Several people still ask what does ACHA stand for? It stands for the “American Canadian Hydroplane Association.” This is the only professional inboard boat racing series in North America where championships are won by participants in a series of race events in both Canada and the US where up to 28 boats a class in four different classes compete in winner take all races. If you want to race boats with a lot of competition this is the series you want to race in period! To find more about the series go to achahydroplane.com.

A great big “That a boy” goes out to Marty Wolfe who I said “took a knife to a gunfight” and took on the best Australia and New Zealand GP boats in the World GP Championships a couple of weeks ago down under in New Zealand. Marty had the second fastest time in the qualifying heats and finished second to Grant Harrison in the GP final. I know a lot of you out there are saying “so why didn’t he win?” You are right, but he went up against seven other GP boats with over 2,000 horsepower each against his 1250 HP. I think Marty did one hell of a job. Special thanks go out to Marty and his team for a job well done.

Speaking of Marty, he and Dean Rojas will be taking their East coast GP boats to challenge the best of the West coast GP boats in Lake Havasu, AZ on Easter weekend in April. It should be another great GP shootout. Here again Marty and Jimmy Shane (Dean’s driver) will be up against 150 plus horsepower to the APBA west GP group. Again I know you’re thinking why don’t you build a more competitive engine? Well those supercharged engines cost over 35,000 dollars to build so spending that kind of money for only a couple of races doesn’t make much sense. From speaking to a lot of our GP owners, drivers, and the rest of our ACHA group will probably be heading to Stuart, FLA the weekend after the Lake Havasu GP race to run at the Stuart Sailfish Regatta in sunny South Florida. Although it won’t be an ACHA series race for the GP class it will be a nice warm weather tune up race for our season opener in Long Sault, Ontario, Canada.

I’ll be showing all our fans my yearly straw poll from all our teams as to who they think will win the 2012 GP championship in my March Newsletter and we’ll also be starting a 350 newsletter that same month so stay tuned!

Huey

Everyone’s got their trophies; rewards, new rules, and information so now let’s think “SPRING” and get it on. You know I’m so tired (and I think everyone else is too) hearing all these fifth grade arguments and politics about who’s right or wrong and “he said she said” bull !!!!! I’m ready to go racing, period! For those of you that know me, know I’d like nothing better than to weigh in on all this political crap that’s going on but you know what, I’m ready to think positive and let’s get on with our 2012 races and forget all the politics. Let the old farts and wannabees (most don’t even own a boat) argue their old fashion ideas and talk about how things were back in the 70′s and 80′s. I didn’t attend the APBA convention this past weekend but let me tell you the ACHA banquet and convention was one of the most professional ones I’ve attended in a long long time. Believe it or not even the food was excellent. Everyone left the banquet feeling that ACHA was working with them to not only put on a great show but make this series the MOST COMPETITVE in all of boat racing. With their new rules and regulations everyone now has an equal chance of winning.

Talk about competition how would you like to race in the 2.5 stock or new H350 series where you have 20 to 28 boats competing. Wow!! If you’re lucky enough to win the high point championship in the series you know you’ve worked your butt off and beaten the best there is in North America.

Speaking of spring, Chuck “Rookie” Woodruff came up to Ohio (it was snowing) from sunny south Florida to pick up his new toy the GP55 boat. On Friday the 13th we dynoed his updated blown engine and actually picked up 32 more horsepower than our 2011 Crush motors. On Saturday Mike Weber helped Rookie install the motor in the boat, hook everything up, and saw him on his way back to Florida where he’s got to get busy on his Stuart regatta event. Already seven GP boats have committed to run the Stuart race on April 13th to the 15th. Rookie tells me he’s still getting phone calls from drivers wanting to drive his GP boat. The latest, Patrick Hayworth, is still trying to make a deal to get Pierre Maheu’s ADF Diesel hull but if this falls through he would like to drive for Rookie. Rookie did comment “Hell, I might even jump in it and make a few laps “.

