mike Egbers SBFX-19 "Redbird"
Ron Pabst SBFX-15 "Footloose"
Scott Marshall SBFX-27 "Makin Bacon"
George Edwards SJ-08 "Totally Wicked"Saturday 12 boats started but 6 didn’t make it to the top:
Ryan Ringer detonated his flywheel on the first leg up. It exited mostly straight up and took the coil with it, so the motor shut off. The now non-steering boat ran straight as it slowed from 100+, got down to 20 mph or so, slightly turned and parked itself on a handy beach. As the nose touched the beach, parts were still raining from the sky and splashing into the river. Back to Gold Beach on the trailer. In the pits I took a look at the back of their motor. All that was left of the flywheel was a chunk of the hub that you could cover with your hand. The rest was gone, as was the coil. I also noticed several dents in the port side fuel tank and other shrapnel damage in odd places. The aluminum bellhousing didn’t appear to have been much of a barrier to the flight of the high-speed parts.
Duane Carmont made a Gold beach tulip out of an intake valve. The keepers had come off, the valve fell into the cylinder and the piston smacked it about a bit. It finally bent and stuck in the port and that’s a good thing, because it didn’t make any holes in anything. I think that the spring might have stayed under the rocker tip and that kept the lifter in the bore so he didn’t lose oil pressure. Or was it the spider and guide plates? They limped it back to Gold Beach under it’s own power and onto the trailer. The boat was hauled to Tim Harding’s shop and torn down. They then drove to a head rebuild shop in Brookings in search of a replacement valve. Found some valves, but all with the wrong size stem. They fought the good fight, but could not continue because they couldn't run down a valve with the correct sized stem. Duane says he is getting a spare head to carry with him to races.
Jude Hoslter pulled over at Lobster Creek with his brand new motor shooting pure steam out of the cooling dump. The gauge had been reading high and getting higher, then dropped back to pegged low, with steam blowing out instead of water. They trailered it back to Gold Beach and tried to figure out what was going on, but couldn’t find anything they could point to and say that was it. On testing, the temperature was a tiny bit high, but held steady so they thought they might try and make the start on Sunday.
Terry O'Keefe’s formerly trusty A-motor gobbled itself expensively. Sounded like there was lots of broken things in there. Terry is looking at putting together a BBFX motor for next year and indeed has a head start on the parts list already. Terry has done a good job this year, running as hard as he could and staying in the hunt.
Guy Anderson straightlined a very shallow spot and plugged the motor cooling system with sand. The big Ford then suffered severe heat exhaustion. Back to Gold Beach to clean everything out and test it. It would run sort of, but two holes were dead. Guy told me that before the unplanned detour, they had gotten a chance to really let the boat air out and they were very impressed by it’s top speed. This was the first time they had gotten to experience what their boat could do with a bit of straight river in front of it! That Ford has some grunt, best when on all eight though.
Mike Egberg’s motor lost a good-sized chunk out of the side of the block, and dumped hot steamy water everywhere. Back to Gold Beach on the trailer. This left Scott and Ron now dueling for a first place in Gold Beach! Scott made a small mistake and beached for a short time allowing Ron to get a minute or two lead on him, an all but insurmountable lead unless Ron did the something like it on Sunday.
The finishers of the first leg:
Paul Bagshaw A-277 "Unpredictable"
Sam Heath BBFX-69 "Addicted"
Grant Kudlac BBFX-75 "Miss Port Orford"
Ron Pabst SBFX-15 "Footloose"
Scott Marshall SBFX-27 "Makin Bacon"
George Edwards SJ-08 "Totally Wicked"That's six out of twelve and is made up of one A-boat, two BBFX, two SBFX and George and Tad and their trusty SJ. Six running boats made it back to Gold Beach from Foster Bar on Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning Jude was ready to try it again and Ryan, after a late night thrash and some borrowed parts was ready at the last minute for Sunday’s start.
Eight boats started:
Paul Bagshaw A-277 "Unpredictable"
Ryan Ringer A-309 "The Kid"
Sam Heath BBFX-69 "Addicted"
Grant Kudlac BBFX-75 "Miss Port Orford"
Jude Hostler BBFX-88 "Hoopa Rocket"
Ron Pabst SBFX-15 "Footloose"
Scott Marshall SBFX-27 "Makin Bacon"
George Edwards SJ-08 "Totally Wicked"Jude Hostler made it to Lobster Creek again and called it quits because he still didn’t trust the motor to behave. New boat, new motor and Jude is new to racing jetboats. Good call.
