June 3, 2025 • 53 mins
The tides are turning for hydroplane racing. In this revealing conversation with H1 Unlimited Chairman Mike Denslow, we explore how a passionate group of business leaders and lifelong fans is systematically rebuilding one of America's most unique motorsports.
Growing up in Pasco watching hydroplanes thunder across the Columbia River, Denslow shares how his childhood fascination evolved into a mission to save the sport he loves. The formation of HydroTown marked a turning point, bringing professional business acumen to address longstanding challenges.
Looking ahead to the 2025 season, we explore the excitement surrounding H1. For hydroplane racing fans old and new, this episode offers insight into how passion, business savvy, and community spirit are combining to propel this historic motorsport toward a brighter future.
Photo by Craig Barney at Unlimiteds.net
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Ruchetel Talk, the podcast dedicated to everything
about the sport that we all love, hydroplane racing.
I am your host, david Newton,and it's time once again.
So sit back, relax and welcometo Rooster Tail Talk talk.
(00:48):
Welcome back, race fans.
It's June 2nd 2025, and this isepisode 149.
It's a very exciting time rightnow.
It's June, summer is upon us, usit's warm in the Pacific
Northwest, school is almost outand that means one thing, and
(01:09):
one thing alone the hydroplaneracing season is upon us.
This weekend we're going tohave six teams take to the
waters in Lake Guntersville andgo for our first race of the H1
Unlimited series this year.
A lot of of exciting things inplace.
Some new faces Got the new MissMadison racing team that's
going to be on the water.
(01:30):
The Apollo racing team has newfaces with it, with a new owner,
bruce Ratchford.
Just so excited that theseason's here and while we wait
for these few days for the firstrace to happen, I actually had
a chance last week to talk withMike Denslow, the chairman for
H1 Unlimited, as he got todiscuss a lot of things
(01:51):
hydroplane related, but mainlyall the work that's really gone
on the past couple of yearswithin H1 Unlimited, with the
formation of the HydroTown group, his collective effort with all
the people surrounding thesport, have really pulled
together to make a betterproduct for us for streaming,
(02:14):
better product for us on thewater and just hopefully
propelling the series forward.
Yes, I just did a hydroplane punthere, but I really enjoyed my
conversation with Mike Denslow.
We've been trying to gettogether for some time now and
just our schedules haven'tmeshed up well enough.
But we made it happen last weekand I really appreciate his
(02:36):
efforts to make it happenbecause he's a busy man with a
full-time job that's alsorunning the helping to run the
organization of H1 Unlimitedwith many others in a joint
effort just to make racing greatagain.
So let's dive into my interviewas I talk with current H1
chairman, mike Denslow.
(02:57):
Well, I'm sitting down here inmy back room, my office, sitting
on Zoom with Mike Denslow.
Mike, how are you doing tonight?
I'm doing good.
Well, I'm glad to have you onhere.
I've known you for a while butglad to have you on the podcast
(03:19):
and you've been working with H1Unlimited for some time now and
on the HydroTown group.
I believe you're still theHydroTown group.
I believe you're still thecurrent chairman for the group.
People might not know Not for.
HydroTown, but for H1, yes, okay, I got it there.
Apologize for that, but peoplemight not know your background
(03:41):
with racing and H1.
Could you share a little moreabout, uh, your history with
hydroplane racing?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
well, I grew up in pasco, um.
My dad was a teacher, so wedidn't live on the river but we
lived close by right and I couldlook.
I could look between houses andI could see little patches of
the race course.
So in the early 70s, mid-70s,when a boat would come out on
the course, we would just rundown as fast as we could and and
(04:12):
watch them back.
Then they started on thursdaystesting and whatnot.
So it was uh, four days of fun.
But uh, yeah, the first race Iremember probably 1973, and then
the new pan pack wing wonderboat.
That was the, the fresh newboat.
That was our favorite.
(04:33):
And then I really remember 74with uh, with the u95.
Those were kind of the okay,got me hooked years yeah, yeah,
some exciting racing back then.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
And uh, I wasn't asking you what your all-time
favorite hydroplane is.
Is it the 73 pan pack?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
no, it has to be the uh, the payback turbine.
When that thing showed up inthe pits in tri-cities and
looked like, and looked likesomething out of the future, it
didn't look, you know, it didn't, didn't look like a lot of
things, but uh it, it bleweverybody away, including me,
(05:16):
and then, yeah, I was, I wasdefinitely hooked on paying back
for a little while longer yeah,yeah, that was an amazing boat
with amazing driver, johnWalters.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
A lot of great history there with that boat.
Well, fast forward a few yearsas growing up as a fan, and back
about a year and a half ago inDecember 2023, you helped to
form the group HydroTown, tryingto reorganize some of the
leadership there.
Can you talk us through yourcreation of that group and how
(05:50):
you became chairman of H1Unlimited?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Sure, I think it started with a conversation with
Charlie Grooms several yearsago, even before COVID, just
trying to figure out a way ofputting some business people
together to run H1 in a way thatmade more business sense.
We kept having conversationsthrough COVID and then Daryl
(06:19):
Strong bought a couple boats andso, okay, okay, all of a sudden
we've got somebody else thatwould probably want to be
involved and, uh, you know, justa lot of passion, a lot of
phone calls and figured out thatwe needed to do something to
(06:41):
try to move this sport forward.
And just things from time totime wouldn't make sense to me.
The 80 mile an hour rule nevermade sense.
You're trying to watch thelight on the top of the cowling
and, like you know, there's noway that both going 80 miles an
hour, oh, you know it.
(07:01):
Just there were so manyinconsistencies that kind of
drove me crazy as a fan, yeah,and then, after being involved
with the waterfowl race,tri-cities race for 20 plus
years, you know I I wouldn't usethe word embarrassed, but I was
like, uh, kind of let down thatthings.
I didn't feel like things weregetting fixed, rules weren't
(07:24):
getting updated, and so wefinally decided to form
HydroTown as a company topromote H1 Unlimited Racing and
at that same time, you know, thecurrent board members of H1
stepped aside.
Nicely, there wasn't any badblood or anything.
(07:45):
We stepped in and made a lot ofchanges, one of the first ones
being the new start procedurefor last year.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yeah, yeah, definitely a few changes there.
I'm glad you admit that.
As a fan for those years, itwas a little frustrating with
some of the inconsistencies ofrules, because I think that's
been echoed throughout, wouldyou say.
Thinking back at your firstyear, you said you changed some
of the starting procedures.
I know you did a little bitmore than that, but as your
(08:20):
first year is in the books, howwould you rate the success that
you had last year with H1?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Good question.
I'm not a good grading myself,but it went okay.
You know, we met every two tothree weeks as a H1 board, two
to three weeks as a H1 board andDaryl and I and others in
(08:49):
HydroTown were talking everynight, if not every other night,
for a very long time.
Our wives kind of knew that, ohokay, they're going to be on
the phone for a half hour, 45minutes just just trying to
spend as much time getting intothe weeds and addressing issues
as much as we could.
And last year, last year wentall right.
(09:13):
The big win last year wasbringing San Diego back and we
jumped in with them in Januaryand said, hey, we want, we want
you to come back, do you guyswant to come back?
And kept having thoseconversations and we got, I
think, about two months into itand they were like, okay, well,
(09:34):
if you guys can raise some moneyand do this and do that, we're
going to do it.
And they started doing theirthing, we started doing our
thing and then, uh, it madesense to have the gold cup there
and, uh, the previous year itwas in seattle, last race of the
year.
And so san diego 2024 hey, youknow, last race of the year and
(10:00):
trying to get as many boats tocome as possible.
Let's kind of dangle thattrophy for them.
And uh had an amazing raceweekend in in San Diego, so that
that was the best thing thathappened.
I mean, you've got to crawlbefore you can walk and walk
before you can run and all thoseand those old sayings.
(10:21):
But uh, so we crawled through.
Last year.
We learned lessonsings.
But uh, so we crawled throughlast year.
We learned lessons learned.
Um, and now we're trying to fix, fix those again for this year.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah, it's an ongoing campaign to do all of that.
That was fun last year havingthe gold cup in San Diego.
Though was that I have a lot ofold school um feelings about
the sport, so I like the yearswhen the Gold Cup traveled.
I'm glad that it's travelingagain.
It's not just in one location.
Past few years we had it inMadison, guntersville, san Diego
, seattle, I guess, all over thecircuit, so that's a great
(10:56):
addition to have that traditionback with the sport and that's
the plan to continue travelingYep, absolutely.
Yeah Well, and you touched onanother thing there too, you did
a lot of behind the scenes workwith others to get San Diego
back on the schedule, and it'san ongoing process, I'm sure,
with a lot of different concernsand whatnot with the sport and
(11:19):
the series.
But what other goals have youhad this off season?
And working behind the scenes,what else have you done this
year to kind of bring it to thatnext level for the 2025 season?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
the rule book.
The rule book was the big onethere is.
There's actually a fewdifferent rule books.
Uh, there's the racing rules,there's the general rules and
then there's race site specificuh rules.
And, uh, we knew that we neededto go through.
(11:57):
Just as the evolution of therule book has happened year
after year after year, we knewthat it needed a deep cleanse
and, uh, it was actually myfault that it didn't get start
it again.
It didn't get started soonerthe project, because we got done
with san diego in september andI needed I needed more than a
month to come down from, just go, go, go.
(12:22):
So many different thingshappening.
Because you look at our seasonlast year, with Guntersville
being late June, I mean theseason was over in two and a
half months and you're done.
