52nd Sayres Memorial produces five different winners

LONGVIEW – Forecasts for a perfect weather race day certainly encouraged ERCU members to travel to Cowlitz County’s biggest city on Saturday.

Then everything changed.

Chamber of Commerce weather welcomed ERCU to Lake Sacajawea Park for the 52nd running of the Stan Sayres Memorial, presented by Skidfin Consulting, but clouds rolled in quickly, keeping temperatures cool. So did the ERCU 2025-style winds.

Nevertheless, it was a fun day of racing with a total of 39 boats in the pits. By comparison to the winds at Waughop and Ellensburg, this day seemed like a refreshing walk in the park.

The day began with 1/10 modern which on this day would be the lightest attended class with just five boats. Five great boats and drivers all head-to-head, mano a mano through three preliminary heats in preparation for the winner takes all final. Paxton Reunanen’s Graham Trucking American Dream swept each of his prelims with a perfect 1,200 points and hands down the odds-on favorite to win the final. Chuck Murray’s 2000 Elam took second place in Heat 1 and Nelson Holmberg with his 2024 Flav-R-Pac finished second in heats 2 & 3. All five crew chief, drivers, owners were preparing for the final when word came that Elam would be a scratch. Four boats started the final but just one boat would be running to compete all five laps. For the second straight week, David Heilbrunn came away with a race win, this time in his 2015 Dalton Industries boat. His boat, as a result of the win, maintains a razor slim 325-point lead in 1/10 modern boat season standings after five races.

Next up was 1/10 classic with seven boats on hand for heats 1A and 1B which were won by Holmberg in his newly-acquired 1976 Atlas Van Lines and Mike Walcker with his 1973 Red Man Too, respectively. Homberg would go on to win his heats 2A and 3A poised for the final with a perfect day going. Murray would win Heat 2B with his 1976 Olympia Beer and Jerry Dunlap with the 1983 Coors Light would take the checker for 3B. The Atlas, Coors and Oly would be joined for the final by Dray Newton and his 1986 Squire Shop along with Gary Dawn’s 1982 Gilmore Special. The final was a dandy where five boats started, five raced hard, five finished and the podium was topped by Holmberg and his Atlas Van Lines. Second and third place went to beer boats, Dunlap’s Coors the Murray’s Oly.

The 1/10 vintage class featured eight beautiful boats and no ugly ones. Heats 1A, 2B and 3B were each won by Reunanen driving Kerry Kjos 1960 Miss Thriftway. Murray’s 1964 Savair’s Mist won heat 1B and Heilbrunn’s Blue Chip would take the checkers in both 2A and 3A. Reunanen and Heilbrunn qualified for entry in the final and were joined by Paul Dunlap driving the Exide, John Earnest Gale V and Holmberg Pay ‘n Save. All five started and all five finished with Paul Dunlap emerging triumphant in his first heat win of the day albeit this was the all-important winner takes all final. Nicely done team Dunlap!  Second went to Reunanen/Kjos and the bronze was captured by Holmberg’s Earnest-built Pay ‘n Save. This was notably the second race this season where team Dunlap did nothing more early on but to punch a ticket to the final and then come out and take the final convincingly.

Next up came the big boats, 1/7 scale modern/classic classes combined. Ten, count them, 10 boats on hand calling for flights of three races, A, B and C heats. Mike McIntosh’s 2023 Beacon Plumbing couldn’t have asked for a better start winning all three of his preliminary heats. Craig Mullen’s 1971 Pay ‘n Pak went backwards when launched for heat 1C. He would get things figured out quickly and returned to take the checkers in his second and third heat. The other prelim winners taking one of their three heats were: John Sjostrom Miss U.S., Jim McKeon Budweiser, David Heilbrunn Goodman Real Estate and Denise Sjostrom with her Oh Boy! Oberto. The bottom four boats on points after three would slug it out in the consolation heat. Goodman Real Estate jumped the start tried hard but couldn’t catch all the way up to the leader. Near the end lap four Goodman lost its grip in turn four and hopped out to make contact with Oberto. Oberto survived the collision and was not too worse for the wear, but the contact may have cost them the consolation victory. Havens Jr. took the connie win and advanced to the five-boat final. The final was a good race between Mullen’s Pay ‘n Pak and Sjostrom’s Miss US. McIntosh Beacon Plumbing became disabled for a DNF, and the Mullen’s Pak takes the checkers, McKeon, Budweiser crossed second and Sjostrom’s Miss U.S. would take third.

In 1/7 vintage, David Newton did what he seemingly always does. Dominate. He and his 1956 Hawaii Kai III would sweep the checkers for all three preliminary heats. Meanwhile none of the additional preliminary heat winners won more than one of their three prelim heats. The additional preliminary heat winners were 1A - Bob VandenAkker, 1966 $ Bill, 1C - Dennis Caines 1968 Eagle Electric, 2B Rob Edwards 1969 Pay ‘n Pak, 2C Paxton Reunanen 1982 Island Security, 3A John Havens Jr. Miss US 1 and 3B John Sjostrom 1960 Thriftway. The top five in points after three prelims advanced to the final and four boats would square off in the consolation heat with one final spot in the winner takes all final at stake. Not one of the four would survive the five laps to finish the connie with all four securing front row seats as spectators. Five boats made the start. Edwards Pay ‘n Pak disabled early leaving Newton Hawaii Kai, VandenAkker $ Bill, Sjostrom Thriftway and Havens Miss U.S. battled for the five and Newton emerged from the spray to take the checkers, second was $ Bill and third was secured by Sjostrom in the Thriftway.

The club’s focus now turns north to Twin Lakes Park in Marysville for the sixth race, the halfway point of the 2025 ERCU Championship Series. June 14 will be the Jack Regas Memorial presented by Spartacus Boatworks. Pre-registration is open now and can be accessed through this link.