by Andy Kunz

Michigan is the home of the most prestigious trophy in all of boat racing, the APBA Gold Cup, held annually in Detroit for the turbine-powered Unlimited hydroplanes. It’s only fitting that Michigan would also be home of one of the hottest model races, the Michigan Cup. Hosted by the Mid-Michigan Electric Unlimiteds in the state capitol of Lansing, this annual event is looking to become something rather popular in Fast Electrics.

As in the past, the Michigan weather played the adversary to the boaters. Cold, wind, rain, and lightning all played a part this time, rather than the snow storm that visited last year. But the racers had come from all over the eastern North America to vie for The Cup and were undaunted by the mere tossings of nature. Instead, the foul weather brought out the good spirits of all twenty-six racers who attended, as competitors worked together to get the boats to the water on time and have a blast. In the end, everybody agreed that it was a great race.

Normally a race report includes a verbage describing what you can get from the final results table. Rather than that, let’s look at some of the racers who came, and some of the new things that were there. You can read the table for yourself.

As expected, Reesor Boat Works was well-represented by Steve and Neil Reesor from Ontario. This father-son team specializes in 6-cell boats, and their specialization resulted in podium finishes in every 6-cell class! Their success also points toward the reliability of proven technology, as the team runs only standard car motors. They also proved that you don’t need to run brushless motors to come out on top in reliability. Steve and Neil finished in the top five of every single class they entered. It was great to be able to meet these two gentlemen who previously were only e-mail addresses to me.

Mark Kennedy from New York brought a hull I was very familiar with – his Graupner Taifun. Mark’s boat is simply the fastest Taifun I’ve ever seen. After seeing how well it has run on the waters in our home district, it was no surprise that he came out on top in 1/12^th Sport Scale. His consistent running in the rough water, along with the high speed given by the Cordite motor and Firefox cells, made his win almost seem like an afternoon cruise.

Eric Johnson is no stranger to big races. I think he traveled the farthest to be at the race, and he made his presence known. His N2 Offshore hull had to work hard to bring him a first place over Neil Reesor, but he prevailed. Eric also helped his buddy Dennis Whitt by getting Dennis’ boats ready so he could spend more time officiating.

Another N2 Offshore racer was my nephew John Vander Wal. John’s boat was an ancient MRP Excalibur that had been purchased the Wednesday before the race for $25. John went home with 3^rd place for the class, beating out some well-known folks doing so. The key to John’s success wasn’t having the fastest boat. In fact, few would argue that it wasn’t the slowest boat this weekend. But John consistently finished, and in doing so proved that reliability is far more important than raw power. The old adage "To finish first, you must first finish" was never more true. John will be along to some more races with me, you can be sure.

As expected, the P Offshore class was dominated by the New York-based Team Fine Design. Brothers Dan and Chris Fine and friend Mark Kennedy have been working with their boats for years, bringing them to perfection. Their setups are well-documented and they know exactly how they will perform in all conditions. As a result, these three men visited the podium not only for this class, but also in the Q Mono class, proving that it pays to know your equipment.

Kevin Whitehead of Michigan ran his beautiful scale boat quite a bit on the weekend. Inspired by the talk of reducing Roger Newton’s plans on the Rum Runner forum on the Internet, Kevin built a model of a boat he had seen run years before in Detroit. His original estimation of the model was that it ran just like its big brother, but by the end of the weekend he was a definite contender. I hope to see Kevin around at more races – he certainly has the desire and talent to do well in the sport.

The main attraction at the race this year was expected to be the first racing of Sport 40-sized electrics on 18 and 24 cells, and this was proved to be true. Every time the big boats hit the water on Saturday, work in the pits ceased as everybody came to water’s edge to watch them duke it out. Unfortunately most of the boats were very new (one hadn’t hit the water until the day before the race) and that newness meant they hadn’t been dialed in yet. They were a site to see, though, with their large roostertails, high speed, and realistic looks. Helped largely by the rough water, Chris Fine drove his reliable 24-cell catamaran offshore hull to three first place finishes (he was permitted to drive this boat since his regular hull had not arrived for the race on time). Andy Kunz drove an all-balsa hull built from reduced Roger Newton plans with 18 cells to second, and Chris Harris drove a beautiful 24-cell Aeromarine hull to third, while Dennis Whitt rounded out the fleet with a 24-cell Bandit shovel-nose. The excitement that these boats generated will hopefully grow some interest in the class. Our next big event with them is at the August Heats race in northern California. I’m going, and I can’t wait to be there!

