Serious News
11-26-2014, 12:27 PM
By DAVE SHEA
PUBLISHED: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014 AT 12:56 AM
There are several landmarks which are unique to Ogdensburg.
The Edgar Newell Memorial Golden Dome, the Frederic Remington Art Museum and the Ogdensburg to Prescott International Bridge.
There is another facet of the landscape which for decades has set the city apart from other St. Lawrence municipalties.
A facet which doesn’t show up on aerial photographs.
The sight of hydroplanes parked in driveways and backyards has been a fixture in Ogdensburg for two and even three generations.
Former 5-6 Litre Grand Champion Dave Smith remembers vividly his first raceboat.
“I was 14 and Bob Sovie and I both built boats like the one driven by Chic LaRose.
“Bob and I got involved racing watching guys like Chic and Wayne LaRose, Leon Richards, John Hannan, George Rheome and Jack Fisher race hydroplanes and there were also races on the river. Joe Ward and Ward’s Marina had a great racing skiff.”
Fifty-four years later Smith stays active helping in the crew for his son Derec Smith while Bob Sovie crews for his son Joe and is regarded among the best Hydroplane builders and racing innovators.
Over the years the crafts have evolved dramatically from plywood racers to the Grand Prix Hydros featuring space age technology.
Former Grand Prix champ Jeff Richards’ home on Barre Street has seen it all.
He lives in the same family homestead as his dad Leon Richards who raced at a time when races were held on the St. Lawrence and Oswegatchie Rivers, Black Lake and several other smaller area lakes.
In recent years Richards’ yard and garage is the summer home for the Crush and Steeler Grand Prix boats and the Lil Crush which his daugher Leanna pilotted to a North American Championship in 2011.
Leanna didn’t race this summer but Richards served as crew chief for the Steeler Grand Prix 777 driven by Bert Henderson of Brockville, Ont.
Steeler 777 was riding high in the GP point standings before its season ended in a crash.
The boat was demolished and Henderson suffered serious injuries which have taken months to recover from.
The Ogdensburg racing contingent was involved in two other aerial, acrobatic crashes during the season but the drivers escaped serious injury.
Bill Vielhauer’s “Last Minute Again” won Canadian, North American and World Championships at the 2013 Valleyfield, Que. Regatta. This summer the boat was a Valleyfield show-stopper again but the gasps of the massive crowds came in startling apprehension rather than applause. With his brother Tom at the wheel “Last Minute Again” did a 360 flip in the air.
Tom Vielhauer escaped any significant injury and the boat was repaired and returned to the American-Canadian Hydroplane Association circuit.
Bill and Tom Vielhauer are the sons of longtime racer Bill Vielhauer Sr., who is also the grandfather of Leanna Richards. Bill Vielhauer remains an active member of the crew for both of his sons boats.
Joe Sovie enjoyed a banner season in a 1 Litre Modified Boat which he and his dad, Bob Sovie, built over the winter.
In July he won the Eastern National Championship but his season ended on in aerial rollover while chasing a world speed record in West Virginia.
Following the crash a picture of his bruised face became an instant Facebook doubletake.
But he healed quickly and even more determined to set that record next season.
—————
In an era when many boats are owned by the ACHRA, Bill Vielhauer Jr. owns his own boat which is maintained at his business “Bill’s Tire Center”.
In 2013 he won the 350 Hydroplane North North American, Canadian and World Championships at Valleyfield.
In July with his brother Tom behind the wheel his boat went airborne in what became a multi website instant classic.
Luckily Tom Vielhauer suffered no serious injuries the damage to the boat was repaired and the blue and white H8 finished with a season-best 78-point weekend at the season finale in Beauharnois, Que.
“Last Minute Again” finished in 14th place in the final standings with 282 points.
Tom Vielhauer went behind the wheel after his boat was sidelined for the season by engine problems in the second regatta of the season.
Derec Smith calls Vielhauer’s boat a “rocket ship” and Vielhauer plans no changes for the boat in 2015.
“The engine is running great and there is no reason to do anything to it,” says Bill Vielhauer Jr.
“And if I can lose a few pounds I want to get behind the wheel again.”
His brother Tom, who now lives in Syracuse, plans to be back in his boat next season powered by a new engine.
————-
For Derec Smith, the 2011 North America and Canadian Power Boat Champion in the 5 Litre Class, 2015 was a career season in two ways.
It started with his hiring to drive the 350 “Bad Influence” craft for the EMS Team owned by John McDonald’s Environmental Solutions and Mike Grindel Trus RSTZ Trucking Company.
Smith competed for the 350 Hydro Plane High Points Championship in the American-Canadian Hydroplane Racing Association right to the final regatta of the season.
He finished in sixth place with 355 points behind Samuel Page-Morin in “Canadian Tire” at 438, Kent Henderson in Steeler at 406, Yannick Leger in Super Nova a 388, Nicolas Rousse in “L’Oiseau Bleu” at 376 and Norm Ensbury in “OCR Racing” at 367.