And, uh, I needed somedecompressed time and, uh, some
(12:50):
of the people were getting itwith me, hey, we're gonna get
after this rulebook project.
And and I was just like, okay,okay.
So finally in january, um,steve compton, one of our
inspectors, and, uh, I'll saythe crew chiefs, jeff campbell,
mike hansen and, uh, scottrainey there was, there was a
(13:10):
bunch of people involved mikenoonan, who wrote more than 50
of these rules.
Probably, you know, years agogot involved and, uh oh, taylor
from the bucket list Now he's onthe Apollo team, but Taylor was
involved in there as well.
There are a lot of differentpeople.
(13:30):
A lot of people offered theiropinions and different things
and the group would meet weeklyand then they would send what
they thought should be fixed andthey'd send it over to the
board.
The board was meeting every twoweeks starting in january and
this group really did the lion'sshare of the work.
(13:52):
We just kind of said, yeah,yeah, we agree with that.
Hey, if you thought about that,the board as the board, but
this group the rules andcompetition committee is what
they are named they went throughevery paragraph of every
rulebook and we're hoping I meanit's a lot of material, as you
(14:13):
can imagine we're hoping thatwe've cleaned up as well.
I know we've cleaned up as muchas possible.
I mean you can't have a rulefor every scenario.
I mean something's going tohappen that doesn't really fit
in.
You know, we'll see how it goesin Guntersville and Madison and
we'll continue to makeadjustments as necessary.
(14:37):
But I think we're understandingkind of the spirit of the rules
and where there were holes thatwere could be potentially
exploited, that.
But we got the group togetherand the right people together to
make those adjustments and theboard is, for the most part,
just let them run and changewhat they thought needed to be
(14:58):
changed and said yes, yes, yes,and occasionally have you
thought about this, but that wasthe majority of the offseason
was definitely the rule book,the rule book.
(15:20):
The other thing was darylstrong and bruce ratchford
taking the helm of hydrotown and, uh, with with bruce buying a
couple boats.
I actually bought three boatsracing two, those two together.
I can't take any credit for allthe things that they've done
with hiring Janik from HRL to bethe communications and PR for
(15:42):
H1.
I mean, if you're an H1 fan andyou're on social media with what
Brian Montgomery is doing andJared Meyer and that you look at
some of those, you know clipsthat especially mont work brian
montgomery puts together and itwill have.
(16:03):
By the time I look at it it'sgot 55 000 views and and then
you check back a couple dayslater it's got 270 000 views and
I'm just like, okay, justletting him do his thing to
spread our sport out there to awider audience.
But between janek and then, uhwell, the hiring of tanner faust
(16:27):
and uh to, to bring hisaudience and his followers to
follow him, to then get thosefans watching our sport Met him
at the test session.
Great guy, and he's all in.
I mean, he wants to knoweverything about everything.
(16:47):
He's technical, he's amazing.
So looking forward to how thatchanges things.
And then Daryl and Bruce alsohired another guy, corey T as we
call him, to not be confusedwith the other Corey that's in
our sport.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Yeah, corey T yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Corey T has got a lot of experience putting on live
stream coverage of racing and sothat live stream group has been
expanded even more than it waslast year and I'm looking
forward to seeing what they canput on YouTube for all of us to
(17:29):
see this year.
But that's been all, Darrelland Bruce.
They've been.
They've been kicking butt overthere with HydroTown and just
putting the money, investing themoney so that we can put out a
better product for the, for thefans and potential future
sponsors.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah, that's.
That's great to hear.
It was kind of a twofold offseason, a couple of areas to
focus on, and there were someinteresting posts about a lot of
equipment that was purchasedfor cameras and other technical
things for the live stream andvideo footage.
Is that something that's goingto be brought to every race, I
imagine?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yeah, and they bought a trailer.
I think even Daryl bought atrailer.
So the live stream has alwaysbeen saying you know, we have to
break down our setup at everyrace.
For the last several years andinfinite amount of years, we we
set up this amazing thing andthen we break it down to nothing
(18:30):
and take it to the next race.
But now they actually have atrailer, um, and that's where
the director will be sitting isin the trailer and uh, and
there's a lot of, there's a lotinvested let's just say that in
that trailer.
Um, and you know, every onceeverything gets lined up and and
(18:51):
set, we're gonna, we're gonnahave some great video for for
people to see.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Yeah, awesome, and it's just you're building on
what you've had a great productbefore.
Love to hear Janik's on themarketing side.
You mentioned Bryant Montgomery, all the great work he's done
with all the fabulous videos,but I got to ask about Tanner
Faust.
How, how, how, how was theinteraction there at testing?
I believe that was like thefirst live day he was there on a
(19:19):
hydroplane race.
Uh, what were your thoughts andhow excited was he to be there?
Speaker 2 (19:25):
he's really excited.
Um, on the friday I heard thathe was in a boat not that he's.
I heard that he's not ready tojump in and try to drive on
right now, but he wanted to knoweverything, about everything.
When I met him on Saturday, hewanted to know about the rules.
(19:49):
He wanted to know about, oh,fuel flow.
He wanted to know about, oh,fuel flow.
He wanted to know.
Just, he's a professional andhe's a professional racer as
well, but he's been on the micro, on the microphone side too, so
he knows what to ask a driver.
You know we're like, hey,you're sitting in that seat.
(20:09):
Um, he wanted to know about thepedals and controlling the, the
front canard.
And, yeah, he's, he's anamazing guy.
Um, I, I remember him from topgear and even top gear us, and
even before that, with someshows that he had on, uh, on
television.
(20:30):
But his passion for, I just say, life in general racing you
know he showed up to our testsession because he knew how
important it was, but he hadjust gotten over pneumonia, like
a couple days before.
Oh, geez, yeah, yeah, but hestill, he still flew in for
(20:51):
testing because he knew it wasimportant and he came in on
friday so that he could havesome time with the drivers and
learn about the boats, becauseeverything that he learned was
just watching youtube videos.
That's all he had seen beforethat, okay well, I'm glad to
hear he's.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
He's there.
I think it's a big impact forthe, the product you're putting
out, uh.
But I gotta ask do you thinkhe'll be in a boat before the
end of the year taking a fewlaps?
Speaker 2 (21:17):
before the end of the year?
Probably not because, like Isaid, it's so, our season is so
fast, it's three months longthis year but, yeah, maybe,
maybe three months in a week,but you never know.
Off season, uh, maybe anexhibition somewhere, you know,
you never know, but I know he'sinterested, I mean, in being
(21:37):
involved with our sport and veryintrigued by our sport yeah,
well, it's great to hearanything that can bring more
excitement to it.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Well, with all that work in the off season I'm sure
I know you said you were workingon San Diego last year making
sure they're back on theschedule.
I know you said you wereworking on San Diego last year
making sure they're back on theschedule.
I know it doesn't just happenovernight to add new race sites
to it and there's so much thatgoes beyond what the average fan
knows.
That goes into hosting a race.
But what are your thoughts onexpanding the circuit to more
(22:10):
race venues?
Is there a possibility we'llhave another race next year
anywhere?
What can you share yourthoughts on there?
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Well, everybody not everybody, but a lot of people
want Detroit back and there issome conversations happening and
actually, to be perfectlyhonest, at the end of the season
(22:40):
last year Daryl had hired afirm in Detroit as kind of a
sponsor finder firm and they hadsome general interest, but we
weren't able to get it over thefinish line.
(23:01):
The time was running out.
Actually it was 20.
Jeez, I'm running all my stufftogether, but it was 24.
And then we got to January andit was just kind of it was.
It was too late to try to pullit all off together.
But conversations are stillhappening.
There is still a level ofinterest by people in Detroit
(23:24):
and that that would be thenumber one goal for additional
race site there.
There are conversationshappening with exhibitions, um,
possibly even after san diego,um, and uh, those, those will
happen in a very with other mostlikely apba races where
(23:51):
unlimiteds are not at, and uhmight show up with one, two,
three, um unlimiteds just to runaround and uh, see, see if
there's interest in hosting arace.
But yeah, all those, all thosekinds of conversations are
happening to.
To start a race from scratchanywhere where that doesn't
already have a water basedracing event is extremely
(24:15):
difficult.
Um, because you need to have acertain number of volunteers
from that race site.
And uh, if you know, look atall the race sites that are out
there now.
They've all been around for 50plus years.
Right, gunnersville was a youknow 60s and 70s and then they
(24:38):
went away and now they've comeback.
That's kind of the smallsuccess story, but it's.
It's the outlier.
Most.
All the other races have beenaround for 50, 60 years yeah
yeah, but detroit is still on,uh, on the mind of figuring out
if there's a way we can pull itoff yeah, I love that, love to
(24:59):
hear that.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Um, I know lots of fans chatted about that and, uh,
would be amazing and I'veactually never had a chance to
to beat it in detroit for a race, so I'm really hoping you can
bring it back so I can.
I can.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
I haven't either.
I have not either, but our statman, nick Kish, says that it's
a pretty great site, so we'retrying to get it for Nick.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yeah, okay, well, hopefully you can get it for
Nick and all the other fans.
Is there any possibleexhibitions that you can share?
That might happen, or is itmore just kind of wait and see?
Speaker 2 (25:36):
It's just talk right now.
We'll let people know if it'sgoing to happen.
You know we'll have video ifit's going to happen, if it
comes together.
But, like I said, at leastconversations are happening
right.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
That's great.
Two different locations, soexcellent.
Yeah, well, I hope the bothexhibitions can happen and, uh,
it's hopefully just build up onfor the future.
