newton wins three presidents cups; Heilbrunn, Holmberg, Murray each claim one

A return to seasonally cooler temperatures and cloudy skies marked the 12th running of the ERCU Presidents Cup conducted at Gissberg Twin Lakes Park in Marysville. Twin Lakes is furthest north race site on the 2023 ERCU schedule and as such saw 35 boats on hand for what was another action-packed day of ERCU racing.
 
Leading off the day was 1/10 modern class which was missing season points leader Mike Hughes’ Winston Eagle and David Newtons’ Budweiser. That left the Goodman Real Estate, Beacon Plumbing, Znetix and Elam as the early betting favorites. Problems and mechanical issues however plagued every boat in the class except for the Goodman Real Estate who was perfect in his heats to take the Presidents trophy. On the same day that he served as contest director for the first time, David Heilbrunn followed up his first-ever ERCU race day win at the last race in the 1/10 Vintage class with his first ever race day win in the ERCU 1/10 modern class.

Under Heilbrunn’s direction, the day progressed smoothly and with no unnecessary delays or challenges.
 
In the 1/10 classic class six boats made the trip with all six surviving the preliminary heats to make it to the final. In the end only three of the six finished the final heat with Chuck Murray’s Miss Houston standing atop the podium. Heilbrunn’s Executone and Jerry Dunlap’s Boat took second and third places.
 
1/10 vintage featured 10 boats at the start of the day but just two survived the rigors of four heats to finish the winner take all final. David Newton, driving Kerry Kjos’s Miss Thriftway, was the class of the class going perfect on the day to pick up another 1,600 points.  Jerry Dunlap driving Paul Dunlap’s Exide took home second place with 1,200 points
 
In the 1/7 scale modern we had a two-boat affair with Nelson Holmberg’s Graham Trucking dominating the day while winning all four of his heats and amassing 1,600 points for the effort. Goodman Real Estate was strong but not fast enough to catch the Graham and finished in second place in each heat.
 
1/7 classic was a “Pak Attack” with the 1970 Pride of Pay n’ Pak and 1975 Pak leading the field to take the top two places respectfully. David Newton made his 2023 1/7 classic season debut and in typical Newton style was a perfect four-for-four on the day. Craig Mullen was driving his 1975 Pak to second place in each of the four heats. Watch for new a new club member to be piloting the 1975 Pay n Pak at future races as rumor has it that ownership of that beautiful 1975 Pay ‘n Pak has changed hands. Watch for veteran scale boat owner and driver Jeff Pocha who races with Puget Sound Fast Electrics to be joining ERCU for some of the remaining 2023 races.
 
1/7 vintage class was another David Newton, Hawaii Kai III kind of day with the Kai picking up all 1,600 first place points. Mr. Steady Eddie in the class was Jim McKeon with his Maverick. After second-place and third-place finishes in the prelims, McKeon finished a strong second behind Newton in the vintage final. Terry Harmer’s Miss Bahia looked as smooth and strong as it ever has with a super competitive day of racing. In the end the Bahia tallied 1,250 points and a third place finish in the final.
 
One of the days brightest highlights was the surprise visit of Kelly and Sharon Stocklin to the ERCU pits.  The owners of Bucket List Racing Team’s U-40 and U-440 also had U-440 Miss Boitano Homes Driver, Brent Hall, U-440 crew chief Michael Lemler and the Boitano Homes sponsorship coordinator Nels Enquist in tow. The fivesome visited with nearly all of our ERCU drivers throughout the day and despite it being Kelly’s birthday, they remained all the way through to the finals. Thank you to the Stocklins and their team members for joining us.

Gratitude also goes out to to everyone that helped make the Presidents Cup another successful event in the ERCU Pentair Championship Series. Without everybody’s efforts pre, on site and post events we wouldn’t be the world class club that we are. Next up is the Detroit Memorial Regatta on June 3 at Lake Sacajawea Park in Longview.