FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 22, 2004
Contact: Nelson Holmberg (nelson@noslencommunication.com) (360) 521-1590
Media Notes: After repairs, U-25 coming to Tri-Cities
KENNEWICK, Wash. — It’s been a long week for the crew of the U-25 Silver Dollar Casinos present Miss Rock unlimited hydroplane.
After damage to the boat in heat 3A of the Gold Cup last weekend in Detroit, Dr. Ken Muscatel’s volunteer crew has been hard at work repairing the motor mounts and changing decals aboard the black beauty.
The team will come to the Columbia Cup with one turbine engine and one gear box, after damage to those components in Detroit put them out of commission for this race. The damaged turbine and gear box are being repaired at Competition Specialties in Auburn, Wash.
After a three-day drive halfway across the country, the boat arrived back in the Superior Racing Team shop shortly after 6 p.m. on Wednesday and the team got right to work. A full day of work on Thursday gave the team hope of leaving for Tri-Cities on Friday afternoon.
The hopes are to get in at least one test run on Friday evening and one on Saturday morning before the heat racing begins at 3 p.m. A field of 10 boats is expected for the Columbia Cup, which is running this season without sanction from HydroProp.
The Columbia River course in Tri-Cities is widely known as the fastest unlimited hydroplane race track in the nation, and all of the turbines will run with a full 4.3 gallon per minute fuel flow. With that, it would not be surprising to see several teams post very fast speeds. Superior Racing could be included in those teams, as Muscatel posted a lap of 152.920 in Sunday morning’s testing last week at Detroit. It was the second-fastest lap of the morning test session. All eight boats at the Gold Cup took testing laps that morning.
SILVER DOLLAR CASINOS BECOMING A TRADITIONAL SPONSOR
Each year since 2000, the Silver Dollar Casinos have been a supporter of Dr. Ken Muscatel’s unlimited hydroplane out West. Last season, for the first time, Silver Dollar Casinos welcomed a co-title sponsor to the team, as they presented the return of the legendary Miss Rock (KISW 99.9 FM in Seattle) hydroplane name. The boat will again be known this year as the Silver Dollar Casinos present Miss Rock in Tri-Cities and Seattle.
LOCAL BUSINESSES SUPPORT TEAM
Both the Clarion Inn and Conference Center (Richland) and Yoke’s Fresh Market (Pasco) have forged a relationship with the Silver Dollar Casinos present Miss Rock hydroplane team. The Clarion Inn and Conference Center (formerly known as the Royal Hotel) is, for the second year, the official Tri-Cities home of Superior Racing Team. The hotel provided rooms for the entire team during race weekend, and fans of hydroplane racing — particularly the U-25 — are encouraged to stay at the Clarion. Yoke’s Fresh Market is the team’s food sponsor during the Columbia Cup, providing the freshest lunch, snacks and beverages each day of the event.
A REGULAR VISITOR
Since 1992, Superior Racing Team has been a fixture in the Tri-Cities, one of the longest continuous streaks in unlimited hydroplane racing.
OFFSEASON WORK
The volunteer crew of Superior Racing Team spent most Tuesday and Thursday nights, as well as many Saturdays in the shop during the winter. There was a lot of work to get done, after the boat was broken during a 360-degree blowover in San Diego during last year’s season finale. But when the team rebuilt the boat this year, it saved roughly 300 pounds, and rebuilt the entire bottom of the hull. The team also shifted the weight of the boat, trying to improve its performance. “We refused to go through another season as frustrating as 2003,” Muscatel said. “We hope the changes we made will make us lighter and quicker.” The famous black hull is back this year, too. The boat looks strikingly similar to the one the team raced all season last year.
GOLD CUP RECAP
Superior Racing Team had an up-and-down weekend during the Chrysler/Jeep Superstores Detroit Gold Cup last week, but some damage in the engine well put an early end to the race day. Muscatel turned in a second place finish in heat 2B, putting him in fifth place in the points standings after one day. If the final would have been on Saturday, Muscatel would have put the Miss Bell Fork Lift into the final heat on the front line. But unfortunately, after turning a hot lap of 152.920 in testing on Sunday morning, heat 3A was mean and nasty to the boat. While running in third place on the fourth lap of the heat, Muscatel’s boat suddenly went dead in the water, spitting fire out the back of the engine. A motor mount had given way, and the motor and gear box seized up, causing the boat to go dead in the water almost immediately. The damage was too much to repair in the pits in time for heat 4B, in which the U-25 drew lane one, and the team’s day was over.
MADISON RECAP
It was a long weekend in Madison last week, for the 2004 debut of the U-25 Mister Home Loan. The long weekend started on Thursday morning when crew chief Roger Newton and truck driver/crew member Vern Blair discovered that a spring on the trailer had gone bad. Replacement of that spring was expected to be as easy as buying a new part and installing it, then moving the boat into the Madison pits and beginning the final preparations for the race. But that’s not how it turned out. Newton said the team had to go to a fabricator’s shop in Evansville, Ind., and have them make a spring for the team, as ordering one would have taken too much time. By the time the trailer spring was replaced, most of the day had gone by. The team didn’t get the boat into the pits until Thursday evening. By Friday afternoon, decals had been affixed to the boat, and setup was underway. It looked as if Dr. Ken Muscatel would make it out for the day’s testing. But some other problems cropped up, including the boat being roughly 75 pounds too light, things weren’t aligned just right, and the accelerator wasn’t set up right. The positive side, however, is that the boat — reworked over the winter, including weight loss and a new bottom — rode well throughout the weekend, but the little problems limited what the team could achieve in the overall picture. The weekend included 14-hour days that began at 7 a.m., and a scramble to make sure the boat would participate in the race.
ASSOCIATE SPONSORS COME FROM WASHINGTON
In addition to the Tri-Cities companies involved in helping Superior Racing Team this season, two Washington State based companies are national associate sponsors of the U-25. NOSLEN Communication Services (Vancouver, Wash.) is in its second year as the team’s public and media relations provider. NCS also assists with sponsorship efforts. Nelson Holmberg, president of NCS, is a 25-year supporter of unlimited hydroplane racing. Mister Home Loan, put together by long-time racing enthusiast Wayne Rosburg. He is the most senior loan officer at Golf Savings Bank in Lynnwood, Wash. Rosburg is famous for being the first baseball player to ever hit a home run in the Kingdome while playing for Seattle University in a “tune up” game for Kingdome personnel who were preparing for the Seattle Mariners’ debut. It is the third consecutive season that Rosburg has sponsored Muscatel’s hydroplane. In 2002, he sponsored Superior Racing Team in San Diego. Rosburg was also a sponsor of the team in the past when he sponsored Muscatel in 1993 and 1994 when the boat was known as the U-55 Pete’s Wicked Ale. He also has helped the U-3 team in the past, and for the last six years has produced collectable hydroplane buttons.
2003 SEASON RECAP
Superior Racing Team did have a frustrating year in 2003, but there were some bright spots as well. For one, Muscatel made the final in Madison, and finished fourth. In the Madison prelims, he finished third twice and second once … In the final high points standings, Muscatel was 8th. That was an improvement on 2002, when he finished 11th … In the Tri-Cities, Dr. Ken outsmarted the other drivers in one of his heats, and pulled two of them across the starting line too early. Muscatel used that to his advantage and finished second in the heat … In the Northwest, the team stirred wonderful hydroplane racing memories, and renewed a tradition by carrying sponsorship from Seattle radio station KISW (99.9 FM), running as the Silver Dollar Casinos present Miss Rock. Fans in both Tri-Cities and Seattle were enamored with the return of their cult-favorite radio station boat.
— U-25—
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