I know, as a racing teams, I'msure they would love to go
somewhere after san diego justto get all the salt water out of
everything, right, so,hopefully, go to fresh body of
water and, yeah, that would begood.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, that's a, that's a big thing.
Yes, yeah, if you know any crewmembers, that's boat owners.
Yeah, yeah, that's the, that'sthe.
There's pros and cons to SanDiego and that's the con.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah, but there's so many pros down there, it's a
beautiful place, that's right,man Well, with this HydroTown
group, it seems for the past fewyears, mainly since Daryl and
Vanessa Strong has come on boardwith H1, that there's more I
won't say interest, but moreownership, I guess, of the sport
(26:55):
.
You have Daryl and VanessaStrong, you have the Apollo team
now formed in Tri-Cities, sofour boats that are actually
going to be racing on the seriesthis year are from Tri-Cities,
and I know you were a lifelongcitizen of Tri-Cities.
So what does this mean to youas a fan of the sport and just
(27:16):
living in that area, but justfor the future of the sport as
well?
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Well, I think one of the motivations to starting
HydroTown and getting moreinvolved with H1 is trying to do
everything possible to makesure that our our sport
continues and thrives.
It's been called on that it'sit's dying.
It's dying, you know, for for alot of times and it was like,
(27:43):
well, we're going to get in andtry to re-energize it.
And Daryl buying, you know, twoboats has been great Boats are
headquartered out of Seattle.
So the owners headquartered outof Tri-Cities but the boats are
Seattle.
And then Bruce and LoriRatchford, again out of
Tri-Cities, but boats are inSeattle.
(28:04):
I think it just shows how bigof an impact the Tri-city
waterfowl is has to thecommunity at large.
Um, you look at flavor pack, oh, okay, well, that's a company
that's, you know, got farms here, here and there, but, yeah, but
(28:26):
the owner up until recently, um, and we passed away is is based
out of Pasco, washington, youknow.
So there's all these peoplethat have grown up with the boat
races as the signature event ofTri Cities, that have then
started successful businessesand want to come back to the
(28:51):
sport, to help the sport push onand into the future.
And even though I didn't buy aboat or two or three.
You know I invested, you know,some of our money and a lot of
time and effort and sweat intodoing everything possible to
make the sport and the seriesimprove.
(29:13):
Momentum that's the word we'veused several times is just
trying to get this forward.
Momentum and exposure todifferent companies that, hey, I
want to get involved with thatsport and, uh, I like what
they're doing.
You know and had some of thoseconversations.
So I would hope here in thenext year that a title sponsor,
(29:39):
present sponsors, those kinds ofthings would continue to see.
The vision of kind of what wewanted to do keep continue to
grow at H1.
And then the perfect thing isjust budweiser.
For example, you know back inthe day, bernie little gets
involved and he's a budweiserdistributor and I mean, geez, if
(30:03):
that wasn't the perfect successstory.
Right, well, we run, we want torun in big markets.
So you know you, you see thebudweiser brand on sundays and
winning races and everything.
And, and so these tricidiansare us, including me.
We want to see our littlesuccess story because if you
(30:24):
look at the five race sites, youhave two small towns that are
able to put on a race, which ismiraculous, in Guntersville,
alabama and Madison, indiana.
I mean sub 20,000 people livethere, but they're able to put
on a race.
Then you've got us in themidsize.
Ok, we're 250,000 to 300,000 inTri-Cities now somehow.
(30:51):
And then you've got Seattle andSan Diego, which are major
metropolitan markets.
So you've got three on the WestCoast, two on the East Coast
hey, maybe we bring back anothermajor market in Detroit.
Then we've got three in theEast and three in the West.
So we'll see.
But it's money, right, becauseif you go from six races, let's
(31:15):
say, to eight or 10, now theseteams are going to need to have
bigger sponsors with more moneybehind them, because they're
going to need full-time crews.
A lot of the crews are peoplelike us who have full-time jobs
and do this, you know, on thespare time, right, right.
(31:37):
So you know, I think Tri-Citiesis just showing the, the series
and the and the markets outthere that, hey, you know we're
midsize, but we're all aboutmaking sure that our race
continues.
And so, yeah, that's how I seeTri-Cities and it's our biggest
(32:00):
event in eastern Washington.
So we want to make sure that itcontinues on into the future.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Yeah, I'd love to hear that.
Yeah, definitely love thatfuture talk.
I always got to think about thefuture, helping the sport to
grow.
But I do hear a lot of pridefor your heritage in the area
and I always feel likeTri-Cities is a second home to
me because I usually travel overthere multiple times in the
summer.
But for your background youalso did.
(32:26):
You started a logo, kind of a Idon't know what you call it
your group for Love the Tri.
Can you speak more to that?
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Well, funny enough, I haven't thought about this
story in a while, but I justthought about it today because I
was wondering if he's going toask me about Love the.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Try.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Well, I saw that my wife and I were flying back from
somewhere.
It might have been New York orsomewhere.
I think it was Portland.
Actually, I heart Portlandshirts.
You can get them at any airportand why don't we have that right
?
Yeah, I thought about it, andtri-cities is unique in that
(33:08):
it's multiple cities, it's twocounties.
You know, north side of theriver is franklin county, south
side is benton county.
Um, we had I felt like we had alittle bit of an identity
crisis, like asco took care ofitself, kennewick took care of
itself, richland took care ofitself, and then you got west
richland, benton city, burbank,some of the out outlying areas
(33:32):
kind of did the same.
So the idea was why can't, whycan't I start something that
would try to bring all of themtogether and rather than, hey,
you know, focus on Pasco orKennewick or Richland and the
visit Tri-Cities was out there,but it was government funded and
(33:53):
they were doing the best theycould and I kind of saw what
they had and was like I'm justgoing to take a different angle
on it.
My wife was out of town, on aSaturday, I think, and I just
got out a pad and I started whatwould I call it and I was like
love, the try just came out ofmy head like it was destined,
just boom, didn't think about it, didn't think of a second name,
(34:14):
didn't think of anything, justlike well, that sounds good,
we'll just call it the tri.
All right, I haven't heardanybody use that term, but let's
go with that.
And what would it be?
What are we known for?
Yeah, we're known for boatraces Partial, right, okay,
that's what we call it.
Known for Hanford and that?
Okay.
Golf wine Okay, okay, that'sbeen played.
(34:40):
And I thought about our sunsetsin Tri-Cities, which underrated.
I mean, unless you're therewhen a good one comes, you don't
really know how good they are.
And I said, okay, we're goingto start.
That's what it's going to be.
It's going to be love the Tri,and it's going to be a sunset.
And the sunset is shared forall the cities.
(35:00):
You can see it from everywhere.
So I thought about it for alittle bit more and I thought,
well, ok, you know, I'm in themortgage business now, as of a
couple of months ago, 20 yearsin the mortgage business.
So at that time I was like I'mnot going to try to make money
from this.
I that time I was like I'm notgoing to try to make money from
(35:22):
this, I'm gonna, I'm gonnadonate 100% of the profits back
to local non-profits andcharities and designed a logo
worked with atomic screenprinting.
Who's heavy into the hydroplanescene knew those guys really
well and uh, I would.
I'm no artist but I kind of putan idea down and then I would
(35:43):
go to brent at atomic and he,he's the artist and he would
make what was in my head andwhat I kind of put on paper.
He would make that come out.
And uh had a lot of goodprojects donated boys and girls
club cancer center.
There was veteran the dogs thatthey have or the veterans, and
(36:13):
just I met a lot of great people, designed a lot of cool things
that came out.
But to be honest, when the H1stuff came back there was just
no time.
There's just when you're takingup your free time and even into
work time with hydroplaneracing.
There's not a lot of free timeto create, you know, and be
(36:39):
artistic and that kind of thingand dedicate much time to it.
So I haven't done much timewith it lately but I'll be
getting back to it andcontinuing on Donated.
I think it was somewherebetween $30,000 and $40,000 back
into the community, which I'mvery proud of.
(37:01):
But I also like the fact thatwe're trying to get the
community to think of them asall the cities together, rather
than, oh, I'm from Pasco or I'mfrom Kennewick, rather I'm from
Tri-Cities, yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Yeah, from Tri-Cities , yeah, yeah.
Well, I just I remember lovingthe logo when you first came out
with that and buying somestickers and shirts with that.
So I always feel likeTri-Cities is kind of a second
home for myself because I'malways going over there for the
boat races and multiple times inthe summertime, yeah, and so
just fun to hear the successstory of bringing back more to
(37:37):
the community and bringingbridging some gaps with the,
with the try.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Yeah, I called it entrepreneurship through via
philanthropy.
Yeah, and I I've had a lot offun and met a lot of great
people through it.
So, yeah, I'll be continuing iton as soon as I have more time.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
That's the one thing I'm always searching for time.
I'm a teacher and I do have afew hobbies.
It's always the hardest part isjust finding the time for that.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Well, I come from a family of teachers, david, so my
mom and dad were both teachers,my uncle was a teacher, my
grandparents were teachers.
So, yeah, I yep, and so mystyle in business that I do is
education.
Yeah, like, oh, hey, you've got, you bought a house before, but
do you realize this?
(38:33):
You know?
Oh, wow, yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
So, yeah, educate as you go that's the way to do it
Exactly Love it Well.
Getting back to hydroplanes,that's why we're talking right,
we love hydroplanes and justthinking about this season got
five races on the schedule.
We just had the test session inTri-Cities.
