US A-TEAM ARRIVES IN SWEDEN
Thursday, July 25th, 11 PM
When the advance program became available for The 2019 OSY-400 World Championship it was a surprise to The U.S. A-Team that the race would begin on Friday July 26th. The team had anticipated the race beginning on Saturday as in previous years and the majority had already booked their tickets and would arrive late in the day on Thursday giving them little time for set-up and administrative duties. Fortunately for the team, a couple of key members, Crew Chief Bob “Crowbar” Cronin and Jetty Captain for the #16 boat Dudly Smith had booked earlier flights in order to do a bit of sightseeing before venturing to the race venue. Immediately scrapping their plans for the good of the team the two arrived on Wednesday and were in the pits early on Thursday. The two then attended to all of the preliminary work as they located the team trailer in a secure warehouse, unloaded the boats, set up the pit area, bought the racing fuel and had the boats on the carts and all set up by the time the rest of the team arrived on Thursday evening.

The #22 boat, the blue O’Connor hull which had seen previous UIM action would be driven this year by Matt Allen, “The Texas Tiger”. 5Assisting Matt on the jetty would be APBA teammate Justin Ivie from Liberty, North Carolina and UIM jetty veteran Jeff Main from Eliot, Maine. Working the pits would be team advisor Racer Allen from Bailey Island, Maine and once again along to film another one of her fantastic documentaries would be team vidiographer Valerie Lighthart from Germantown, Wisconsin.

The #16 Kurz Craft to be driven by last years Bronze Medal winner Billy Allen from Quincy, Massachusetts was built a few years ago but it wasn’t until it went through an extensive bottom re-work at the O’Connor shop in Farmington, Maine that it really came alive and got off the water. The six year old hull now seems to have every chance of being a real contender. By 8 O’clock on Thursday night the two drivers had completed the registration process and both of their charges had undergone and passed the vigorous pre-race UIM scruneneering process. The team would like to acknowledge the efforts of the Swedish race organizers who had received and unloaded their container the previous week and kept their trailer secure in a locked warehouse until the team arrived to roll it to the pits.

The team is looking forward to a very busy Friday with an 8 O’clock drivers briefing followed by a ½ hour test session, 9:30 time trials and heats one and two of the world final later in the afternoon.

SO FAR SO BAD
Midnight, Friday; Mora, Sweden.
With the carnage which took place during the OSY-400 race at The World Championship in Mora, Sweden today, it is nearly impossible for this writer to recall all of the flips, spins and wrecks which happened as the frustrated and hard working race committee tried desperately to complete heats one and two of the World finals. But I will try.

At the 8 am drivers briefing it was decided that the ½ hour open test session would be scrapped and the program would proceed straight to time trials. The first group of ten hit the water at 9am as every driver’s fastest lap was put in the books. The second group then took to the tight, triangular course and when the spray had settled it was once again defending Gold Medalist Rasmus Haugasmagi from Estonia capturing the coveted pole position with a 43.55 lap with Poland’s Cezary Srtumnik gaining the second spot running an impressive 43.55. Third on the grid was local Tobias Wahlsten from Sweden running a 44.63, America’s Billy Allen was fourth in 44.63 with Rene Suuk from Estonia rounding out the top 5 spinning a 44.99. America’s second entry, Matt Allen from Texas qualified ninth in 45.75.

Heat one went off under intense heat and blazing sun. The pack hadn’t even rounded turn one when the #22 of Matt Allen went airborne in a spectacular blowover when his lane disappeared. The UIM man in the water rule went into effect and the red flag was immediately raised bringing all boats back to the pits.

On the restart the pack did get in and out of the first turn and Haugasmagi went to the front. Behind him Strumnik and Suuk waged a fierce battle and at turn 3 Suuk spun out and his prone hull was hit at full speed by Billy Allen who flipped and went flying through the air landing uninjured in the water. Slovakia’s Miroslav Basinski then crashed into Allen’s boat and flipped himself. Another red flag flew and the boats once again returned to the pits. UIM rules dictate that only one restart per heat is allowed so heat one was cancelled and the drivers and crews got busy in their respective pit areas repairing boats and engines and preparing for heat 2.

Heat two started and once again a full lap could not be completed when Bazinski nosedived on the way to turn one and Latvia’s Ginteras Marcinkus turned to avoid him hitting England’s Wayne Moyse who was then run over by Poland’s Michal Pozniak. Back to the jetty they once again returned to prepare for yet another restart. On the second attempt at heat two it was just short of a miracle as the boats fought for 5 of the six required laps before another boat solo spun and flipped. Because the heat had almost been completed it was scored as run with Haugasmagi winning, Strumnik second, Gregorz Stephhniak third and Billy Allen fourth.

With one heat scored the drivers and race officials look forward to a calmer and dryer day tomorrow for heats three and four.