On a sadder note Grand Prix lost a true friend and GP owner. Michel Favreau passed away recently and will surely be missed by the GP family and many race fans.

In my next newsletter I’ll be giving everyone a news update on all the teams and driver changes if any. Until then “THINK SPRING”

HUEY

UPDATE:  Huey sent us a last minute information that confirms Patrick Haworth will be the main Driver for Chuck “Rookie” Woodruff  for the ACHA races after the Stuart Race.

After 30 years, 4 Staudachers, 4 Henderson’s, and 1 Auld GP hull “The Crush” name is retiring.

For giving me these past 30 years I want to thank all my great drivers for the many great seven liter and Grand Prix wins, titles, and world records we’ve all been through; Marty Niles, Mike Endres, Tom Baker, Bert Henderson, Mike Monahan, Jeff Richards, and Patrick Haworth. The red/orange “CRUSH” was always in the thick of things and thanks to all these great drivers that made it happen. Speaking of Patrick, word out of Valleyfield is Patrick might be coming back to our GP class. What a great addition to our group of GP boats. Our prayers go out to the Haworth family for Patrick’s dad, Warren, who’s undergoing chemo therapy.

Word out of Florida has Chuck “Rookie” Woodruff looking for a driver for his new GP rig. Mike Weber is only going to drive it at the Stuart Regatta to help set it up and to get all the bugs out of it after setting up these past four months. I hear Scott Liddycoat’s name mentioned along with Mike “Mr. Dependable” Monahan. Scott just returned home in November from winning the final Unlimited race in Qatar and would bring lots of experience to our GP field of drivers. Of course we all know what Mike can do and we were all disappointed when he almost won his first GP race in Saint Felicien this year and had to finish second to Pierre Maheu. After talking to most of our owners and drivers these past couple of months everyone and I mean everyone, is really fired up for the 2012 season to get started. As usual ACHA has put together a great event schedule and our leaders tell me if the Stuart Regatta goes off as planned it’s very possible that we will be racing an ACHA GP even there in 2013. I’m sure no one would mind going to Florida in the springtime next year.  Also this year, Milt Wiggins tells me he will be at the Stuart Sailfish Regatta in April but not with his new boat but his older one. Good to see Milt back racing. Milts boats have always been very competitive. Well just wanted to bring all our fans up on what’s going on with our GP bunch. Got to go and get on the phone to Bert and get his butt working on our new project!

See everyone the 21st at our ACHA convention.
Huey.

(Editor: Bert Henderson is building a new boat and the team will be back in 2012 with a new name.)

Lots of goodies are coming down from the North Pole and the latest comes in the form of a new GP race in beautiful sunny South Florida! What a way to start our spring racing season! Chuck “Rookie” Woodruff  and their 19 club board members are putting on the “Stuart Sailfish Regatta” in Stuart, Florida April 14th and 15th, 2012. It’s not official yet but there’s so much going on these days with our ACHA series I wanted to get the word out to all our GP members.

Stuart, Florida is less than 1500 miles from Montreal, Quebec and what better way to test and tune our boats and get great show money than to spend a nice warm weekend in sunny South Florida. This won’t be an ACHA-GP series race this year but could become a series race in 2013. Running along with the GP’s will be the APBA 5L class, 2.5L stock, 2.5L mod, jersey speed skiffs, and a class of flat bottoms.

I traveled to South Florida two weeks ago to survey the course and go over some logistics with Chuck. We spent all day Saturday reviewing the race course, pit areas, camping areas, hotels, restaurants, etc. We also checked out the local shopping centers for the girls and the nightclubs for the youngsters over 18. All I can say is, WOW!  You won’t want to miss this event and what their talking show money for our GP’s; it should cover most of your travel expenses.

Chuck brought along an event booklet which was about 2 inches thick of permits, regulations, and about fifty other things he’s got to address to make this event happen. As of this week, he’s finished about 70% of these requirements. At our APBA convention in Chicago Chuck is going to ask our Inboard commission if their race can be awarded the “GRAND PRIX NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONS” for 2012.