The other seven boats ran all the way to the top and all the way back to Gold Beach, Jude came back on the trailer. I did not hear of any incidents with them all weekend, except for Scott’s taking a break in the middle of leg one and Ryan flinging parts at the moon. Paul Bagshaw did show up back in Gold Beach on Sunday with a new rock dent from somewhere. The times show consistent pulls on each leg.
More than pulling their weight in making the show, the Hydros ran from the Illinois Bridge in Agness to Foster Bar and back twice on Sunday. To me it really looked like the big water is where they belong, they really come into their own there. I got to watch the McGinnis boys lead all four legs. Ryan McGinnis absolutely dominated the four Hydro legs for the win, Tyler McGinnis got second and Walter Schraber, a fairly new racer, took third. All three are local Gold Beach boys. I just love their starts.
The Gold Beach race is alive again, an infant at this point, and is a great tribute to Gold Beach and the people who put it all back together again. Well done!
Times and Points courtesy Judy and Paul Bagshaw.
TIMES
DAY 1 DAY 2 GRAND
Driver Class/BoatLeg 1 Leg 2 Total Leg 1 Leg 2 Total TOTALBagshawA 277 21:46 21:28 43:14 21:57 21:04 43:01 1:26:15
Ringer A 309 23:57f 27:54s 51:51 22:17 20:35 42:52 1:34:43
O'Keefe A 211 23:57f 27:54s 51:51 28:58s 27:23s 56:21 1:48:12
AndersonA 234 23:57f 27:54s 51:51 28:58s 27:23s 56:21 1:48:12
Heath BBFX 69 26:16 26:19 52:35 25:34 24:30 50:04 1:42:39
Grant BBFX 75 26:56 26:29 53:25 26:47 25:28 52:15 1:45:40
Hostler BBFX 88 29:38f 34:26s 1:04:04 29:28f 33:06s 1:02:34 2:06:38
Carmont BBFX 55 29:38f 34:26s 1:04:04 34:49s 33:06s 1:07:55 2:11:59
Papst SBFX 15 28:47 27:25 56:12 27:35 26:34 54:09 1:50:21
Marshall SBFX 27 31:40f 28:21 1:00:01 27:44 28:05 55:49 1:55:50
Egbers SBFX 19 31:40f 36:51s 1:08:31 36:03s 36:31s 1:12:34 2:21:05
Edwards SJ 05 37:51 30:59 1:08:50 32:45 30:52 1:03:37 2:12:27
POINTS Through Gold Beach and final US Championship Position
Dy1 Dy2 Tot YTD US Championship
A-Class
Bagshaw #277 400 350 750 3337.53 1stO’Keefe #211 DNF DNS 0 2306.26 2nd
Anderson#234 DNF DNS 0 450.00 3rd
Ringer #309 DNF 350 350 1150.00 4th
Miller #169A DNR DNR DNR 768.75 5th
B-Class
Longfel#169B DNS DNS 0 2356.26 1st
& MillerLabrum #163 DNR DNR 0 1691.68 2nd
Hanlin #188 DNR DNR 0 1064.59 3rd
BBFX
Heath #69 400 400 800 2750.00 1st
Carmont #55 DNF DNS 0 1293.75 2nd
Bradley #42 DNR DNR 0 1019.00 3rd
Saxon #70 DNR DNR DNR 700.00 4th
Hostler #88 DNF DNF 0 675.00 5th
SBFX
Egbers #19 DNF DNS 0 2756.79 1st
Papst #15 400 400 800 1564.69 2nd
Marshall #27 150 300 450 1184.19 3rd
Laforest #16 DNR DNR 0 765.50 4th
George #13 DNR DNR 0 1341.67 5th
Boice #07 DNR DNR DNR 1094.43 6th
Whitesi#140 DNR DNR DNR 345.02 7th
Sport Jet
Edwards #05 400 400 800 2587.50 1st
Weaver #08 DNR DNR DNR 824.34 2nd
Crawford #63 DNR DNR DNR 758.35 3rd
Jewkes #17 DNR DNR DNR 206.34 4th
Grant #24 DNR DNR DNR 66.67 5th
AWJA. US Championships rule: Your boat/team must compete in 3 of 5 races in the U.S. National Championship Series to be eligible for US Championship awards & prizes.