Laser Kits now available on NewtonMarine.com!

Newton Marine is proud to announce that with a joined effort with Mike Luszcz we now are selling 1/8th scale kits directly on our website! Currently laser kits are available for plans 101 and 146. We hope to expand the catalogue to provide more kits to all of our loyal customers and avid scale model boaters.

The current pricing for the laser 1/8th kits is $180 (including a $10 domestic shipping fee) or for the kit and full set of plans $235, which is a $20 saving! Currently we are not able to ship the kits internationally. Sorry! Hopefully we will be equipped soon for such orders.

It is Mike's and our own goal to provide help and give back to the hobby that we both so love and enjoy. Please leave any feedback on here that you have to share!

San Diego back on H1 tour?

According to several resources San Diego might be back on the H1 tour this year, less than a month away. An official announcement should be released by the end of the week. KNDU has an article regarding the possibility of the return to the bay: click here to read their article.

2010 Winter Spectacular - 6-7-8 Aug.2010

I would like to thank Ian Baas for a race update from Australia, as they held their Winter Spectacular last weekend, with their own Roger Newton Memorial Trophy. Below is his race recap:

"Appently Al Ansell's camera broke before he was able to take any pictures at this years Winter Spctacular . However Craig Murphy - murph on International Waters has taken a lot of pictures and put them on the AMPBA Webite and in the General Boating Forum section on International Waters . Al Ansell is the latest winner of the Silver Cup - 3 years in a row and Graham Mason won the Roger Newton Memorial Trophy for Concourse in 1 / 8 Scale . He won the same trophy 2 years ago with the same boat - U 101.5 Miss Exide . From looking at the pictures and talking to Uncle Brian McKellar I believe the competiturs were -
Al Ansell - Miss Bud
Dave Bevern - Miss Bud
Brian Mckellar - Miss US ~1970
Craig Knight - ~ Gilmore Special ~1972
Steve Tomvald - Bardhal Green Dragon
Graham Mason - Miss Exide U - 101.5
Doug Wright - The Squire Shop ~1986
Dave Bevern had a bearing failure in his motor before the final and was not able to repair in time leaving the other 6 to battle it out"

2010 RCU Roger Newton Memorial Videos

Final Heat:


1st Connie:


2nd Connie:

Videos of RCU's Columbia Cup

Final Heat:


First Connie:


Second Connie:

RCU celebrates 37 straight years at the Columbia Cup!

The next race on the rc racing calendar is RCU's Columbia Cup, which has been run now for 37 years in a row! Water Follies has put a nice mention on their website for the race.

No U-3 in Tri-Cities and Seattle

It is official now that Ed Cooper will not take his U-3 Piston Powered team out west this year for Tri-Cities and Seattle. He will continue his boycott of the H1 organization on "interpretations" of the rule-book. There is a good article on KNDU's website detailing Cooper's decision.

Sam Cole gave a very short statement regarding Cooper's decision, which does not give any light for him working to get Ed back on the race circuit. "Ed's team, brings an element to the sport that no one else can," Cole said. "I respect his decision and look forward to the day that his team returns. Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later."

Ed has released a poll on his website, www.go3racing.com, on how you would rate Sam Cole's performance with ABRA or H1 in the past few years. It is on the right hand column. From the looks of it, Sam is failing miserably. I have made my vote...

Vintage Final Heat Video

Here is a video courtesy of Ron Daum of the final heat of the Vintage class at last weeks Bernie Little Memorial. Congrats again to Mark Hansen.

2010 ERCU Bernie Little Memorial

On Saturday, July 10, I journeyed out to Bellevue Washington for the 2010 Bernie Little Memorial race for ERCU. The small pond we race on makes it a very tight course for very exciting racing! The race was again put on by Jeff and Mike Campbell, two brothers that worked for Bernie on his hydroplane race team at Hydroplanes, Inc. Once again they put on a great race!

All day long spectators witnessed fast racing on the small course which equaled for a challenging day for all racers. This was definitely a course that proved to be a challenge for the racers as some people found it hard not to get drawn up to the score up buoy too early and carry too much speed into the corners.

For the race I dusted off my late father's model of the 1968 "Checkerboard" Miss Bardahl. With old equipment in the boat I did not have high expectations for the weekend. The batteries and speed controller (I am ashamed to say I still have a Chinese speedo in there) have been run in the boat since 2007. This is very old equipment considering how fast electric technology grows from year to year.

The modern final was nothing else but full of speed. Mike Gossler showed his superiority in performance by taking an early lead and not looking back. The Hansen's followed closely, but could not prevail in the modern class.

The Vintage final proved to be more of a challenge to finish than was shown in the Modern Final. After a poor start I found myself (which I only have myself to blame) I was in 4th place before I could hit the first corner. Mark Hansen got into the lead right at the start and did not look back. Ryan Opfer driving Kerry Kjos' Miss Thriftway and Mike Campbell racing the Hawaii Kai III for Kaiser (Ben Keller) gave a great run for the lead, but found themselves upside down after only a few laps. Just about that time the field whittled itself down to 3 boats, including Mark, myself and rookie Chad Bradshaw. It then turned into a parade as we finished in that order.

The final order of finish:

2010 Results

Vintage Final

1. Mark Hansen, 1972 Van's PX

2. David Newton, 1968 Miss Bardahl

3. Chad Bradshaw, 1960 Thriftway Too

DNF Ryan Opfer, 1960 Miss Thriftway

DNF Jason Hartley, 1972 Miss Timex

DNF Gary Simmons, 1960 Miss Everett

DQ Mike Campbell, 1957 Hawaii Ka'i III

Modern Final

1. Mike Gossler, 1978 Miss Circus Circus

2. Mark Hansen, 1972 Notre Dame

3. Gary Hansen, 1974 Miss Cott's Beverages

4. Mike McIntosh, 1994 Miss Budweiser (T-3)

5. Rick Lentz, 1974 U-95

6. Nelson Holmberg, 2009 Formula Boats

DNS Henry Marvin, 1993 Kelloggs Frosted Flakes

Congratulations to Mike Gossler and Mark Hansen for their wins respectivley in the Modern and Vintage class and a big thanks to Jeff and Mike Campbell for hosting an excellent race!

Gold Cup 2010

Don't forget to follow today's racing live at Tampa Digital's website. They will cover the entire day of heat racing live today. The line up for the first set of heats are as follows:

SECTION--Lanes (1,2,3.4)

1A-- 100, 13, 21, 25

1B-- 96, 37, 7, 17

1C-- 1, 5, 22

Looks like they will not allow fighting for lanes in the race...