It's all over for the 2009 season and 2010 is already underway.

I've written many a time that there is no "off-season" in ULHRA. There's the Racing Season, just concluded, and there's the Non Racing Season, just underway. What happens from now till next April will have a tremendous impact on what happens in the 2010 racing season.

Last off-season the UL-72 team re-doubled their efforts. After winning the title in 2007 with then rookie driver Kayleigh Perkins, the team didn't sit on their laurels. However they had a 2008 campaign that was below their standard including two races with serious mechanical failures. They wound up second in the 2008 campaign which for most teams would be cause for celebration. The 72 team wanted more, and they got it. For 5 races to start the season, including the 4 races in 4 weeks over "The Gauntlet" the team missed nary a beat, winning 5 consecutive races. That was a first in ULHRA history and it propelled driver Kayleigh Perkins to 9 race victories in her relatively brief, 3 year career. That total places her 4th all time in driver victories in the Unlimited Lights series which began in 1995.

"Technically", it took a new team to derail the 5 race winning streak and that derailing was done impressively. For years Bob Schellhase had been part of Hopp Racing and several years ago purchased the former American Eagle hull from original owner & co-builder Paul Droullard. That is the boat that holds the ULHRA's qualifying and competition heat speed records. This year Schellhase went on his own for the final two races of the season and was joined by Darren Bartels' UL-11 Power Punch Racing team program. Schellhase agreed to race for Bartels' sponsors and under the Bartels' registration number of UL-11. That collaboration had great success. Two wins in two tries; one by Brian Perkins and one by Mark Evans. Yes, THAT Mark Evans who made a fantastic return to hydroplane racing and in his first ever Unlimited Lights event won the race at San Diego. Perkins won at Silverdale WA. Will the Schellhase-Bartels collaboration continue in 2010? That hasn't been disclosed but what has been demonstrated is Mark Evans and the Schellhase hull will be one very potent combination next season. By the way, Evans became the 31st driver to win an Unlimited Lights race since the series began in 1995 and Brian Perkins became the 18th driver to have won at least 2 UL races.

Greg Hopp leads all drivers with twenty career race victories in a string that began in 2001. Four of those victories came in the Schellhase owned craft which now is the 4th all time winning Unlimited Lights hull with 6 victories. The remaining 16 wins for Hopp came in the family owned Auld hull that debuted in 1997 as the Alamo Rent A Car and was driven to victory 12 times by Bo Schide who is tied with Phil Bononcini for second place all time in UL race wins.

While the Hopp Racing hull did not score a victory in 2009 it remains atop the UL ladder with 34 career wins, beginning in 1997. The UL-72 currently driven by Kayleigh Perkins debuted with Phil Bononcini driving in 1998. It has closed the gap with 8 wins over the past two seasons and now has 30 victories, all with a naturally aspirated (carburetor) engine. 21 of the of the career wins by the Hopp owned race craft occurred after that boat was converted to a supercharged engine in 2002.

While two teams has spectacular success in 2009, a couple of other teams finished 3rd and 4th in the UL season points by being successful "grinders". They did whatever they had to do to keep racing and keep earning points.

Wil Muncey shares the name of the most famous hydroplane driver in the past 60 years. What Wil doesn't share with the late Bill Muncey is his winning record. Not that the second generation racer hasn't tried, but it takes more than mere talent to succeed. One needs a "ride" that's at least capable of running up front. Muncey had never had the opportunity to drive a front line hydroplane in all his years of racing but this year the UL-00 Muncey Racing Team, led by his wife and business partner Debi Muncey came closer than ever. If their luck had not run out in the second heat at San Diego, when their boat was damaged in a spinout and could not finish the race, they may have finished second in the points. But no matter the race or location, the Muncey Racing Team was there giving everything they had for their fans and sponsors. The steep learning curve they went through this year should bode well for them in 2010.

