FESTOOL SUPPLY .COM hydroplane racing

[Bill in seattle]

As the 2009 hydroplane racing season is off and running festool supply .com has agreed to back the hopp racing UL-1 G/GP-15 unlimited lite hydroplane 5 time national championships and current world speed record holder at 161mph for the coming year again.
You can see them at www.hoppracing.com and watch the action this weekend at firebird international raceway live via web cast during the races on friday and saturday at www.ulhra.org. Some of you might be lucky to see the races via espn or other cable covering the races along with the international hot boat world drags drags. If you live in or near phoenix take a trip and watch them at the course, its wicked cool to hear and feel the thunder and power as they scream by roostertails 50' in the air.
If you don't know what hydros are they are the fastest boats on the planet. This winter festool supply worked with hopp racing to repair and rebuild all the brutal damage from last years racing. Festools get quite a workout cutting, sanding, grinding and more working with all kinds of carbon fiber, exotic woods honeycombs, epoxys and frpgs. Cutiing thru 1 1/2'' of mixed kevlar, graphite,epoxy and fiberglass decking to make repairs was no match for the powerful festools. Sanding and grinding was a breeze and helped make the the job go much faster as the time limits till the first race approached quickly. It was down to the wire working nite and day for the team to make the the first race last week at Moses lake washington in the apba racing circuit in which they took first place with jerry hopp and gregg hopp splitting the driving duties over the weekend. The supercharged 1600hp engine worked flawless the first time out on the water and the secret improvments to the hull design proved themselves on the water.
Cheer on for the festool supply hydro this weekend!!!!!

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Bill,
Thanks for letting us know about this.  I remember when you posted about a previous event -- it was really exciting to see the Festool colors out there competing.  Festool should be proud.  (Much better than sponsoring my bowling team).

Can you post photos of the event here for us to see...maybe even a video?!

Thanks again,
Matthew

 

[Bill in seattle]

Racing starts today at 12 noon pst. Go to www.ulhra.org and click on webcast to watch the races.

Boat racing can be unpredictable and there are occasional delays when boats have to be towed off the course or saftey issuses come up so be patient between the heats. There are many other races in between the events that are the lucas international hot boats drags ( water top fuel dragsters)going on on the same course as they share the course. Its well run organized caos most of the time.

Hope you all can catch a heat or two. The final heat will be sunday after eliminations for the final three or four boats. We sure hope to be there.
Bill

 

[Bill in seattle]

First heat of the firebird ulhra race is over and the festool supply.com with hopp racing took first place.
Second heat will be at about 5pm pst-8pm est today. check in a little early as racing is unpredicticable with boats due to weather.
Should be a good second round.  www.ulhra.org and click on webcast series.

hot boat and sprintboats will be showed thruout the day as well.

 

[Bill in seattle]

Second heats got underway early,the winds were too high for drag boats to run so they bumped up the schedule.
Hopp racing worked quickly and got the hydro refueled and re- setup for the changed schedule. Every race they pull the cowling off, and clean and inspect every inch of the hull, the systems and the engine. The valve covers come off and everything is inspected for anything that could have come loose.
Every nut and bolt is checked, every hose and line, the safety capsule and life support breathing gear is gone through and rechecked. Most people would not know it but they wear military fighter jet masks during the race with self contained breathing air from tanks onboard in case the hydro flips and submerges.
The oil is changed as it it whipped into a froth for the few laps they run as  they go all out at 8000 rpm. The computers are downloaded and scanned for engine operation and look for any glitches.
Boat racing is about the hardest punishment you can put on a engine. It is going up and down back and forth and pulling several g's in the turns forcing all the oil out of the pans, cooling systems run raw water and can pick up crap in the water plugging the lines frying very expensive motors in a flash.  Keeping every system in tip top condition between every race is grueling tedious and hard work. Sometimes you have to pull a entire engine and put in a backup one in less than an hour or so, that takes extreme teamwork and precision to be back on the water for the next heat.
The props are a sceice in themselfs. Many break and take out the hull and end a racers day or year. They are pulled and scrutinized for microscopic cracks almost the entire time between heats. Scott baker is probably one of the best prop guys in the world and he keeps the mojo moving.

