Chair Chatter: At the halfway point

As I sit here listening to episode 69 of Roostertail Talk on the couch in my living room, it has hit me that we are halfway through the 2021 ERCU Pentair Championship Series, and I personally couldn’t be happier, or prouder.

I hope you feel the same way.

In the last couple of months, we’ve seen the club grow in not only 1/10 scale, but also in 1/7 scale and in 1/8 scale. We’ve also seen an increased interest in our club at our races, and at least one person who saw us race the first time in Longview and ended up buying three boats.

And more and more former members of the club are beginning to come back to give us a try. I’d like to give a shout out to John Howell, who came out to the Detroit Memorial as a guest racer and had such a great time he joined the club as a full member. Thank you, John! We’re glad you’re back.

I’m excited to see what the second half of the season brings. I’m sorry to miss the upcoming Jack Regas Memorial at Waughop Lake. The facility has been nicely upgraded and the lake is healthy again. But what I’ll really miss is the great camaraderie in the pits and in the driving area.

For those who don’t already know, I’ll miss the race because I’ve come out of retirement as a crew member for the U-12 Graham Trucking. I’ll be in Guntersville, Ala., with the team while you guys are running our beloved models.

RULEBOOK CORNER
While the first half of the year has been awesome, there are always things we can do better, and in this case we’re pretty fortunate that the ongoing education and knowledge of our rules. In an effort to be helpful, I’m going to continue feature a rule or two in this column through the rest of the season.

One thing we can improve on is spotters. A couple of thoughts I want to share here, before I remind y’all of the rule. First, it’s critical that we have a spotter whenever our boat is on the water, pre-race testing or racing. Second, it’s even more important that the spotter is giving information to the driver in a timely manner.

Finally, it is the responsibility of each of us to find our own spotter to help us out before we go on the clock. Please remember to be thinking about who your spotter will be a couple of heats before yours and make sure you’re set to run with a spotter.
Here’s how the rulebook reads about spotters:

• Drivers shall always have a spotter when their boat is on the course
• The spotter will inform the drier of race conditions, count laps, and assist the judges in calling out “dead boat” status.
• This provision applies to pre-race testing also in order to conform to NAMBA Safety Rules.
• Except for rookies, one spotter may assist up to two drivers.
• As a courtesy to others, drivers and spotters should remain on the scaffolding until all boats have completed their race.

TRAILER REIMBURSEMENT
I wanted to share a couple of huge thank yous when it comes to making sure our club trailer is at every race this year. First, and most importantly, the thank yous.

Just before the season started, Bill Mowatt committed to pull the trailer to every race this year, and to store it at his home between races. Little did he know then that he’d have to take a month off this summer in order to have knee surgery.

When Bill was sidelined, David Newton and Brad Lewis stepped up to make sure the trailer continued to move from race to race, and I deeply appreciate them both for making sure it happened.

In Brad’s case, that meant a special trip to Renton to get the trailer from David, then back to his home in Lake Oswego. While in Oregon, Brad had the tires replaced for us, and of course, there was then a trip to Longview for the Detroit Memorial Regatta. Finally, Brad took the trailer to Waughop last Saturday for the District 8 race, where Bill grabbed it back and will resume his towing with the Jack Regas Memorial this Saturday and to the rest of the races this season.

When Brad asked the board for reimbursement by the mile, we agreed to do that even though it is outside of our current policy of $50 per race tow money. The reimbursement will be paid to Brad and we deeply appreciate his help making sure the trailer got moved around. Additionally, the board agreed that we will review and reconsider the trailer tow reimbursement policy during the offseason, when we do our regular reviews of rules and policies.

It isn’t our normal practice to make exceptions to rules and policies during the middle of the season, but in this case, we felt an exception was warranted, and in the spirit of transparency, I wanted to just share that with you all.

With that, I’ll leave you with a quote from the great Chip Hanauer. It’s one of my favorite quotes about humility and service above self, and how even the people who are the most giving to others need to step back and take care of themselves now and then.

“Being a good warrior may be good for the ego, but it’s bad for the soul.”

Have a great race Saturday at Waughop! I’ll be thinking about you guys in Alabama.

Go Graham Trucking!