This year the Gold Cup's goingto be there in Tri-Cities again
(38:57):
for the 60th running of a raceon the Columbia river.
What would you say you're mostexcited for?
Speaker 2 (39:07):
And what should the fans be most excited for this
year?
You think?
Good question, that's.
That's a tough one.
There's my wife was just askingme, she just asked me that
(39:42):
today and I think it's you knowthe Bruce Ratchford coming in
with the two boats and DaveVillewalk and Mike Hansen
working together to put thosetwo boats, you know, up at the
front again.
Um, and Dave, dave is justunbelievable, I mean, at his age
, still doing these things and,uh, you know, and with his, uh,
him going into the motorsportshall of fame, uh, next year in
Daytona beach, florida, that's,that's a big thing.
Um, there'll be a lot of H1people there.
I can tell you that's somethingthat we've talked about and
we're going to.
We're going to have a lot ofpeople there to show how proud
(40:04):
we are of Dave and hisaccomplishments when the season
goes.
I would say they've done a lotof work on that boat that Dave
drove last year.
I know that.
So he told me that, uh, I thinkhe ran a one 61 in in tri
cities in the rain and, uh, hewasn't pushing it, he was just
(40:27):
trying to, hey, just trying toshake things out, and he was, he
was giving it, you know, somespeed, but it wasn't like he was
trying to hit every corner,perfect, every, you know,
everything, perfect.
So that was good.
Um, and then the other.
The other big story is the newmiss Madison and uh, and Brandon
(40:49):
Kennedy driving that boat.
And we'll shoot.
We'll be seeing that here verysoon in Alabama next week.
And uh, I'll be anxious to seehow they you know, they've put
that boat on the water.
They can get the laps in to gethim qualified and uh, and, as
far as we know, run the run thefirst two races with that boat
(41:11):
and and learn.
And so I'm excited about seeingthat boat.
I loved the paint job when theycame, when they brought it out
of the that throwback yeah yeah,the throwback, because that was
uh after atlas sold it to tomadison and uh, yeah, in 77 that
was the wing wonder right, yeah, and then also again in uh 99
(41:33):
with todd yardling.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
Uh, they had that paint scheme as well.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Oh, really, yeah, I think of that boat.
I mean, as you know, georgehenley, and I know I only do it
for two years, um, and then Iknow there was the one atlas
year but it's, it's forgettablebecause of the blue blaster.
Yeah, right after, yeah, I meanit's like oh, yeah, okay, um,
(41:59):
but I think of that boat in allthose years, ron snyder driving
the wing wonder, after the factthat in the in the community of
madison, indiana, running thatboat for so long and continue to
get more and more speed out ofthat thing, year after year
after year.
(42:20):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to thenew Miss Madison.
That will be a good time.
I think everybody will stand upand watch when they take that
thing out on the water.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Yeah, it's sad to hear about the sale and all that
, but glad there's a teamtogether in Madison Again,
definitely a city that has a lotof history and definitely needs
to be in the sport.
So glad to hear that they'regoing to be racing and bringing
in some new faces for H1.
Not new faces for racing,because the Kennedys have raced
HRL for some time and have along history of boat racing
(42:58):
themselves, but some excitingthings for the fans there.
Well, I got one last question Iwant to ask you because I know
that you've done so much workthe off-season, with so many
people trying to gear up forthis year, a lot of things to
look forward to.
You talked about in theoff-season all the work you did
(43:19):
with the rulebook, more of animprint on social media and your
vision.
I'll correct you, David.
Oh, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
I'll correct you real quick.
You said you did, it's not me.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Not just you.
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
It's a big group of passionate hydroplane fans.
I just I want to clarify,because I don't want to put that
on my shoulders, because I feellike this year I haven't done
nearly as much as I did lastyear.
And other people have steppedin because they saw what we did
last year and other people arelike, okay, okay, now we're in
(44:00):
and we're committed right, youknow um to making things better,
right?
Speaker 1 (44:05):
yeah, it takes a village right um, but as as
chairman, I guess, I guess theeyes are on you sometimes.
But yeah, for good and bad yeahfor good and bad, uh, but with
all the work that you and othershave done this past season, if
you had a magical wish, I couldsnap your fingers and have one
other thing happen.
Yeah, for good and bad, butwith all the work that you and
others have done this pastseason, if you had a magical
wish, like you'd snap yourfingers and have one other thing
happen for this year, for H1,what would that be?
(44:27):
I live in a hypothetical world.
A lot of times it's my daydream.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
Well, I think we figured out a way to put on a
good show last year with fourboat heats and we were rotating
through five, six, seven, eightboats.
But we were having four boatheats and I'll bring up
(44:58):
potentially an elephant in theroom of hydroplane racing.
I'm a purist and I think that alot of people are and want to
see the boats continue to fightfor lanes, and so, um, I would
want to see, in the perfectworld, 10 national boats and
(45:26):
then we would have a sprinklingof regional boats to come to
their close race and, uh, wewould have 10 boats fighting it
out and, uh, we would have fiveboat heats.
Yeah, and uh then, uh, then itwould get interesting.
You know, because when Darylcame in and bought his boats and
he invested what he invested,he spared no expense in getting
(45:50):
his boats fast and a lot offull-time crew members.
And now there's someone fromfrom tri-cities who said, well,
I'll buy a couple boats and I'llhave full-time crew and we're
coming after you.
So a combination in the perfectworld.
(46:12):
Yeah, I'd like to have 10national boats battling it out,
um, but in the world, just forthis season, I would want to see
, um, those two groups battlingit out and maybe they're so
focused on each other.
You know, jamie Nielsen comesaround and uh, and sneaks out a
(46:34):
victory because, uh, and sneaksout a victory because, uh, you
know, you, just, you just neverknow, um, but yeah, it's going
to be great seeing these.
You know, just the, every yearthere's a new dynamic and uh,
with Vilwock having a full offseason to work on the boat with
(46:57):
Mike Hanson and you know, andothers in the old bud shop, how
much faster and how much moreconsistent is that boat going to
be than last year?
Last year felt like kind of atest run, like okay, go out and
run it around and but be safe,and and uh, but this year we'll
(47:20):
see yeah, I think there'sdifferent story lines that are
going to evolve.
And, uh, you know, we've gotfive, five national boats, and
then we've got madison, we'vegot graham, we've got o'farrell,
so we'll see, maybe we havefive races and five different
(47:41):
winners.
How about that?
That's the good PC answer frommy side.
Hey, different winner at everyrace.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
There you go.
As a fan, I would love to seethat, and I just had an episode
with the creator of Deck-to-DeckFantasy, hydroplane, and we
talked about some differentscenarios and I said that Jamie
Nelson and the Flavor Pack wouldbe a dark horse underdog to win
Tri-Cities this year.
So it'll be fun to see them geta win.
Speaker 2 (48:11):
Well, with all the strategy and different things
that could happen before a race,you never know.
You never know, you just don'tknow you think about jamie in
gunnersville last year and uh,yeah, he he was.
He got second place right anduh in the final.
And uh won a heat as well andwas super competitive with and
(48:34):
held off j michael kelly.
You know um anything can happen.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
Yeah, and their cards fell in their place.
In Seattle too, they got asecond place after some other
shenanigans happened out there,but yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:47):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
Yep, it could happen.
Well, I appreciate your time,mike.
Is there anything else you wantto tell the fans out there from
your perspective?
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Well, if anyone thinks we're not doing anything
to try to make things better, Ican't tell you how many people
have put in a ton of hours totry to make things better in the
off season.
We've got a lot of people thatgo to every race to make sure
that things are happening safebetween medical and the rescue
(49:22):
boat on YouTube for the fans athome.
So just know that we've steppedup.
(49:55):
You know, when people say like,hey, if you don't like the
result, we'll get involved,right, we have got involved and
we're doing everything we can tomake our sport better.
Speaker 1 (50:08):
Well, I love to hear that.
I think anything we can do tomake it better is what we need,
and it sounds like you're doingthe right things there.
A lot of positive things forthe year to come.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
That's the plan, david, and we appreciate you.
I know it took us a while topull this off with our schedules
, but I'm glad we did.
Speaker 1 (50:27):
Yeah, no, I appreciate you.
I appreciate your time.
Yeah, some some sicknesses andother things kept us from from
doing this until now, but reallyappreciate taking the evening
to spend with me and talk abouthydroplanes.
Speaker 2 (50:40):
Not just talk about hydroplanes rooster tail talk.
Speaker 1 (50:45):
That's right.
Well, that's all the time wehave for this week, Knuckleheads
.
Hope you enjoyed my chat withcurrent H1 chairman, Mike
Denslow, as he gave us moreinsight to all the goings on
behind the scenes that we don'tget to see as fans.
Don't forget, this weekend bigrace our first race for H1
Unlimited is in Guntersville,Alabama.
Please support the series.
If you can't be there, watch onH1 streaming.
(51:07):
They're going to put out a greatstreaming service this year.
They're boosting it, they'repropelling it forward.
They're making it better andbigger and brighter.
In the meantime, don't forget,we're on social media, on
Facebook and Instagram.
Check us out online atruchetaltalkcom.
And don't forget thatsubscription service, Ruchetal
Talk Plus, where you get earlyaccess to all episodes entered
(51:31):
in for a monthly raffle drawingand more extras along the way,
with our private archives in ourwebsite and some other fun
features as well.
But good luck this weekend toall the teams.
Thank you again, Mike Denzel,for your time being on the
podcast and sharing some of yourgreat insights and stories with
us.
