Qualifying

It's Millenbach and Bardahl All the Way

It was a checkered day for the Casper-Prop series as the season-ending Millionaires Challenge Cup was run on an unusually warm but rainy November day. Mike Millenbach's Checkerboard Bardahl was the big winner, earning the fastest qualifier, winner of the race and notching the high-point championship for 2002. Congrats to Mike and many thanks to Bob and Sue Conner for hosting (and the sausages on the grill!)

Scott Dunn's Mariner Too had a slight lead in the points going into the race and scored two heat victories in the preliminaries, extending his lead over the 1968 Bardahl by 100 points. However, the Mariner Too had a major collision in the Final Heat with the Miss US 5 (with guest crew chief Nate Conner!), and finished last in the Final. With the Bardahl win and the last place finish by Mariner Too, the high-point championship was won by a margin of 52 points! Now that's a championship showdown! Maybe with this kind of competition and parity (or was that parody??), we can show the Unlimited Hydro-Prop a thing-or-two. Let's see...Number One. Be able to build and campaign a boat for around $50. Next...

More highlights:

• Great debuts by Mark Weber's Blue Chip and Randy Roe's Miss Budweiser (1966). Randy's Miss Budweiser won its first heat of competition and the Blue Chip had a first, second and a second in the Consolation Race. Both boats are BEAUTIFUL!
• The Thriftway Too had a great day, one of three boats to score 2 heat victories in elimination heats (along with Mariner Too and the 1963 Miss Bardahl).
• Two guest crew chiefs, Nate Conner and Lisa Rose, won preliminary heats
• Miss Madison won her second Consolation Race, which is actually an honor. You usually have to have around 700 points to qualify!
• "Aggressive Driving is Back in Town." Must have been the theme for the day. Many collisions, spinouts, sinkings...all in a days work for the main culprit...yes...you guessed it...the Miss Thriftway. As predictable as gas after Taco Bell, the Miss Thriftway collided with several boats all day long. After a DNF in an earlier heat, we suspect that Bill Muncey decided to hop into the Miss Madison as the Madison took out several boats at every possible moment...making the Thriftway look like a choir boy! (Of course, I was a choir boy and I've got stories to tell...) Thriftway owner Tom Netschke was unable to make the race...Tom...trust us. It really happened. Actually, Tom...thanks for being such a good sport. In fact, you're such a good one, we'll DO IT AGAIN NEXT YEAR!

Speaking of next year, the "indoor circuit" will begin sometime in February for the 2002 season, thanks to George Schulz. Stay tuned for details.

I hope everyone had fun in our first full year...I know I did. Thanks to all, especially to our race hosts and our race course committee, Hank Kosciuszko and George Schulz. Let's do it again!!

MillionAires Challenge Cup Final Point Standings

2001 Highpoint Standings after 6 Races

2001 Owner Highpoint Standings after 6 Races
(no awards or even honor...just interesting)