Alan Nayman of Cleveland (OH) had come to his first big NAMBA race to see how he would do. Finishing on top in the very competitive class of N2 Mono put him into the competition for the Lightning Man N2 Mono series. This series, sponsored by fastelectrics.com of Australia, pits drivers in the N2 Mono class for a season-long points championship. You can read more about it on the fastelectrics.com website. Expect to see more of Alan and the CAFE club members at more races – these guys are competitors!

Barry Janzen is no stranger to the big NAMBA races, having attended several NAMBA FE Nationals and other large races quite successfully. He came up from Tennessee to race in five classes on Sunday. He left with one 1^st, one 2^nd, one 4^th, and two 5^th places. Like the Reesors, Barry placed in the top five of every class he entered. I always enjoy pitting with Barry, as he has a sense of clean humor few can top. He also likes to race, not just win, and works hard for the companies that sponsor him.

I was fortunate to spend the weekend with Tim Kerby and his family, long-time friends from when we lived in Virginia. Tim raced the prototype RC-Hydros.com Unlimited Light to fourth place in 1/12^th Sport Scale using what is becoming known as a "Limited Sport Hydro" setup – 12 cells, a Speed 700 or Neo 700 motor, propped to run 10 laps. Not bad for his first real race.

Tim brought his brother Tom, who raced in the P Offshore class. While Tom didn’t do especially well (the boat had problems every heat), he helped us find the setup that works in the ABC CESA. He also won an Unlimited Light hull from RC-Hydros.com, which negated all the bad luck he’d experienced Saturday. Next year I think we’ll have several more Kerby’s to contend with.

Registration coordinator for the event was Ken Joye, who brought his two boys along to have some fun. Josh and Andrew had a great time – they ran several different classes against one another and did quite well. Between them, the Joye boys brought home enough trophies to force Ken to make them a display case, but more importantly they got some good experience running against (and beating!) some of the "big boys." I enjoyed pitting near them, as this was a very family-oriented family.

John Hainer brought some of his family along. His wife Becka was very pregnant with twins (she has since delivered a healthy boy and girl), and sitting at the officials desk was no doubt uncomfortable for her. She stuck it out, though, and was a major asset to the event. John provided the computer support that was necessary, and their older son kept himself busy asking all kinds of questions from the racers. It was great to have this family there as well.

Contest Director Dennis Whitt was a very busy man. Besides trying to run almost every heat, making sure everybody was ready, and getting his own boats on the water, he had to deal with us. Dennis made sure things went as smoothly as they could, considering the lack of cooperation from the elements, and was a fantastic race host.

At the end of Sunday’s events, all the racers signed a plaque thanking Chris Fine and Fine Design for title support of the event. While I missed the presentation of the plaque, I did get to speak with Chris a few days later about it. He really appreciated it. Well, Chris, so did we!

Other sponsors provided raffle prizes, class trophies, and other assorted support.  The list this year includes Fine Design, Fullers Fast Electrics, RC-Hydros.com, Blew By You, fastelectrics.com, Prop Shop Hobbies, Inc., Hilltop Cells, and Rum Runner Racing. For a complete list of the vendors, as well as more photos and another write-up, visit the MMEU website at www.semol.com/fastelectrics.

From all of us to all of you, let me just say "Thanks for a great race. See you next year!"

I would like to thank all the guys who helped put this race on, but especially Ken Joye for helping to collect the race data. Without his efforts, a lot of this article would not have been possible. Thanks, Ken!

Andy

2001 MICHIGAN CUP PICTURES

2001 MICHIGAN CUP RESULTS & EQUIPMENT

CUP WINNER: Team Fine Design (Chris Fine, Dan Fine, Mark Kennedy)

