Category: News

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.

J Michael Kelly will have his work cut out for him in the first heat of racing for the 2007 Indiana Governors Cup. The U-13 pulled three of the fastest boats in the first heat of competition. The combination of Ted Porters formulaboats.com teams and the community owned U-6 Oh Boy! Oberto will be his first test. J Michael is confident that he can pull the Spirit of Detroit to victory. The team has put the best prop and engine in a effort to have the boat out in front. Unfortunately Mike jumped the gun by less than a second and was penalized one lap in the first set of heats

After the second flight of heats the U13 crew would have to work on the bottom of the boat to repair a hole that was punched in it while racing. Just behind the left sponson, it was repaired in time for driver J Michael Kelly to make the third prelims.

In the final set of heats, J Mike needed to win. He was placed with defending world champ Mike Allen and hard charging Jean Theoret, who both needed points to get into the final. Going out onto the race course first, his mind on nothing but bringing home a win, J Michael wanted to race a clean race. Jean Theoret, in the U37 Beacon Plumbing, and Mike Allen in the U1 formulaboats.com did also. The 37 proved to be the boat to beat as he led the entire race, making a dramatic first turn at more than 170mph. J Michael charged hard and held off Allen to take second. This allowed the U13 to take the trailer position in the winner take all final.

In the winner take all final, JMK did an outstanding job handling the field of the world’s fastest boats. Coming from the 6th position Kelly powered his way through the crowd of hydro’s and blasted the U13 into 3rd place. “This is quite an accomplishment considering we did not have the best equipment on the boat, we are saving that for the Gold Cup next weekend in Detroit”.

Friday

“We have a lot more speed in this boat. We are not even running the good stuff yet.” J Michael Kelly states as the U13 team took it’s turn on the qualifying ladder. Today is the first day of qualifying for the 2007 Indiana Governors Cup in Madison, Indiana. A hot and humid 90 degree day greeted the team as it pulled into the “Wild” Bill Cantrell Memorial Race course. “Man it is humid here”, stated driver JMK.

On the subject of the course here in Madison, JMK stated that he really likes it. “Fast, tight turns, and long straightaways, you kinda wonder what’s coming up next. I just hope everyone holds their lanes.” This is Kelly’s’ second time on the Madison course. He raced here two years ago for Jim Harvey and his U2 boat.

Mike is really happy with the team. “We have two full time crew members now and they brought my dad along for the full circuit.” “Madison is cool. The fans are also. We should have a good time here this year.” “The parade is tonight and that should be a lot of fun”

Saturday

With temperature’s in the lower 90’s and humidity levels in the 50’s waiting on the beach is the last thing that the U13 crew wants to do. However with the recent rains in the area, the dam that is located up river had to release some water overnight. This allowed debris to flow over also. That caused the officials at the Indiana Governors Cup to hold everything for the first part of the day. “This makes for a long day” stated J Michael Kelly. “We want to go out, we have made some changes to the boat to try and get it to stick a little in the turns. We have installed a bigger skid fin and changed the angle of the rear wing to make the boat fly a little bit more. At slower speeds I was having difficulty with the handling, hopefully this will change that. Then we can put the good prop on and really go all out. We are afraid that if we did it now, we might hit a refrigerator.

The team has been working hard on getting the boat prepared for the race. Mentally the team and the driver is ready. All that needs to happen now is for the water to cooperate.

The first race of the 2007 season began for the U-13 the same way the 2006 season ended last year in Seattle. Sponson damage and damage to the rear right upright was incurred by driver J. Michael Kelly prior to the start of heat 1B in Evansville this afternoon. While still in the 5 minute milling period prior to the heat the U-13 while holding lane 2 took a heavy hit to the right sponson from the U-6 Madison boat driven by Steve David. The incident appeared some what similar to Tri Cities last year. In spite of the damage to the right sponson and upright J. Michael continued to start the 3 lap heat finishing a poor 5th place. The damage will be repaired and the U-13 will be ready for the final racing day in Evansville.

The U-13 Team will open the 2007 season with several new crew members brought on board over the winter. Since they have all been working on the hull since the first of the year we do not consider them new to the team.

Added to the U-13 traveling crew will be Jeff Kelly, father of Driver J Michael Kelly. Jeff has been working in the shop since last year and now will be attending all races this year. In addition to Jeff, former U-8 crew member Mike Johnson will return as well as Bob Jenson, Len Bartush and new crew member Donna Gross, formally with Mike Jones U-9. It is their hard work that has been instrumental in helping crew chief Curt Tavenner build new parts and make the necessary repairs to the hull caused by last years catastrophic accidents.

Harvey Chenault and Russ Bircher will assume the dual role as over the road truck drivers and assist the regular crew at the race sites. Lenny Bartush will continue as our webmaster and hopefully be joined by several other individuals we are currently talking to about helping to expand our web site and keep up to the minute news about our team activities.