For those who haven’t heard of Rookie (Chuck Woodruff) he raced in several inboard classes and won several Nationals in the seven liter class in his “Project 7″ and “Southern 7” in the late 1980s.  I wonder if Rookie would ever make a comeback, like in ACHA-GP, what a welcome addition that would be.

For those of you that would like more info on this new race event you can call Chuck at 772-475-0012 or e-mail him at rookie77@bellsouth.net

Until then, think warm weather and have a great holiday season,
Huey

Well the holidays are only a few weeks away and Santa’s already loading up his sleigh for the long trip south. From the results of our ACHA meeting this past weekend it looks like Santa’s already left some goodies for the smaller classes in the form of tow money in 2012, purse money, and new engine tech rules for the H-350 class which should make this class as competitive as the Grand Prix class now. New rules, new marketing plan, many boats changing hands, new boats coming out, several owners stepping up in classes, etc. What an exciting time to be an owner, driver, crew member, or just one of our loyal race fans!

Don’t forget January 21st for our first ever ACHA convention in Valleyfield. There are a lot of positive things happening behind the scenes which everyone will be hearing about after the first of the year. Besides the GP class, I can’t wait to watch ACHA’s newest class, the H-350s. ACHA wants to have 21 registered H-350 boats for the 2012 ACHA series and from the looks of things they’re almost there. I know a lot of you out there remember the old 360 class and how popular it was.

Goodbye and special thanks go out to Mike Weber and his GP crew. Mike has to give up his GP team in order to concentrate on his new position in APBA. Mike was recently voted in to the office of Inboard President for the APBA association and will be devoting all his extra time to his new office. We all wish Mike the best of luck and will miss him racing with us in his GP 55 “My Way.” Speaking of the APBA Inboard Division, Mike has a whole lot on his agenda for the 2012 racing season. One of his first orders of business is to invite our ACHA officials to a special “sit down meeting” at the 2012 APBA National meeting in Chicago in late January and review all the different rules, race formats, and race sites that exists between our two countries and once and for all finalize all these items in writing ASAP so all of our race teams can begin planning ahead for the 2012 season.  Mikes got a very tough agenda ahead of him but knowing Mike for over 25 years he’s the one person in APBA that can make it happen. Best of luck Mike from all of us in the ACHA series.

We would all like to wish Pierre Maheu the best of luck on his retirement from our sport. Pierre is leaving at the top of his game having won three GP high point championships in the most competitive class in all of inboard racing. He will be missed by all of us and is retiring a true champion. Thanks from all of us.

In closing I would like to thank everyone in boat racing for a great 2011 season and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Huey

Things are slowly coming together from our three Inboard boat racing associations for next year.  ACHA will be having their first ever banquet and convention the third weekend in January. On December 3rd they will have a video conference live stream letting all our boat racers know what’s going to happen in the upcoming year of 2012. From what I’ve heard their progressing very well with new class rules, new boats, and possibly one or more new race sites. 

APBA will also have their annual convention on the last weekend of January but already the Inboard division has voted in their new Inboard commissioners. In a few weeks these same commissioners will elect our new Inboard Vice President. Dutch Squires is stepping down and I’m sure the entire Inboard group wants to give Dutch a big thank you for all the time and effort he has put forth these past few years. That being said, we will all be welcoming our new Inboard VP who will be coming on board with some great new ideas and some mandates to answer. I hear one of his first orders of business will be to invite our ACHA directors and officials to their APBA convention in Chicago to sit down and discuss the few differences there exists between the two associations that came up during the 2011 race season. Everyone wants to start off the 2012 season with a positive attitude.

Now, what should we do with the CBF? The first thing the CBF members need to do is to get out and vote in some forward thinking officials. In my 41 years of Inboard racing in both our countries I’ve never heard so much negative talk from CBF officials. We need to forget the past and move on. Only then can our three associations work toward the future of Inboard racing in both our countries.

Thanks for hearing me out.

See everyone at the conventions.

Huey