With the second most wins of any of the hydro’s in the Dodge pits this weekend at the 99th running of the Gold Cup in Detroit, Michigan, the U13 Spirit of Detroit team is excited at the speeds the boat ran during the testing and qualifying session. “We put in a different motor, one of our best props and we went 14mph faster than in our morning session,” stated J Michael Kelly driver of the U13. “We tried a new rudder, but I was having a terrible time with it on the straights. It wanted to get squirrelly, so we went back to the shorter one. We got a few more tricks up our sleeve, so we will see what happens. It’s the Gold Cup, anything can happen.”
“J Michael is growing more and more comfortable with the boat. The third place finish last week in the Indiana Governors Cup in Madison, Indiana was a real boost for us. The more seat time Mike has the better he runs,” remarked Dave Bartush owner of the U13. “You know being one of the older boats on the circuit, we are going to apply to AARP and see if we can get some sort of discount.”
The team is looking to go even faster. With the windy conditions that was present on the race course Friday, if it settles down, who knows maybe 160 is not that far off.