Then there's the Grant Racing Team UL-3 driven by Chris Grant. Last year this boat could barely get out of its own way but the team competed and learned. In 2009, the learning increased as did the speed. What set this team apart from others was, they finished. They weren't fast but they were "grinders" in every positive sense of the word, made each & every race and finished nearly all of their heats. Their performance improved significantly during the season but more importantly, they came, they raced and they finished . In the end they earned 4th place for the season. Quite an accomplishment for this 2nd year team.

Comebacks? Well certainly the comeback of Mark Evans after 6 years out of racing was a major story. How about Paul Becker? He returned to racing after a disastrous blowover accident ended his 2008 campaign, seriously injuring the owner-driver and substantially damaging the race boat.. While he and the UL-14 weren't "on their game" when their season began in July, by the end of the season it was vintage Becker..........winning the start from lane 1 in the Final at San Diego and finishing a close second place behind Evans.

A couple of names you don't hear a lot about made their mark in ULHRA again in 2009. They are Pat McQuade and Dennis Olson. For drivers, when they see McQuade and Olson they are a welcome sight. While ULHRA racers compete at breakneck speeds there is a calming element. Due to the leadership and talent of McQuade and Olson, drivers know that if trouble occurs they are in good hands with the leaders of ULHRA Rescue.

Again in 2009 ULHRA continued a tradition debuted by this organization at the Port Angeles WA race in 2005. ULHRA Video. When you watch ULHRA Video live on this web site on race weekends you're watching something that remains rare among racing organizations. ULHRA made the commitment to provide live coverage of all of its races and it is a commitment in equipment and personnel. Volunteers Karon and Jim Wilmot spend incredible hours each race weekend making it possible for fans to watch the race live, around the world. Ed Nelson, who adapted the technology so it could be used successfully here, remains the ULHRA Video "guru" and coordinates each Webcast.

So, what's ahead. As noted in the beginning of this column, we're now in the critical phase for the 2010 season; the non racing season between 2009 and 2010. Some teams like Muncey Racing and Xaudaro Wilmot Racing (UL-9) have significant repairs to make. Vince Xaudaro also is rebuilding his UL-929 and intends to bring back his vaunted "All Black, All The Time" hull next season which was damaged severely in 2007.. Darren Bartels had a successful season, but Darren currently doesn't own a boat that floats after his UL-11 was knocked out for the season at Montana. Bartels made things work for his sponsors and contracted with other teams to carry on his UL-11 program. Dan McCulloch made a successful debut as the newest owner-driver in the series after purchasing the former UL-58 Union Dooz program. Seeing his progress next year will be worth watching after he nearly pulled off an upset victory over "Smokin Joe" Souza in the B-Main at Silverdale. More teams and potential teams are seriously talking about joining the ULHRA program and as they do we'll feature them.

What about the G-Class? The vision of 2003 when the class was created became crystallized at San Diego when Cal Phipps in the G-10 from Wiggins Hydroplane Racing of Alabama won the race. It was the first victory for an original "G-Class" Thunderboat. The Thunderboat class was initially launched for 26' to 28' hydroplanes with big block supercharged engines. As one of the 26 footers and weighing over 3600 lbs with nearly 572 cubic inches of V-8 horsepower, the G-10 epitomizes the concept of the G-Class; bigger, more powerful and faster than Unlimited Lights and providing another entertaining feature for racing fans. The talented Phipps raced the G-10 to an impressive victory highlighted by two exhilarating starts of 5 big Thunderboats flying to the line together on Mission Bay.

ULHRA Inc. has been strengthened over the past year and seeks to expand into additional race markets while maintaining the strong series of events that includes major markets like Phoenix, Seattle and San Diego, and terrific small market sites like Chamberlain-Oacoma SD and Polson MT.

No one makes their living Racing, ULHRA Style (yet) so the volunteer crews have plenty of work at nights and weekends to prepare for next season. With the season starting in April at Spring Training, in racing parlance it might as well be next month because that's not a great deal of time to prepare.

Who will have the most successful "non racing season"? You'll know when you watch the 2010 racing season.

John Lynch
"Voice" of ULHRA Racing