The festool supply.com  took first place in heat two once again for a total off 800 pts heading into the semi finals and finals tommorrow on sunday.

Hope you might get a chance to catch the final it will be crazy in the pits tonight getting ready for tomorrow for everyone.

Bill

 

[Bill in seattle]

Festool supply.com claims another victory in the semifinals today gaining another 400 pts to advance to the grand final later today. Sweeping all three heats is no easy task and should make a very exciting race with three very quantified hydros in the final.
This track is one of the toughest in the country as to the sharp hard turns and smaller course. The boats have to accelerate as much as they can through the turns without spinning out and losing boat speed to be able to nail it in the straightaway for as long as they can before the next turn.
The speeds here are less than the bigger courses in which they can approach speeds over 160mph. It may look so simple watching them but they really are getting beat around in those cockpits. Gregg hopp says sometimes when he goes into a turn over 150mph just trying to take a breath and breath with the g forces pinning you to the side of the capsule and not blacking out is a challenge in itself.

The championship race is later today so keep checking back for the auctual time as many factors affect a exact time.

Winning the first race of the ulhra season would be great taking the championship and no better way to start the year off.

Hopp racing is also doing double duty this year also racing in the APBA racing circuit in the G-grand prix circuit, which has many races in between the ULHRA series and as far away as  Detroit Michigan and Valleyfield Quebec Canada later in the season as well.

Bill

 

[b_m_hart]

cool stuff - any pictures to share?

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Bill,
Definitely keep us updated, and definitely post photos when you have them.

I think this is a great thing you do.  Festool must be proud to have you doing something new and different to promote the company name and image in such a positive way.

Thanks for doing this.

Stay in touch,
Matthew

 

[Sean7a]

Video video video!  Link me if I'm missing it.  Come on, this is 2009, we want video!!!

Awesome stuff, post more often about it please

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Bill,

Thanks for a very interesting thread and links.  I missed these posts until today, obviously long after the mentioned races.  Congratulations to the team and to Festool's sponsorship.

What are the engines being used, and how are they generating that much power?  From the one video I watched at the linked site, the engine sounds like a V-8 to me.  I disagree somewhat with the statements that this type of usage is the hardest service on engines, though.  The piston type racing aircraft similarly are under extreme loading, and failure means they fall out of the air.  Drag racers using Chevy Z-28 (302 CI engines with stock Chevrolet internal components) were regularly turning 9000 RPM or more in the late 1960s/early 1970s.  (My roomate then worked as a tire compounder in Firestone's racing tires division and our near neighbor was Arlen Vanke, who setup and fixed many of such cars, especially the Pro-Stock Mopar equipment.) And what about the top fuel and funny cars -- V8s pumped up to almost unimagninable HP levels.  I still have copies of Smokey Yunick's articles teaching how to build a 302 Chevy engine for TransAm racing, where the engine built with over-the-GM-counter components is expected to live at least 12 hours at >7000 RPM in racing conditions.  And NASCAR is using V-8s which are turning similar RPMS for hours on end during a race.  And Formula One cars are turning only 18000 RPM this year, with G-forces sometimes reaching 5.5.  When I drive my stock [except for engine intake and computer chip] BMW [1995 3L US spec. M3 engine] at "Drivers' Schools" engine speeds are typically 4500 - 7200 RPM, and I have been doing that with the same engine using synthetic oil for severals years without any problems.  That engine now has ~80k miles on it, with >100 hours total of track time.  I wholly agree with the concerns relating to ingestion of debris in the cooling water, and fatigue/impact induced failures of props and drivetrain components.  There ought to be other ways of dealing aeration of the oil which I acknowledge to be a serious issue.

Dave R.