Races/Events Article...
The 2007 Orlando Winter Nationals...a great way to start the racing season!
The 2007 Orlando Winter Nationals started
Thursday January 25th and concluded on Sunday January 28th, 2007.
Tuesday and Wednesday January 23rd and 24th were open
water days. The race is put on annually by the Orlando Culvert Dodgers. They have been hosting the Winter Nats for over 20 years now. This
year there were 116 contestants with 393 boats entered in the races. The Winter
Nats are a NAMBA sanctioned event.
I flew down with my friend Stephane on Tuesday
morning and we were at the pond early in the afternoon. We
met up with Butch
Fields who was kind enough to let us pit with him all week. We had taken along
1 boat each with our radio gear. Butch and crew set us up with tools, gas,
tables and storage space. We had plenty of time to tune our boats during the 2
days of open water.
Thursday morning, right after the driver’s
meeting, the racing began! This year the club introduced what they called a
“Specialty” day in the schedule. Thursday was this day. The reason it was
special is that it included 7 classes which are not normally run in the
district: Sport 21, G1 Mono, G1
Catamaran, G1 Sport Hydro, G1 Rigger, Jersey Skiff and Multi Engine Nitro
Rigger. There were 100 boats entered in these classes which ran 4 rounds for a
total of 72 heats, all in that same day!
The racing format that was adopted for this year was the use of a “half mill” in conjunction with a “30 second clock”. There were mixed feelings about this format, but in my opinion it worked quite nicely and I think the majority thought so also.
The weather was pretty good with only some
intermittent rain a couple days. Overall it was very good and us northerners
enjoyed the Florida sun!
Friday, Saturday and Sunday included the following classes: A-Mod Tunnel, A-Mono, A-Hydro, B-Mod Tunnel, B-Mono, B-Hydro, Sport 40 II, C-Mono, C-Hydro, 1/8 Scale, X-Mono, X-Hydro, Open Offshore, GX1 Mono, GX1 Catamaran, GX1 Sport Hydro, GX1 Rigger, Crackerbox and Open Gas Offshore. Needless to say there was a lot of racing going on!
Everything at this event was very well organized. The hosting club members did an awesome job taking care of everything and making sure things moved along smoothly. There were sufficient portable toilets on site. Coffee, food and other beverages were available at the concession stand every day.
Wednesday night we were all treated to a Louisiana Crawfish Boil put on by Carlo Catalanotto of CC Racing Engines. This was a first for me and I can honestly say I loved it! (enough so that I had seconds on Thursday night!) We all ate to our appetite, relaxed and socialized. This was followed on Friday night by a seafood meal put on by Steve and John Adams and Steve Kauffe. They served Swordfish, Wahoo, shrimp, potato salad, and tossed salad. It was great!
The 2007 Orlando Winter Nationals concluded on
Sunday January 28. In the afternoon the trophies were awarded to the winners in
each class. After this, we all packed up, said our goodbyes and got ready to
leave. All good things must come to an end!
This was my first time attending the Orlando Winter Nationals. It should be obvious by now that I really enjoyed this event. I hope to see everyone again next year and maybe some new faces too. If you haven’t yet been to this race you should seriously consider it for next year, especially if you are a northerner like me. What could be better than to race model boats at 70deg plus temperatures in Orlando in the middle of winter!!!
I would like to personally thank the following people:
- Brian Watts and all the OCD club members for putting on the event and for welcoming us.
- Butch (the Boatman) Fields for letting us pit
with him…thank you Butch, it was much appreciated.
- Carlo Catalanotto for the awesome crawfish boil…I had been waiting a long time to try this and it was excellent!
- Steve and John Adams and Steve Kauffe for the great seafood meal.
- All the racers for making this a competitive yet friendly event.
Sponsors of the 2007 Orlando Winter Nationals
Aeromarine Laminates
Atlantis Limousine
Butch the Boatman
C&C Racing Engines
Cooper Pipes
Harvey Hill
Hughey Boats
Insane Boats
Micro Fasteners
Mike Allen
ModelGasBoats.com
MRD Racing Engines
Peter Muller
PropWorks
Rocket City Racing
Steve Allen
Steve Kauff
T-MOD Mufflers
Top Secret Manufacturing
Venom Racing Products
VooDoo PropsZipp Manufacturing
HEAT RACING RESULTS – 2007 ORLANDO WINTER NATS (Specialty Day – Thursday
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RD 1 |
RD 2 |
RD
3 |
RD
4 |
FINAL |
HEAT RACING RESULTS – 2007 ORLANDO WINTER NATS (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
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RD 1 |
RD 2 |
RD 3 |
RD 4 |
FINAL |
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