Really appreciate you and allthe work that you have done, as
(51:51):
well as all the many others.
I know there's many, many, manythat are behind the scenes.
It's not just you.
You're the face as the chairman, but it's a group effort.
It takes a village and Iappreciate everyone and their
combined efforts to make H1Unlimited happen again this year
and have a bigger platform forthis great sport that we all
(52:13):
love.
So until next time I hope tosee you at the Reasons.
Ruchetel Talk, the podcast dedicated to everything
about the sport that we all love, hydroplane racing.
I am your host, david Newton,and it's time once again.
So sit back, relax and welcometo Rooster Tail Talk talk.
(00:48):
Welcome back, race fans.
It's June 2nd 2025, and this isepisode 149.
It's a very exciting time rightnow.
It's June, summer is upon us, usit's warm in the Pacific
Northwest, school is almost outand that means one thing, and
(01:09):
one thing alone the hydroplaneracing season is upon us.
This weekend we're going tohave six teams take to the
waters in Lake Guntersville andgo for our first race of the H1
Unlimited series this year.
A lot of of exciting things inplace.
Some new faces Got the new MissMadison racing team that's
going to be on the water.
(01:30):
The Apollo racing team has newfaces with it, with a new owner,
bruce Ratchford.
Just so excited that theseason's here and while we wait
for these few days for the firstrace to happen, I actually had
a chance last week to talk withMike Denslow, the chairman for
H1 Unlimited, as he got todiscuss a lot of things
(01:51):
hydroplane related, but mainlyall the work that's really gone
on the past couple of yearswithin H1 Unlimited, with the
formation of the HydroTown group, his collective effort with all
the people surrounding thesport, have really pulled
together to make a betterproduct for us for streaming,
(02:14):
better product for us on thewater and just hopefully
propelling the series forward.
Yes, I just did a hydroplane punthere, but I really enjoyed my
conversation with Mike Denslow.
We've been trying to gettogether for some time now and
just our schedules haven'tmeshed up well enough.
But we made it happen last weekand I really appreciate his
(02:36):
efforts to make it happenbecause he's a busy man with a
full-time job that's alsorunning the helping to run the
organization of H1 Unlimitedwith many others in a joint
effort just to make racing greatagain.
So let's dive into my interviewas I talk with current H1
chairman, mike Denslow.
(02:57):
Well, I'm sitting down here inmy back room, my office, sitting
on Zoom with Mike Denslow.
Mike, how are you doing tonight?
I'm doing good.
Well, I'm glad to have you onhere.
I've known you for a while butglad to have you on the podcast
(03:19):
and you've been working with H1Unlimited for some time now and
on the HydroTown group.
I believe you're still theHydroTown group.
I believe you're still thecurrent chairman for the group.
People might not know Not for.
HydroTown, but for H1, yes, okay, I got it there.
Apologize for that, but peoplemight not know your background
(03:41):
with racing and H1.
Could you share a little moreabout, uh, your history with
hydroplane racing?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
well, I grew up in pasco, um.
My dad was a teacher, so wedidn't live on the river but we
lived close by right and I couldlook.
I could look between houses andI could see little patches of
the race course.
So in the early 70s, mid-70s,when a boat would come out on
the course, we would just rundown as fast as we could and and
(04:12):
watch them back.
Then they started on thursdaystesting and whatnot.
So it was uh, four days of fun.
But uh, yeah, the first race Iremember probably 1973, and then
the new pan pack wing wonderboat.
That was the, the fresh newboat.
That was our favorite.
(04:33):
And then I really remember 74with uh, with the u95.
Those were kind of the okay,got me hooked years yeah, yeah,
some exciting racing back then.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
And uh, I wasn't asking you what your all-time
favorite hydroplane is.
Is it the 73 pan pack?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
no, it has to be the uh, the payback turbine.
When that thing showed up inthe pits in tri-cities and
looked like, and looked likesomething out of the future, it
didn't look, you know, it didn't, didn't look like a lot of
things, but uh it, it bleweverybody away, including me,
(05:16):
and then, yeah, I was, I wasdefinitely hooked on paying back
for a little while longer yeah,yeah, that was an amazing boat
with amazing driver, johnWalters.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
A lot of great history there with that boat.
Well, fast forward a few yearsas growing up as a fan, and back
about a year and a half ago inDecember 2023, you helped to
form the group HydroTown, tryingto reorganize some of the
leadership there.
Can you talk us through yourcreation of that group and how
(05:50):
you became chairman of H1Unlimited?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Sure, I think it started with a conversation with
Charlie Grooms several yearsago, even before COVID, just
trying to figure out a way ofputting some business people
together to run H1 in a way thatmade more business sense.
We kept having conversationsthrough COVID and then Daryl
(06:19):
Strong bought a couple boats andso, okay, okay, all of a sudden
we've got somebody else thatwould probably want to be
involved and, uh, you know, justa lot of passion, a lot of
phone calls and figured out thatwe needed to do something to
(06:41):
try to move this sport forward.
And just things from time totime wouldn't make sense to me.
The 80 mile an hour rule nevermade sense.
You're trying to watch thelight on the top of the cowling
and, like you know, there's noway that both going 80 miles an
hour, oh, you know it.
(07:01):
Just there were so manyinconsistencies that kind of
drove me crazy as a fan, yeah,and then, after being involved
with the waterfowl race,tri-cities race for 20 plus
years, you know I I wouldn't usethe word embarrassed, but I was
like, uh, kind of let down thatthings.
I didn't feel like things weregetting fixed, rules weren't
(07:24):
getting updated, and so wefinally decided to form
HydroTown as a company topromote H1 Unlimited Racing and
at that same time, you know, thecurrent board members of H1
stepped aside.
Nicely, there wasn't any badblood or anything.
(07:45):
We stepped in and made a lot ofchanges, one of the first ones
being the new start procedurefor last year.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yeah, yeah, definitely a few changes there.
I'm glad you admit that.
As a fan for those years, itwas a little frustrating with
some of the inconsistencies ofrules, because I think that's
been echoed throughout, wouldyou say.
Thinking back at your firstyear, you said you changed some
of the starting procedures.
I know you did a little bitmore than that, but as your
(08:20):
first year is in the books, howwould you rate the success that
you had last year with H1?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Good question.
I'm not a good grading myself,but it went okay.
You know, we met every two tothree weeks as a H1 board, two
to three weeks as a H1 board andDaryl and I and others in
(08:49):
HydroTown were talking everynight, if not every other night,
for a very long time.
Our wives kind of knew that, ohokay, they're going to be on
the phone for a half hour, 45minutes just just trying to
spend as much time getting intothe weeds and addressing issues
as much as we could.
And last year, last year wentall right.
(09:13):
The big win last year wasbringing San Diego back and we
jumped in with them in Januaryand said, hey, we want, we want
you to come back, do you guyswant to come back?
And kept having thoseconversations and we got, I
think, about two months into itand they were like, okay, well,
(09:34):
if you guys can raise some moneyand do this and do that, we're
going to do it.
And they started doing theirthing, we started doing our
thing and then, uh, it madesense to have the gold cup there
and, uh, the previous year itwas in seattle, last race of the
year.
And so san diego 2024 hey, youknow, last race of the year and
(10:00):
trying to get as many boats tocome as possible.
Let's kind of dangle thattrophy for them.
And uh had an amazing raceweekend in in San Diego, so that
that was the best thing thathappened.
I mean, you've got to crawlbefore you can walk and walk
before you can run and all thoseand those old sayings.
(10:21):
But uh, so we crawled through.
Last year.
We learned lessonsings.
But uh, so we crawled throughlast year.
We learned lessons learned.
Um, and now we're trying to fix, fix those again for this year.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah, it's an ongoing campaign to do all of that.
That was fun last year havingthe gold cup in San Diego.
Though was that I have a lot ofold school um feelings about
the sport, so I like the yearswhen the Gold Cup traveled.
I'm glad that it's travelingagain.
It's not just in one location.
Past few years we had it inMadison, guntersville, san Diego
, seattle, I guess, all over thecircuit, so that's a great
(10:56):
addition to have that traditionback with the sport and that's
the plan to continue travelingYep, absolutely.
Yeah Well, and you touched onanother thing there too, you did
a lot of behind the scenes workwith others to get San Diego
back on the schedule, and it'san ongoing process, I'm sure,
with a lot of different concernsand whatnot with the sport and
(11:19):
the series.
But what other goals have youhad this off season?
And working behind the scenes,what else have you done this
year to kind of bring it to thatnext level for the 2025 season?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
the rule book.
The rule book was the big onethere is.
There's actually a fewdifferent rule books.
Uh, there's the racing rules,there's the general rules and
then there's race site specificuh rules.
And, uh, we knew that we neededto go through.
(11:57):
Just as the evolution of therule book has happened year
after year after year, we knewthat it needed a deep cleanse
and, uh, it was actually myfault that it didn't get start
it again.
It didn't get started soonerthe project, because we got done
with san diego in september andI needed I needed more than a
month to come down from, just go, go, go.
(12:22):
So many different thingshappening.
Because you look at our seasonlast year, with Guntersville
being late June, I mean theseason was over in two and a
half months and you're done.
And, uh, I needed somedecompressed time and, uh, some
(12:50):
of the people were getting itwith me, hey, we're gonna get
after this rulebook project.
And and I was just like, okay,okay.
So finally in january, um,steve compton, one of our
inspectors, and, uh, I'll saythe crew chiefs, jeff campbell,
mike hansen and, uh, scottrainey there was, there was a
(13:10):
bunch of people involved mikenoonan, who wrote more than 50
of these rules.
