White knife is no toy

Man, I was bummed out.Last Wednesday, if finally sunk in that we don't have a race for another two weeks, not one. What the heck was I going to do with myself over a two week layoff? I made a mental note to go get some testing /practice laps in a Lake Waughop, but instead, I was 'recruited' by Maryto go with her and sister Teffie to hike up Little Hump Big Hump, on theDosewallup trial. It was Teffies birthday. I could not say no. Thistrail was well named as it damn near busted my hump to go up there andback. After nearly a thousand trail miles of hiking, this old bootwarrior is pretty much done with that kind of self brutality. Today,even my hair hurt.This morning, I went downtown to get a latte and check out Lakefair. Iran into the Lakefair committee, down enjoying the proceedings, ofcourse. I just had to give them a hard time about not moving quicklyenough to let us run the Governors Cup there this weekend too. We shareda few laughs and I reinfiorced the idea that they needed to make roomfor us on this weekend next year. All this conversation happened againstthe backdrop of outboard hydro racing on Capital Lake. Little did Iknow, as I braged about how my boat could whip one of those J-stockhydros, that Mike, one of the committee members, was watching his sonrun in that class. "Go get your boat." he said "I'll bet you $25 bucksthat you can't even stay on the same lap with my son." I surveyed thewater- flat as glass. I took a more analytical look at the little boatssliding through the turns. I picked a spot from which I thought I coulddrive it. "You"re on. Only one condition: I beat him and it is thetwenty five PLUS your total support for getting us get back intoPercival Cove next year. Is that a deal?" Mike shot back "You beat himwith that toy and I will host a ******* bar be que for you guys nextyear. The gauntlet had been thrown. "Go fetch your oven mit, Pal." Ifired back "I will be back in an hour ready to lay a whippin on thatthing."Driving back to my shop, I suddenly realized that I had nothing on thecharger. Not a glow igniter, not a boat, not my starting battery pack.Too late. It was either fish or cut bait time. An hour later, I had theKnife on the shore of Capital Lake and the guy in the loudspeaker wastalking up the grudge match between the "Toy and the Boy". My blood wasup. The Knife had plenty of battery for the run.My brother in law, Jerry, launched for me. He was flat pectrified to doit, but with a little run through he did a great job. We fired up theKnife and tossed it onto the lake just as Dad pulled the cord on theJ-stock. my tune was good, it came up to full tilt just fine and theresidual wake chop seemed managable as long as I stayed a clear of hiswake, which would have wiped me out. In fact, it nearly did as we camearound for the called start. I stayed wide and kept the beans up. Itfelt like the end of the Get Cet tour all over again. Only this time,the outcome was waaaay different.Later, the kid would claim that he was thown off by having to go aroundthe course backwards. Cry to me, hydro boy. The Knife flew by thatsucker at the start and never looked back. The course seemed huge, but Ipulled him in a straight line and in the turns. It wasn't even close.But it sure was weird to have my boat dissapear behind a full sclaebouy. The crowd went crazy when I took the checkered flag after threelaps (we need one of these checkered flags!) and immeadiately, the dadwanted two out of three, with the next one going in the oppositedirection. I knew this would not work for me, so I said "Sure, for $100a heat, I will race him all day long." Laughing at the prospect, my bestbluff look must have worked, because that was it. Clearly, Dad and laddidn't want any more of the White Knife. I could have sold that boatright there for a small fortune. The crowd ate it up.Now that I think on it a bit more, I realize that I am probably in abunch of trouble. How many APBA rules did I just break? I don't evenwant to know. Just don't take my points away, please. Not for defendingthe honor of 1/8 scale hydroplane racing. If I hhad lost, I couldunderstand, but I WON, going away.Marc

This is a letter i recieved from marc. way to go marc!!!!!