OKAY, LET’S TRY THIS AGAIN
Eighteen OSY-400 Hydros returned to the pits on Saturday morning for heats 3 and 4 of The 2019 World finals. Only Estonia’s Rene Suuk, with a minor shoulder injury and his arm in a sling from one of Friday’s many crashes would not answer the bell. At the morning drivers briefing the Officer of the day had a stern warning for the group that the race would be cancelled if the drivers didn’t shape up and drive with their brains in their helmets. After a collective head nod from the drivers it was determined that the show would go on.

Another scorching, sun drenched day greeted the competitors as they rolled their boats to the jetty at precisely noon with the sweat dripping down their backs for the start of heat 3. The #16 of Billy Allen still had wet epoxy on the airtraps and the #22 of Matt Allen was nearly 10% duct tape. The crack U.S. team had worked tirelessly into the night repairing both hulls from Saturday’s slugfest with the help of F-500 driver Robbie Heinz and a host of others too numerous to recall.

Once again Haugusmagi got the jump off the dock and led the tight group to turn one followed by the two Polish pilots-Strumnik and Stępniak. Behind the top three the battle raged as Bazinski, Marcinkus and America’s Billy Allen put on a show for the fans as they were seen diving through each others spray with several position changes that brought the crowd to their feet. Up front he finish was a mirror image of heat one as Haugusmagi got one step closer to another Championship with the heat win. Strumnik was second, followed by Stepniak and Billy Allen took fourth. Gintaras Marcinkus was fifth followed by the hard charging Bazinski. Sweden’s Oliver Nilson was seventh and Matt Allen fought his way to eighth.

Although there was some bumping and rubbing through turn one and mid pack, and to the relief of the weary race committee and rescue team, the super competitive heat took place without a spill or any other major incidents.

The crews then rolled the boats back to the pits to get ready for the final heat of the long race weekend which would go off at 3pm. In the U.S. pits the drivers and crews for the 16 and 22 boats were seen having an intense discussion centered around the handling problems that both drivers were fighting on the tight, rough circuit. When the huddle broke the 16 boat was flipped over and crew chief Crowbar Cronin got to work with his block plane as he furiously took the airtrap depth down from a half inch to ¼ at the back. As a small crowd gathered to watch the action Team Captain Billy Allen was heard saying “We gotta try something” when asked about the adjustments. The boat was then flipped back over and an eighth inch shim was pulled from the transom putting the propshaft well below the new UIM one inch minimum height depth requirement. A shim was also pulled from the 22 boat and the team decided to go with a prop that would spin higher RPMs.

Maybe the team should have “tried something” a little sooner because when the red light expired and the boats took off a piercing, high pitched whoop resounded from the Americans in the stands and on the jetty when Billy Allen and Matt Allen emerged from the spray of turn one running second and third respectively behind perennial front runner Haugusmagi. Poland’s Cezary Strumnik didn’t get to the turn with the leaders and was nearly drowned in turn one as he came out in an uncustomary tenth place. Now the pressure was on the Americans as they tried desperately to hold off the faster boats which were getting closer and breathing down their necks as the six laps ticked off. Haugasmagi once again ran away from the pack but the speed of the Polish boat driven by the hard charging and aggressive Stepniak could not be ignored as he shook off a bad start and charged his way through the pack. Matt Allen drove the heat of the weekend as he did his best to hold third but it was not to be as Stepniak passed him on the backstretch and set his sights on the other American entry. Time ran out on Stepniak and when the checkered flag flew Haugasmagi was first, Billy Allen held second, Stepniak was third and Matt Allen was fourth giving both Americans their best finishes of the long weekend.

When the points were counted it was Haugasmagi with his neck weighed down with yet another Gold Medal, Stepniak with the silver and Strumnik, who had fought his way to seventh in the final heat with the Bronze. Billy Allen’s second place in heat four was not enough to get him to the podium this year as he settled for fourth, Lithuania’s Gintares Marcinkus took fifth and Matt Allen, sporting a smile as wide as Texas jumped all the way to sixth with his impressive heat four showing.

At the awards giving ceremony it seemed to this writer that another hand slap was delivered to the OSY-400 drivers when, unlike the other five classes which ran over the weekend and were called to the stage all the way to sixth place, only the top three OSY-400 drivers were recognized by the race committee on the stage as the World Championship medals were given.

The U.S. A-Team would like to thank all of the Swedish race committee members for receiving their container and for all of the help which the team received over the long and arduous race weekend. The team will now meet at the nearby warehouse and storage facility on Monday morning to load their trailer into the container for the long journey back to the states.

Unity Flagstaff Reporting

2019 World Championship Official Results:
1- Rasmus
2- Gregors
3- Cezary
4- Billy (USA)
5- Gintaras
6- Matt (USA)