Probably, you know, years agogot involved and, uh oh, taylor
from the bucket list Now he's onthe Apollo team, but Taylor was
involved in there as well.
There are a lot of differentpeople.
(13:30):
A lot of people offered theiropinions and different things
and the group would meet weeklyand then they would send what
they thought should be fixed andthey'd send it over to the
board.
The board was meeting every twoweeks starting in january and
this group really did the lion'sshare of the work.
(13:52):
We just kind of said, yeah,yeah, we agree with that.
Hey, if you thought about that,the board as the board, but
this group the rules andcompetition committee is what
they are named they went throughevery paragraph of every
rulebook and we're hoping I meanit's a lot of material, as you
(14:13):
can imagine we're hoping thatwe've cleaned up as well.
I know we've cleaned up as muchas possible.
I mean you can't have a rulefor every scenario.
I mean something's going tohappen that doesn't really fit
in.
You know, we'll see how it goesin Guntersville and Madison and
we'll continue to makeadjustments as necessary.
(14:37):
But I think we're understandingkind of the spirit of the rules
and where there were holes thatwere could be potentially
exploited, that.
But we got the group togetherand the right people together to
make those adjustments and theboard is, for the most part,
just let them run and changewhat they thought needed to be
(14:58):
changed and said yes, yes, yes,and occasionally have you
thought about this, but that wasthe majority of the offseason
was definitely the rule book,the rule book.
(15:20):
The other thing was darylstrong and bruce ratchford
taking the helm of hydrotown and, uh, with with bruce buying a
couple boats.
I actually bought three boatsracing two, those two together.
I can't take any credit for allthe things that they've done
with hiring Janik from HRL to bethe communications and PR for
(15:42):
H1.
I mean, if you're an H1 fan andyou're on social media with what
Brian Montgomery is doing andJared Meyer and that you look at
some of those, you know clipsthat especially mont work brian
montgomery puts together and itwill have.
(16:03):
By the time I look at it it'sgot 55 000 views and and then
you check back a couple dayslater it's got 270 000 views and
I'm just like, okay, justletting him do his thing to
spread our sport out there to awider audience.
But between janek and then, uhwell, the hiring of tanner faust
(16:27):
and uh to, to bring hisaudience and his followers to
follow him, to then get thosefans watching our sport Met him
at the test session.
Great guy, and he's all in.
I mean, he wants to knoweverything about everything.
(16:47):
He's technical, he's amazing.
So looking forward to how thatchanges things.
And then Daryl and Bruce alsohired another guy, corey T as we
call him, to not be confusedwith the other Corey that's in
our sport.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Yeah, corey T yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Corey T has got a lot of experience putting on live
stream coverage of racing and sothat live stream group has been
expanded even more than it waslast year and I'm looking
forward to seeing what they canput on YouTube for all of us to
(17:29):
see this year.
But that's been all, Darrelland Bruce.
They've been.
They've been kicking butt overthere with HydroTown and just
putting the money, investing themoney so that we can put out a
better product for the, for thefans and potential future
sponsors.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah, that's.
That's great to hear.
It was kind of a twofold offseason, a couple of areas to
focus on, and there were someinteresting posts about a lot of
equipment that was purchasedfor cameras and other technical
things for the live stream andvideo footage.
Is that something that's goingto be brought to every race, I
imagine?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yeah, and they bought a trailer.
I think even Daryl bought atrailer.
So the live stream has alwaysbeen saying you know, we have to
break down our setup at everyrace.
For the last several years andinfinite amount of years, we we
set up this amazing thing andthen we break it down to nothing
(18:30):
and take it to the next race.
But now they actually have atrailer, um, and that's where
the director will be sitting isin the trailer and uh, and
there's a lot of, there's a lotinvested let's just say that in
that trailer.
Um, and you know, every onceeverything gets lined up and and
(18:51):
set, we're gonna, we're gonnahave some great video for for
people to see.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Yeah, awesome, and it's just you're building on
what you've had a great productbefore.
Love to hear Janik's on themarketing side.
You mentioned Bryant Montgomery, all the great work he's done
with all the fabulous videos,but I got to ask about Tanner
Faust.
How, how, how, how was theinteraction there at testing?
I believe that was like thefirst live day he was there on a
(19:19):
hydroplane race.
Uh, what were your thoughts andhow excited was he to be there?
Speaker 2 (19:25):
he's really excited.
Um, on the friday I heard thathe was in a boat not that he's.
I heard that he's not ready tojump in and try to drive on
right now, but he wanted to knoweverything, about everything.
When I met him on Saturday, hewanted to know about the rules.
(19:49):
He wanted to know about, oh,fuel flow.
He wanted to know about, oh,fuel flow.
He wanted to know.
Just, he's a professional andhe's a professional racer as
well, but he's been on the micro, on the microphone side too, so
he knows what to ask a driver.
You know we're like, hey,you're sitting in that seat.
(20:09):
Um, he wanted to know about thepedals and controlling the, the
front canard.
And, yeah, he's, he's anamazing guy.
Um, I, I remember him from topgear and even top gear us, and
even before that, with someshows that he had on, uh, on
television.
(20:30):
But his passion for, I just say, life in general racing you
know he showed up to our testsession because he knew how
important it was, but he hadjust gotten over pneumonia, like
a couple days before.
Oh, geez, yeah, yeah, but hestill, he still flew in for
(20:51):
testing because he knew it wasimportant and he came in on
friday so that he could havesome time with the drivers and
learn about the boats, becauseeverything that he learned was
just watching youtube videos.
That's all he had seen beforethat, okay well, I'm glad to
hear he's.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
He's there.
I think it's a big impact forthe, the product you're putting
out, uh.
But I gotta ask do you thinkhe'll be in a boat before the
end of the year taking a fewlaps?
Speaker 2 (21:17):
before the end of the year?
Probably not because, like Isaid, it's so, our season is so
fast, it's three months longthis year but, yeah, maybe,
maybe three months in a week,but you never know.
Off season, uh, maybe anexhibition somewhere, you know,
you never know, but I know he'sinterested, I mean, in being
(21:37):
involved with our sport and veryintrigued by our sport yeah,
well, it's great to hearanything that can bring more
excitement to it.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Well, with all that work in the off season I'm sure
I know you said you were workingon San Diego last year making
sure they're back on theschedule.
I know you said you wereworking on San Diego last year
making sure they're back on theschedule.
I know it doesn't just happenovernight to add new race sites
to it and there's so much thatgoes beyond what the average fan
knows.
That goes into hosting a race.
But what are your thoughts onexpanding the circuit to more
(22:10):
race venues?
Is there a possibility we'llhave another race next year
anywhere?
What can you share yourthoughts on there?
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Well, everybody not everybody, but a lot of people
want Detroit back and there issome conversations happening and
actually, to be perfectlyhonest, at the end of the season
(22:40):
last year Daryl had hired afirm in Detroit as kind of a
sponsor finder firm and they hadsome general interest, but we
weren't able to get it over thefinish line.
(23:01):
The time was running out.
Actually it was 20.
Jeez, I'm running all my stufftogether, but it was 24.
And then we got to January andit was just kind of it was.
It was too late to try to pullit all off together.
But conversations are stillhappening.
There is still a level ofinterest by people in Detroit
(23:24):
and that that would be thenumber one goal for additional
race site there.
There are conversationshappening with exhibitions, um,
possibly even after san diego,um, and uh, those, those will
happen in a very with other mostlikely apba races where
(23:51):
unlimiteds are not at, and uhmight show up with one, two,
three, um unlimiteds just to runaround and uh, see, see if
there's interest in hosting arace.
But yeah, all those, all thosekinds of conversations are
happening to.
To start a race from scratchanywhere where that doesn't
already have a water basedracing event is extremely
(24:15):
difficult.
Um, because you need to have acertain number of volunteers
from that race site.
And uh, if you know, look atall the race sites that are out
there now.
They've all been around for 50plus years.
Right, gunnersville was a youknow 60s and 70s and then they
(24:38):
went away and now they've comeback.
That's kind of the smallsuccess story, but it's.
It's the outlier.
Most.
All the other races have beenaround for 50, 60 years yeah
yeah, but detroit is still on,uh, on the mind of figuring out
if there's a way we can pull itoff yeah, I love that, love to
(24:59):
hear that.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Um, I know lots of fans chatted about that and, uh,
would be amazing and I'veactually never had a chance to
to beat it in detroit for a race, so I'm really hoping you can
bring it back so I can.
I can.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
I haven't either.
I have not either, but our statman, nick Kish, says that it's
a pretty great site, so we'retrying to get it for Nick.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yeah, okay, well, hopefully you can get it for
Nick and all the other fans.
Is there any possibleexhibitions that you can share?
That might happen, or is itmore just kind of wait and see?
Speaker 2 (25:36):
It's just talk right now.
We'll let people know if it'sgoing to happen.
You know we'll have video ifit's going to happen, if it
comes together.
But, like I said, at leastconversations are happening
right.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
That's great.
Two different locations, soexcellent.
Yeah, well, I hope the bothexhibitions can happen and, uh,
it's hopefully just build up onfor the future.
I know, as a racing teams, I'msure they would love to go
somewhere after san diego justto get all the salt water out of
everything, right, so,hopefully, go to fresh body of
water and, yeah, that would begood.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, that's a, that's a big thing.
Yes, yeah, if you know any crewmembers, that's boat owners.
Yeah, yeah, that's the, that'sthe.
