Marine Stadium Sprints to Life

**GotHalos** · 08-08-2013, 10:43 AM

A story by GotHalos

8/9/13

Let’s start off by getting this out of the way, the Long Beach Sprint Nationals are an absolute must see event for any type of boating enthusiast. Many of you are probably tired of hearing this by now, but let me say this, this event has just moved to the top of my all time favorite boating events ‘list’.

Both sides of Marine Stadium were jam packed with people at this point, and it was only 10a.m. on a Saturday morning. The weather was being cooperative for the most part, a slight breeze, overcast, but fairly warm.

By the time racing was well underway the sun would poke through the clouds and light up the course to fans delight. If you want to be up close and personal to the fastest boats in circle boat racing may I suggest you spectate from the R.V side of the marina (where the rocks are). At any point in any one of the races, you may find a boat no less than 15’ away from you at speeds over 115 M.P.H. Exhilarating, to say the least.

[K66 of Ty Newton]

May I also add that at no point during the race did I feel unsafe, the SCSC crew and security did a great job keeping spectators at an appropriate distance and out of the water while the race course was live. Hats off to the entire crew involved with SCSC for doing an excellent job all weekend.

With over 80 boats competing in different classes the entire weekend was packed with the best side by side racing action I have seen. For me the highlight of the weekend was the KRR class. The fastest boats on the water put on an absolute show. Eight boats competed and at the end of the weekend the 136 boat driven by Robby Devine, owned by Tom Buckles, took the deserving overall victory, with the 24 bat of Steve Sequeira coming in a close second.

[Robby driving for team Buck$ Up]

Robby was busy all weekend driving a few different boats and also winning a number of different heat races. Any one of the eight drivers could have taken the ‘W’ as the KRR class was very competitive and very, very fast. This also brings me to the most serious accident of the weekend. The K-034 boat of Chris Irick went over in the LCQ event on Sunday. Thankfully, Chris walked away from the incident and is now recovering from some pretty major bruising and soreness. He could not have asked any more from his SRP gear as it worked to perfection and kept him safe in one nasty spill.

[Chris Irick in the 034 boat]

The Grand National class also had a strong showing at the LBSN event. Six boats competed throughout the weekend with 24 Joey Cucci/Ted Kolby winning the overall in “The Body Snatcher”. The grand nationals put on another great show with some of the closest side by side racing action of the weekend. (Pictured below)

One of the larger classes of the weekend was that of the Pro Stocks. Nine boats competed for the weekend title with Robby Devine driving for Tom Buckles taking the win. The 741 boat of Greg Shirley/Danny Loveless came in second while the 55 boat of Ade Bloomfield finished third overall.

[Robby Devine]

The cracker box class was also pumping with competition all weekend long. These tandem rides are a blast to watch as the co-dog can often be seen turned around looking for the competition. The boats hop, skip and slide around the course in a manner very un-similar to the rest of the boats. Winner of the cracker box overall would be 92 boat of Mike Schatz/Cole Noble.

All in all it was a relatively safe weekend and a blast watching the entire lineup put in some FAST laps. Ross and the entire crew over at SCSC did an amazing job as the race had a very smooth and fast pace. Big thanks to all sponsors and supporters involved in making this race a success.

More overall winners in their respective classes include: Super Stock overall- Kyle Bement, SST 45- RJ West/Chuck Skelton, ASH- C David Hale and COMP. Jet- Tom Bandy/John McClure

For full results please visit the SCSC website at: http://www.scscracing.com
Or click here: http://www.hotboat.com/frm/showthrea...BOAT-COM/page2