The finish line for the 2009 ULHRA season is within view. The season finale will be on San Diego's Mission Bay on September 19th & 20th. The 2009 Driver and Team Champion have already been determined and they are Kayleigh Perkins and the UL-72 Foster Care-Vitamin Water. However there are plenty of positions still to be determined.

When all points earned are factored into the team standings, Debi Muncey's UL-00 Warning Power.com driven by her husband and business partner Wil Muncey currently holds 2nd place. Only 28 points separate the Muncey Racing team from the Grant Racing Team, UL-3 The Supertravelzone.com driven by Chris Grant. Still in the hunt for second place are the Hopp Racing UL-1 Graham Trucking-Happy Go Lucky-Pump Tech, PR Becker Racing's UL-14 Miss Critical Logic, the Darren Bartels led UL-11 Power Punch - ROXY Radio 94.5-K&N Filters (more on that team ahead) and the Xaudaro-Wilmot UL-9 US ARMY-NAPA Auto Parts.

Up to 1600 points can be earned at a given race when there are three preliminary heat sections and a Final, if one team were to "run the table" and win them all. Plus, teams that qualify for Participation Points can earn as many as 210 additional points if they've competed at all ULHRA races prior to San Diego and make a legal start on Mission Bay. Yes, while the championship has been decided, final placing in the valuable Top 10 of the Unlimited Lights 2009 season won't be known till the conclusion of the race at San Diego.

Darren Bartels, the Jet Blue airline pilot and owner of the UL-11 Power Punch team has had quite a journey in 2009. In his second full year as an Unlimited Lights team owner, Bartels' team has run the gamut of emotions. They were down after Phoenix when they were able to finish but one heat, and then down even more at Chamberlain-Oacoma SD when they were unable to finish any heats. Then things went from bad to worse. While warming up for their first heat at Polson MT the UL-11 sheared off a propeller blade and the resultant damage was catastrophic for the team's hull. In fact the UL-11 hull is done for the year, if not for its career. That will be determined in the off season.

Bartels however, wasn't done. He had successfully marketed his program to a variety of key sponsors for the 2009 season and now just starting race #3 he had no boat. So that same day at Polson MT he arranged with the newest team in the series, Dan McCulloch and the UL-58 to wear the Bartels team sponsors at Polson. That arrangement went well and Bartels continued his association with McCulloch at Tri Cities WA and Silverdale WA. Bartels' title sponsorship with Columbia Basin HOTSY was set for Tri Cities and ingenuity stepped in as Bartels' contracted with Rod Bourke, a regular in the Pacific Northwest's National Mod class who has some Unlimited Light experience, to race his boat as the UL-11.

It worked well for two weeks. Bourke earned 5th place at Tri Cities and Seattle but his smaller boat had taken a pounding on the rugged Columbia River and Lake Washington courses, and Rod had to pass on Silverdale WA.. So "Bartering Bartels" got to work again, secured the services of Bob Schellhase's hull which was scheduled to have Mark Evans return to racing, and re-number the boat as the UL-11. Evans' schedule wound up preventing him from racing the Schellhase hull that weekend so in stepped Brian Perkins, older brother of Kayleigh and a race winner in Unlimited Lights in the UL-40 three years ago. Brian is a talented driver and Schellhase's boat, which began its Unlimited Lights career as Paul Droullard's American Eagle, holds the closed course speed record, set at San Diego of better than 126 mph in qualifying. One would think that could be a formidable combination, and one would be correct. Brian Perkins won the Silverdale Thunder Regatta in impressive fashion over his sister Kayleigh and it was Bartels' first victory as a team owner. It's an old racing adage to "do the best you can with what you have". Darren Bartels' commitment to his sponsors and "doing the best with what he had" rather than "folding the tent" ultimately led him to his first ever race victory. The Bartels-Schellhase combination will try for win # 2 at San Diego.

What about 2010? Guess we'll all have to "stay tuned" this upcoming off season.

John Lynch
"Voice" of ULHRA Racing

Photos - Mike Niwa, Mark Sharley