There's pros and cons to SanDiego and that's the con.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah, but there's so many pros down there, it's a
beautiful place, that's right,man Well, with this HydroTown
group, it seems for the past fewyears, mainly since Daryl and
Vanessa Strong has come on boardwith H1, that there's more I
won't say interest, but moreownership, I guess, of the sport
(26:55):
.
You have Daryl and VanessaStrong, you have the Apollo team
now formed in Tri-Cities, sofour boats that are actually
going to be racing on the seriesthis year are from Tri-Cities,
and I know you were a lifelongcitizen of Tri-Cities.
So what does this mean to youas a fan of the sport and just
(27:16):
living in that area, but justfor the future of the sport as
well?
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Well, I think one of the motivations to starting
HydroTown and getting moreinvolved with H1 is trying to do
everything possible to makesure that our our sport
continues and thrives.
It's been called on that it'sit's dying.
It's dying, you know, for for alot of times and it was like,
(27:43):
well, we're going to get in andtry to re-energize it.
And Daryl buying, you know, twoboats has been great Boats are
headquartered out of Seattle.
So the owners headquartered outof Tri-Cities but the boats are
Seattle.
And then Bruce and LoriRatchford, again out of
Tri-Cities, but boats are inSeattle.
(28:04):
I think it just shows how bigof an impact the Tri-city
waterfowl is has to thecommunity at large.
Um, you look at flavor pack, oh, okay, well, that's a company
that's, you know, got farms here, here and there, but, yeah, but
(28:26):
the owner up until recently, um, and we passed away is is based
out of Pasco, washington, youknow.
So there's all these peoplethat have grown up with the boat
races as the signature event ofTri Cities, that have then
started successful businessesand want to come back to the
(28:51):
sport, to help the sport push onand into the future.
And even though I didn't buy aboat or two or three.
You know I invested, you know,some of our money and a lot of
time and effort and sweat intodoing everything possible to
make the sport and the seriesimprove.
(29:13):
Momentum that's the word we'veused several times is just
trying to get this forward.
Momentum and exposure todifferent companies that, hey, I
want to get involved with thatsport and, uh, I like what
they're doing.
You know and had some of thoseconversations.
So I would hope here in thenext year that a title sponsor,
(29:39):
present sponsors, those kinds ofthings would continue to see.
The vision of kind of what wewanted to do keep continue to
grow at H1.
And then the perfect thing isjust budweiser.
For example, you know back inthe day, bernie little gets
involved and he's a budweiserdistributor and I mean, geez, if
(30:03):
that wasn't the perfect successstory.
Right, well, we run, we want torun in big markets.
So you know you, you see thebudweiser brand on sundays and
winning races and everything.
And, and so these tricidiansare us, including me.
We want to see our littlesuccess story because if you
(30:24):
look at the five race sites, youhave two small towns that are
able to put on a race, which ismiraculous, in Guntersville,
alabama and Madison, indiana.
I mean sub 20,000 people livethere, but they're able to put
on a race.
Then you've got us in themidsize.
Ok, we're 250,000 to 300,000 inTri-Cities now somehow.
(30:51):
And then you've got Seattle andSan Diego, which are major
metropolitan markets.
So you've got three on the WestCoast, two on the East Coast
hey, maybe we bring back anothermajor market in Detroit.
Then we've got three in theEast and three in the West.
So we'll see.
But it's money, right, becauseif you go from six races, let's
(31:15):
say, to eight or 10, now theseteams are going to need to have
bigger sponsors with more moneybehind them, because they're
going to need full-time crews.
A lot of the crews are peoplelike us who have full-time jobs
and do this, you know, on thespare time, right, right.
(31:37):
So you know, I think Tri-Citiesis just showing the, the series
and the and the markets outthere that, hey, you know we're
midsize, but we're all aboutmaking sure that our race
continues.
And so, yeah, that's how I seeTri-Cities and it's our biggest
(32:00):
event in eastern Washington.
So we want to make sure that itcontinues on into the future.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Yeah, I'd love to hear that.
Yeah, definitely love thatfuture talk.
I always got to think about thefuture, helping the sport to
grow.
But I do hear a lot of pridefor your heritage in the area
and I always feel likeTri-Cities is a second home to
me because I usually travel overthere multiple times in the
summer.
But for your background youalso did.
(32:26):
You started a logo, kind of a Idon't know what you call it
your group for Love the Tri.
Can you speak more to that?
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Well, funny enough, I haven't thought about this
story in a while, but I justthought about it today because I
was wondering if he's going toask me about Love the.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Try.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Well, I saw that my wife and I were flying back from
somewhere.
It might have been New York orsomewhere.
I think it was Portland.
Actually, I heart Portlandshirts.
You can get them at any airportand why don't we have that right
?
Yeah, I thought about it, andtri-cities is unique in that
(33:08):
it's multiple cities, it's twocounties.
You know, north side of theriver is franklin county, south
side is benton county.
Um, we had I felt like we had alittle bit of an identity
crisis, like asco took care ofitself, kennewick took care of
itself, richland took care ofitself, and then you got west
richland, benton city, burbank,some of the out outlying areas
(33:32):
kind of did the same.
So the idea was why can't, whycan't I start something that
would try to bring all of themtogether and rather than, hey,
you know, focus on Pasco orKennewick or Richland and the
visit Tri-Cities was out there,but it was government funded and
(33:53):
they were doing the best theycould and I kind of saw what
they had and was like I'm justgoing to take a different angle
on it.
My wife was out of town, on aSaturday, I think, and I just
got out a pad and I started whatwould I call it and I was like
love, the try just came out ofmy head like it was destined,
just boom, didn't think about it, didn't think of a second name,
(34:14):
didn't think of anything, justlike well, that sounds good,
we'll just call it the tri.
All right, I haven't heardanybody use that term, but let's
go with that.
And what would it be?
What are we known for?
Yeah, we're known for boatraces Partial, right, okay,
that's what we call it.
Known for Hanford and that?
Okay.
Golf wine Okay, okay, that'sbeen played.
(34:40):
And I thought about our sunsetsin Tri-Cities, which underrated.
I mean, unless you're therewhen a good one comes, you don't
really know how good they are.
And I said, okay, we're goingto start.
That's what it's going to be.
It's going to be love the Tri,and it's going to be a sunset.
And the sunset is shared forall the cities.
(35:00):
You can see it from everywhere.
So I thought about it for alittle bit more and I thought,
well, ok, you know, I'm in themortgage business now, as of a
couple of months ago, 20 yearsin the mortgage business.
So at that time I was like I'mnot going to try to make money
from this.
I that time I was like I'm notgoing to try to make money from
(35:22):
this, I'm gonna, I'm gonnadonate 100% of the profits back
to local non-profits andcharities and designed a logo
worked with atomic screenprinting.
Who's heavy into the hydroplanescene knew those guys really
well and uh, I would.
I'm no artist but I kind of putan idea down and then I would
(35:43):
go to brent at atomic and he,he's the artist and he would
make what was in my head andwhat I kind of put on paper.
He would make that come out.
And uh had a lot of goodprojects donated boys and girls
club cancer center.
There was veteran the dogs thatthey have or the veterans, and
(36:13):
just I met a lot of great people, designed a lot of cool things
that came out.
But to be honest, when the H1stuff came back there was just
no time.
There's just when you're takingup your free time and even into
work time with hydroplaneracing.
There's not a lot of free timeto create, you know, and be
(36:39):
artistic and that kind of thingand dedicate much time to it.
So I haven't done much timewith it lately but I'll be
getting back to it andcontinuing on Donated.
I think it was somewherebetween $30,000 and $40,000 back
into the community, which I'mvery proud of.
(37:01):
But I also like the fact thatwe're trying to get the
community to think of them asall the cities together, rather
than, oh, I'm from Pasco or I'mfrom Kennewick, rather I'm from
Tri-Cities, yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Yeah, from Tri-Cities , yeah, yeah.
Well, I just I remember lovingthe logo when you first came out
with that and buying somestickers and shirts with that.
So I always feel likeTri-Cities is kind of a second
home for myself because I'malways going over there for the
boat races and multiple times inthe summertime, yeah, and so
just fun to hear the successstory of bringing back more to
(37:37):
the community and bringingbridging some gaps with the,
with the try.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Yeah, I called it entrepreneurship through via
philanthropy.
Yeah, and I I've had a lot offun and met a lot of great
people through it.
So, yeah, I'll be continuing iton as soon as I have more time.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
That's the one thing I'm always searching for time.
I'm a teacher and I do have afew hobbies.
It's always the hardest part isjust finding the time for that.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Well, I come from a family of teachers, david, so my
mom and dad were both teachers,my uncle was a teacher, my
grandparents were teachers.
So, yeah, I yep, and so mystyle in business that I do is
education.
Yeah, like, oh, hey, you've got, you bought a house before, but
do you realize this?
(38:33):
You know?
Oh, wow, yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
So, yeah, educate as you go that's the way to do it
Exactly Love it Well.
Getting back to hydroplanes,that's why we're talking right,
we love hydroplanes and justthinking about this season got
five races on the schedule.
We just had the test session inTri-Cities.
This year the Gold Cup's goingto be there in Tri-Cities again
(38:57):
for the 60th running of a raceon the Columbia river.
What would you say you're mostexcited for?
Speaker 2 (39:07):
And what should the fans be most excited for this
year?
You think?
Good question, that's.
That's a tough one.
There's my wife was just askingme, she just asked me that
(39:42):
today and I think it's you knowthe Bruce Ratchford coming in
with the two boats and DaveVillewalk and Mike Hansen
working together to put thosetwo boats, you know, up at the
front again.