HIGH POINTS: Chris Fine

N1 Mono
Place/Racer	Hull	Hardware	ESC	Motor	Radio	Batteries	Prop
1/Neil Reesor	RBW Hornet	Reesor/Hughey	Hughey	Paradox	Futaba	Sanyo	X437/3
2/Alan Nayman	Electrified	Fuller	N/A	P2K	Hitec	Sanyo	X435
3/B Chandler	Force 21	Mach 5	Spike	Integy Pro Stock	Futaba	Hills	X435
4/Dick Boersma	Force 21	Warehouse Hobbies	Hitec	Green Machine 3	Hitec	Hills	X435
N1 Hydro
Place/Racer	Hull	Hardware	ESC	Motor	Radio	Batteries	Prop
1/Steve Reesor	RBW Sting SG	Reesor/Hughey	Hughey	Paradox Pro	JR	Sanyo	X632
2/Andrew Joye	Mach 5 Canard	Fuller	Spike	P2K Pro	Hitec	Hills	X432
3/Dick Boersma	Hammerhead	Hughey/Fuller	Hitec	Green Machine 3	Hitec	Hills	1732
4/Josh Joye	Mach 5 Canard	Fuller	Novak	P2K Pro	Hitec	Hills	X432
5/Eric Johnson	BBY Rigger	BBY	N/A	Reedy	Hitec	Firefox	X435
1/12th Sport Scale
Place/Racer	Hull	Hardware	ESC	Motor	Radio	Batteries	Prop
1/Mark Kennedy	Taifun	Graupner	Astro	Cordite 30/4	Futaba	Firefox	47.5 plastic
2/Chris Fine	Bandit Shovel	Fuller	Astro	Cordite 30/4	Airtronics	Firefox	X445
3/Alan Nayman	Bandit Shovel	Fuller	Aveox	Aveox 1412	Hitec	Mr Nicad	X445
4/Tim Kerby	RC-Hydros.com	Graupner	RC-Hydros.com SC3	700BB 9.6V	Futaba	Hills	X642
Q/S Sport
Place/Racer	Hull	Hardware	ESC	Motor	Radio	Batteries	Prop
1/Chris Fine	Aeromarine Cat	FDM (Fine Design)	N/A	Aveox 1817	Airtronics	Firefox	X465
2/Andy Kunz	Newton Plans	FDM/Aeromarine	RC-Hydros.com	Cordite 30/6	Futaba	Hills	X642
3/Chris Harris	Aeromarine	N/A	N/A	Cordite 40	N/A	N/A	Octura
4/Dennis Whitt	Bandit	FDM	Astro	Cordite	Hitec	Firefox	Octura
N2 Offshore
Place/Racer	Hull	Hardware	ESC	Motor	Radio	Batteries	Prop
1/Eric Johnson	Alfa Cat/Williams	FDM	N/A	Mach Wind	Hitec	Firefox	Octura
2/Neil Reesor	RBW Digger	Reesor/Hughey	Hughey	Trinity D2	JR	Sanyo	X432
3/John Vander Wal	MRC Excalibur	MRC	RC-Hydros.com	MRC 550	Futaba	Hills	MRC
4/Josh Joye	Danvo Laser	Mach 5	Tekin	Hughey D4	Hitec	Hills	X435
P Offshore
Place/Racer	Hull	Hardware	ESC	Motor	Radio	Batteries	Prop
1/Dan Fine	Electro Vee	FDM	Astro	Cordite 775	Airtronics	Firefox	X548
2/Chris Fine	Key West	Octura	Astro	Cordite	Airtronics	Firefox	X640
3/Mark Kennedy	Key West	Octura	Astro	Cordite 775	Futaba	Firefox	X438
4/Steve McGeorge	DPI Silencer	Fuller	Astro	700BB	Futaba	Firefox	X642
5/Chris Harris	Hammerhead	N/A	N/A	Dual Machine	N/A	N/A	N/A
Q Mono
Place/Racer	Hull	Hardware	ESC	Motor	Radio	Batteries	Prop
1/Dan Fine	FDM 32”	FDM Turbo Trans	Aveox	1412/1.5Y	Airtronics	Firefox	X445
2/Chris Fine	Titan	FDM Turbo Trans	Schulze	1412/1.5Y	Airtronics	Firefox	X445
3/Mark Kennedy	Challenger	FDM Turbo Trans	Aveox	1412/1.5Y	Futaba	Firefox	X447
4/Dennis Whitt	Seaducer	FDM	Schulze	Cordite 30/4	Hitec	Firefox	X437/3
Q Hydro
Place/Racer	Hull	Hardware	ESC	Motor	Radio	Batteries	Prop
1/Chris Fine	Popeye Cat	FDM Turbo Trans	Schulze	1412/2	Airtronics	Firefox	X646
2/Kevin Whitehead	Newton Plans	Hughey/Fuller	Aveox	1412/1.5	Futaba	Hills	M447
