The Gold Cup: What you need to know

The 2020 ERCU Championship Series presented by Pentair, American Pool and Island Watershapes is back in business and going for the Gold! We appreciate your patience as we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 ERCU Gold Cup is set to be run on Saturday, Oct. 24 at Woodland Creek Park in Lacey. Here is all you need to know about the day.

Classes

• 1/10-scale FE
  
• 1/7 scale FE, 1/8 scale FE
  
• Outlaw Class – run what ya brung
  

Location

• Woodland Creek Community Park, Lacey, WA
  

Saturday

• ERCU Board of Directors members will arrive on site at 7 a.m. to set up the club’s equipment, the pits and the racecourse. The course will open for testing and practice at 8 a.m. Open water will close at 8:45 a.m. sharp to be followed by Gold Cup time trials. Those who wish to participate in time trials should indicate their intention to Nelson Holmberg no later than 8:30 a.m.
  
• If your boats need an inspection, please have them ready for inspection prior to your arrival and arrange for scale and technical inspections to be done before you take to open water. You’ll need to have your inspection sheets filled in prior to inspections.
  

Drivers Meeting

• A mandatory drivers meeting will be held at 9:50 a.m. at the official barge. This meeting will be mandatory for ALL drivers, regardless of scale, size, class or club of origin. It is for safety and communication purposes, so ALL drivers must attend the meeting in its entirety.
  

Heat Racing

• Heat racing will begin five minutes after the conclusion of the drivers meeting.
  

Three Minute Clock

• With a large number of boats, and a long day of racing, anticipated (and shortening daylight hours) a three-minute start clock will be used for every heat. In order to avoid delays to the day’s racing, once the clock is started for a heat, it will not be paused or stopped for any reason. If you need time between back-to-back heats, please alert the chief referee before the 3-minute clock has started.
  

Time Trials

• Optional time trials (two runs for each boat in a period of at least an hour), will occur during open water on race day morning for those who would like to attempt time trials
  
• Fastest qualifier in each class wins the Bill Muncey Memorial fastest qualifier award
  
• Points will be awarded for positions in time trials, and those points will count in the race totals, and for determining berths in the final heats.
  
• The time trials points format for both vintage, classic and modern is: 1st – 100 points; 2nd – 80 points; 3rd – 70 points; 4th – 60 points; 5th – 50 points; 6th – 40 points; Seventh place through last place – 30 points each.
  

Race Format

• Four preliminary heats of five laps each for vintage, classic and modern classes
  
• First connies for all three classes are the Ted Jones Memorial and count as an official race victory. Winner moves up as the trailer boat.
  
• Second connies are the Bob Gilliam Memorial for vintage, Bob Miller Memorial for classic, and the Jim McCormick Memorial for modern. Winner moves up to the first connie as a trailer
  
• Second place boat in the first connie is an alternate for the final
  
• Winner-take-all championship finals for vintage, classic and modern
  

Defending Champions

• Modern Gold Cup: 1972 Notre Dame, Rick Evans
  
• Vintage Gold Cup: 1957 Hawaii Kai III, Jerry Dunlap (Owner: Ben Keller)
  
• Modern Ted Jones Memorial: 1983 Miss Houston, Chuck Murray
  
• Vintage Ted Jones Memorial: 1975 Oh Boy! Oberto, Nelson Holmberg
  

Outlaw Race

• Due to the pandemic-caused cease to most scale racing this year, we will allow an outlaw class for boats that don’t fit ERCU rules. This would include “Division III” boats from Classic Thunder with motors that don’t meet the motor rules in ERCU.
  

1/7 Scale FE, 1/8 Scale FE

• Scale FE boats in these two classes will be allowed to race during the event.
  
• 1/8 scale will race as an exhibition, due to our agreement with R/CU.
  
• 1/7 scale will only race as an official race if there are a minimum of three boats running in each heat and will be scored by 1/7-scale racers. Otherwise, the class shall be run as an exhibition.
  

Payment

• In ERCU, your first boat is $15 to enter, paid on Saturday morning at registration. Each additional entry, regardless of class, is $5. Please pay via exact change or bring a check made payable to ERCU.
  

Safety Plan

• Please familiarize yourself with the ERCU Safe Start Plan (click here). We need every member to follow this if you want to continue racing in 2020!