Um, and Dave, dave is justunbelievable, I mean, at his age
, still doing these things and,uh, you know, and with his, uh,
him going into the motorsportshall of fame, uh, next year in
Daytona beach, florida, that's,that's a big thing.
Um, there'll be a lot of H1people there.
I can tell you that's somethingthat we've talked about and
we're going to.
We're going to have a lot ofpeople there to show how proud
(40:04):
we are of Dave and hisaccomplishments when the season
goes.
I would say they've done a lotof work on that boat that Dave
drove last year.
I know that.
So he told me that, uh, I thinkhe ran a one 61 in in tri
cities in the rain and, uh, hewasn't pushing it, he was just
(40:27):
trying to, hey, just trying toshake things out, and he was, he
was giving it, you know, somespeed, but it wasn't like he was
trying to hit every corner,perfect, every, you know,
everything, perfect.
So that was good.
Um, and then the other.
The other big story is the newmiss Madison and uh, and Brandon
(40:49):
Kennedy driving that boat.
And we'll shoot.
We'll be seeing that here verysoon in Alabama next week.
And uh, I'll be anxious to seehow they you know, they've put
that boat on the water.
They can get the laps in to gethim qualified and uh, and, as
far as we know, run the run thefirst two races with that boat
(41:11):
and and learn.
And so I'm excited about seeingthat boat.
I loved the paint job when theycame, when they brought it out
of the that throwback yeah yeah,the throwback, because that was
uh after atlas sold it to tomadison and uh, yeah, in 77 that
was the wing wonder right, yeah, and then also again in uh 99
(41:33):
with todd yardling.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
Uh, they had that paint scheme as well.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Oh, really, yeah, I think of that boat.
I mean, as you know, georgehenley, and I know I only do it
for two years, um, and then Iknow there was the one atlas
year but it's, it's forgettablebecause of the blue blaster.
Yeah, right after, yeah, I meanit's like oh, yeah, okay, um,
(41:59):
but I think of that boat in allthose years, ron snyder driving
the wing wonder, after the factthat in the in the community of
madison, indiana, running thatboat for so long and continue to
get more and more speed out ofthat thing, year after year
after year.
(42:20):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to thenew Miss Madison.
That will be a good time.
I think everybody will stand upand watch when they take that
thing out on the water.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Yeah, it's sad to hear about the sale and all that
, but glad there's a teamtogether in Madison Again,
definitely a city that has a lotof history and definitely needs
to be in the sport.
So glad to hear that they'regoing to be racing and bringing
in some new faces for H1.
Not new faces for racing,because the Kennedys have raced
HRL for some time and have along history of boat racing
(42:58):
themselves, but some excitingthings for the fans there.
Well, I got one last question Iwant to ask you because I know
that you've done so much workthe off-season, with so many
people trying to gear up forthis year, a lot of things to
look forward to.
You talked about in theoff-season all the work you did
(43:19):
with the rulebook, more of animprint on social media and your
vision.
I'll correct you, David.
Oh, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
I'll correct you real quick.
You said you did, it's not me.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Not just you.
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
It's a big group of passionate hydroplane fans.
I just I want to clarify,because I don't want to put that
on my shoulders, because I feellike this year I haven't done
nearly as much as I did lastyear.
And other people have steppedin because they saw what we did
last year and other people arelike, okay, okay, now we're in
(44:00):
and we're committed right, youknow um to making things better,
right?
Speaker 1 (44:05):
yeah, it takes a village right um, but as as
chairman, I guess, I guess theeyes are on you sometimes.
But yeah, for good and bad yeahfor good and bad, uh, but with
all the work that you and othershave done this past season, if
you had a magical wish, I couldsnap your fingers and have one
other thing happen.
Yeah, for good and bad, butwith all the work that you and
others have done this pastseason, if you had a magical
wish, like you'd snap yourfingers and have one other thing
happen for this year, for H1,what would that be?
(44:27):
I live in a hypothetical world.
A lot of times it's my daydream.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
Well, I think we figured out a way to put on a
good show last year with fourboat heats and we were rotating
through five, six, seven, eightboats.
But we were having four boatheats and I'll bring up
(44:58):
potentially an elephant in theroom of hydroplane racing.
I'm a purist and I think that alot of people are and want to
see the boats continue to fightfor lanes, and so, um, I would
want to see, in the perfectworld, 10 national boats and
(45:26):
then we would have a sprinklingof regional boats to come to
their close race and, uh, wewould have 10 boats fighting it
out and, uh, we would have fiveboat heats.
Yeah, and uh then, uh, then itwould get interesting.
You know, because when Darylcame in and bought his boats and
he invested what he invested,he spared no expense in getting
(45:50):
his boats fast and a lot offull-time crew members.
And now there's someone fromfrom tri-cities who said, well,
I'll buy a couple boats and I'llhave full-time crew and we're
coming after you.
So a combination in the perfectworld.
(46:12):
Yeah, I'd like to have 10national boats battling it out,
um, but in the world, just forthis season, I would want to see
, um, those two groups battlingit out and maybe they're so
focused on each other.
You know, jamie Nielsen comesaround and uh, and sneaks out a
(46:34):
victory because, uh, and sneaksout a victory because, uh, you
know, you, just, you just neverknow, um, but yeah, it's going
to be great seeing these.
You know, just the, every yearthere's a new dynamic and uh,
with Vilwock having a full offseason to work on the boat with
(46:57):
Mike Hanson and you know, andothers in the old bud shop, how
much faster and how much moreconsistent is that boat going to
be than last year?
Last year felt like kind of atest run, like okay, go out and
run it around and but be safe,and and uh, but this year we'll
(47:20):
see yeah, I think there'sdifferent story lines that are
going to evolve.
And, uh, you know, we've gotfive, five national boats, and
then we've got madison, we'vegot graham, we've got o'farrell,
so we'll see, maybe we havefive races and five different
(47:41):
winners.
How about that?
That's the good PC answer frommy side.
Hey, different winner at everyrace.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
There you go.
As a fan, I would love to seethat, and I just had an episode
with the creator of Deck-to-DeckFantasy, hydroplane, and we
talked about some differentscenarios and I said that Jamie
Nelson and the Flavor Pack wouldbe a dark horse underdog to win
Tri-Cities this year.
So it'll be fun to see them geta win.
Speaker 2 (48:11):
Well, with all the strategy and different things
that could happen before a race,you never know.
You never know, you just don'tknow you think about jamie in
gunnersville last year and uh,yeah, he he was.
He got second place right anduh in the final.
And uh won a heat as well andwas super competitive with and
(48:34):
held off j michael kelly.
You know um anything can happen.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
Yeah, and their cards fell in their place.
In Seattle too, they got asecond place after some other
shenanigans happened out there,but yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:47):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
Yep, it could happen.
Well, I appreciate your time,mike.
Is there anything else you wantto tell the fans out there from
your perspective?
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Well, if anyone thinks we're not doing anything
to try to make things better, Ican't tell you how many people
have put in a ton of hours totry to make things better in the
off season.
We've got a lot of people thatgo to every race to make sure
that things are happening safebetween medical and the rescue
(49:22):
boat on YouTube for the fans athome.
So just know that we've steppedup.
(49:55):
You know, when people say like,hey, if you don't like the
result, we'll get involved,right, we have got involved and
we're doing everything we can tomake our sport better.
Speaker 1 (50:08):
Well, I love to hear that.
I think anything we can do tomake it better is what we need,
and it sounds like you're doingthe right things there.
A lot of positive things forthe year to come.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
That's the plan, david, and we appreciate you.
I know it took us a while topull this off with our schedules
, but I'm glad we did.
Speaker 1 (50:27):
Yeah, no, I appreciate you.
I appreciate your time.
Yeah, some some sicknesses andother things kept us from from
doing this until now, but reallyappreciate taking the evening
to spend with me and talk abouthydroplanes.
Speaker 2 (50:40):
Not just talk about hydroplanes rooster tail talk.
Speaker 1 (50:45):
That's right.
Well, that's all the time wehave for this week, Knuckleheads
.
Hope you enjoyed my chat withcurrent H1 chairman, Mike
Denslow, as he gave us moreinsight to all the goings on
behind the scenes that we don'tget to see as fans.
Don't forget, this weekend bigrace our first race for H1
Unlimited is in Guntersville,Alabama.
Please support the series.
If you can't be there, watch onH1 streaming.
(51:07):
They're going to put out a greatstreaming service this year.
They're boosting it, they'repropelling it forward.
They're making it better andbigger and brighter.
In the meantime, don't forget,we're on social media, on
Facebook and Instagram.
Check us out online atruchetaltalkcom.
And don't forget thatsubscription service, Ruchetal
Talk Plus, where you get earlyaccess to all episodes entered
(51:31):
in for a monthly raffle drawingand more extras along the way,
with our private archives in ourwebsite and some other fun
features as well.
But good luck this weekend toall the teams.
Thank you again, Mike Denzel,for your time being on the
podcast and sharing some of yourgreat insights and stories with
us.
Really appreciate you and allthe work that you have done, as
(51:51):
well as all the many others.
I know there's many, many, manythat are behind the scenes.
It's not just you.
You're the face as the chairman, but it's a group effort.
It takes a village and Iappreciate everyone and their
combined efforts to make H1Unlimited happen again this year
and have a bigger platform forthis great sport that we all
(52:13):
love.
So until next time I hope tosee you at the Reasons.
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