3/Dan Fine	Cyclone Twister	FDM	Aveox	1412/1.5	Airtronics	Firefox	1747
4/Jim Caldwell	Maus	Hughey	Rogell	Rogell Marine 12	JR	Hills	Custom
N2 Mono/Lightning Man Series
Place/Racer	Hull	Hardware	ESC	Motor	Radio	Batteries	Prop
1/Alan Nayman	Electrified	Fuller	Astro	D4 15T	Hitec	Sanyo	X632
2/Barry Janzen	BBY Ovalmaster	BBY	RC-Hydros.com	Sonic 2	Hitec	Hilltop	Custom
3/Neil Reesor	RBW Hornet	Reesor/Hughey	Hughey	LM Neo 10T	JR	Sanyo	X438
4/Andrew Joye	Danvo Sonia	Mach 5	Tekin	Hughey D3.5	Hitec	Hills	X432
5/Dick Boersma	Force 21	Warehouse Hobbies	Hitec	Trinity	Hitec	Hills	X435
N2 Hydro
Place/Racer	Hull	Hardware	ESC	Motor	Radio	Batteries	Prop
1/Mark Kennedy	Cyclone Twister	Octura	Aveox	1406/1.5	Futaba	Firefox	1735
2/Josh Joye	Mach 5 Canard	Fuller	Spike	P2K Pro	Hitec	Firefox	X432
3/Steve Reesor	RBW Sting SG	Reesor/Hughey	Hughey	Trinity D3.5	JR	Sanyo	X430
4/Barry Janzen	BBY	BBY	RC-Hydros.com	Hughey D4	Hitec	Hilltop	1732
O Hydro
Place/Racer	Hull	Hardware	ESC	Motor	Radio	Batteries	Prop
1/Barry Janzen	Prototype	Hughey	Aveox M160	Aveox	Hitec	Hills	2137
2/Kevin Whitehead	Bandit Shovel	Hughey/Fuller	Aveox	1409/1.5	Futaba	Hills	ABC 45/55
3/Jim Caldwell	Maus 1/16	Hughey	Rogell 09	Rogell 09	JR	Hills	custom
4/Dennis Whitt	Dalecki	FDM	Schulze	Hacker	Hitec	Firefox	P747
P Mono
Place/Racer	Hull	Hardware	ESC	Motor	Radio	Batteries	Prop
1/Chris Fine	Maus Bullit	FDM/Fuller	Schulze	1412/1.5	Airtronics	Firefox	M447
2/Dennis Whitt	Seducer	FDM	Schulze	Hacker	Hitec	Firefox	X437/3
3/Mark Kennedy	Key West	Octura	Astro	Cordite 775	Futaba	Firefox	X438
4/Dan Fine	FDM 32”	FDM	Aveox	1412/1.5Y	Airtronics	Firefox	X447
5/Barry Janzen	Maus Bullet	Hughey	Aveox M160	Aveox	Hitec	Hills	M447
P Hydro
Place/Racer	Hull	Hardware	ESC	Motor	Radio	Batteries	Prop
1/Chris Fine	Twister	FDM/Octura/Fuller	Schulze	1412/1.5	Airtronics	Firefox	1750
2/Dan Fine	Twister	FDM	Aveox	1412/1.5	Airtronics	Firefox	1747
3/Ken Joye	Mach 5 Canard	Mach 5	Aveox	Cordite Plett	Airtronics	Hills	X646
4/John Hainer	Bud Dry	FDM	Astro	Cordite Neo	Futaba	Hills	X445
5/Barry Janzen	Wild Fire	Hughey	RC-Hydros.com	Plettenberg	Hitec	Hills	M447
1/16th Sport Scale
Place/Racer	Hull	Hardware	ESC	Motor	Radio	Batteries	Prop
1/Barry Janzen	Volcanic Splash	Hughey	Aveox	Aveox	Hitec	Hills	X435
2/Alan Nayman	Bandit Shovel	Fuller	Aveox	1412	N/A	N/A	M447
3/Kevin Whitehead	Bandit Shovel	Hughey/Fuller	Aveox	1409/1.5	Futaba	Hills	ABC 45/55
4/Ken Joye	MRP Hydrosport	Mach 5	Tekin	Cordite 20/4	Airtronics	Firefox	X438
5/Jim Caldwell	Maus 1/16	Hughey	Rogell 09	Rogell 09	JR	Hills	Custom
Q Offshore
Place/Racer	Hull	Hardware	ESC	Motor	Radio	Batteries	Prop
1/Chris Fine	Stingray 43”	FMD	Astro	Cordite	Airtronics	Firefox	X462
2/Chris Harris	Hammerhead Cat	N/A	N/A	Machine Wind	N/A	N/A	N/A
3/Dennis Whitt	Titan	FDM	Astro	Cordite 7T	Hitec	Firefox	Prather 250
4/John Hainer	MRP Bud Dry	FDM	Astro	700 BB	Futaba	Hills	X447
5/Dan Fine	Stingray 43”	FDM		Cordite 355/40	Airtronics	Firefox	X457