“It was the closet race in years. Four drivers were in the race for the title right down to the last week of the season,” said Smith who now lives in Oswego with his wife Stacie, daughters Abby and Murphy.
Smith completed the season by winning a 350 Hydroplane race at the Wildwood New Jersey Regatta.
The Wildwood Regatta was also memorable because Smith earned the opportunity to drive the EMS “Bad Influence” Grand Prix boat in a three-boat race and took second to High Point Champion Brandon Kennedy in the “Miss Kana Unwind” dynamo.
“It was awesome to drive the Grand Prix boat, the power is unbelievable. I had a go-pro camera in the cockpit and in the video, when the boat took off you see my eyes really get huge,” said Smith.
“To me it was very special because so many other local drivers have raced in Grand Prix. My dad (Dave Smith), Jeff Richards and Frank Richardson all raced in the class and my cousin, Joe Sovie, still races in the class.”
Racers from Ogdensburg remain like a hyperextended family.
Dale and Gizzelle Wells help Smith at his races just as they did his dad.
“The support you get is awesome. When I raced Florida early in the season Chic and Neil LaRose came over,” said Derec Smith.
“Neil still does some racing down there and it was just great to see them. I still remember my first boat. My dad and I bought it from Bob Martin.”
————
If anyone logged more miles in the 2014 hydroplane racing season than Joe Sovie, they would need a private jet.
He raced on both coasts and at both ends of the racing spectrum.
Early in the summer he travelled to Olympia, Wash. and placed third in a field of seven very fast Grand Prix boats driving the GP Charger for Bassmaster Elite Series angler Dean Rojas.
In late August he and his crew of his dad Bob Sovie, his wife Valerie, his brother Lee, Tom Palmer and his son Ayden returned to Washington at Spanaway to race in thbe Western Divisions of the 1 Litre Modified Class.
The event marked the first time in 10 years that five fastest 1 Liter boats in the country had competed in the same race.
Sovie’s blazing and red and “Accelerent”, which he and his dad built over the winter, won the first qualifer and placed fourth in the finals.
“The boat ran very well but the water got rough,” said Sovie.
Earlier in the month it was all smooth sailing at the US Eastern Nationals at the 89th Hampton Gold Cup Regatta Hampton Va.
Sovie won an epic duel with the legendary yellow Y1 boat pilotted by hydroplance racing icon Dan Kanfush.
Sovie went on to score an unheard of repeat win over Kanfush in the Sunday finals of Summer Nationals at the Waterford, Mi. regatta
It was the final regatta in the career of Kanfush who owns nine US National Championships and the world speed record in the class.
Both Sovie and Kanfush reached speeds of 112 mph and approached the world speed records in the class in their Summer of 2015 duels.
Sovie’s season ended at New Martinsville, West Virginia chasing the world record on the Ohio River when his boat went airborne at an estimated speed of 115 mph, flipped over backwards and landed upside down.
“The course in New Martinsville is like the Bonneville Salt flats for boat racing. It is a quarter-mile straight-away,” says Sovie.
Repairs to the 100 per cent carbon fiber boat were made at Bob Sovie’s fabled cradle-of-a thousand crafts garage on Patterson Street. Powered by the Polaris three cyclinder engine, which the Sovie team innovated, “Accelerent” will be out chasing championships and speed records early, often and all over the country in the 2015 season.
Next season will also mark three generations of Sovie Family racing as nine-year old Ayden Sovie will make his debut the J Stock ranks with a 15 horsepower engine.
Time marches on and so does the bloodlines of racing.
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20141126/OGD/141128956/1039
PUBLISHED: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014 AT 12:56 AM
There are several landmarks which are unique to Ogdensburg.
The Edgar Newell Memorial Golden Dome, the Frederic Remington Art Museum and the Ogdensburg to Prescott International Bridge.
There is another facet of the landscape which for decades has set the city apart from other St. Lawrence municipalties.
A facet which doesn’t show up on aerial photographs.
The sight of hydroplanes parked in driveways and backyards has been a fixture in Ogdensburg for two and even three generations.
Former 5-6 Litre Grand Champion Dave Smith remembers vividly his first raceboat.
“I was 14 and Bob Sovie and I both built boats like the one driven by Chic LaRose.
“Bob and I got involved racing watching guys like Chic and Wayne LaRose, Leon Richards, John Hannan, George Rheome and Jack Fisher race hydroplanes and there were also races on the river. Joe Ward and Ward’s Marina had a great racing skiff.”
Fifty-four years later Smith stays active helping in the crew for his son Derec Smith while Bob Sovie crews for his son Joe and is regarded among the best Hydroplane builders and racing innovators.
Over the years the crafts have evolved dramatically from plywood racers to the Grand Prix Hydros featuring space age technology.
Former Grand Prix champ Jeff Richards’ home on Barre Street has seen it all.
He lives in the same family homestead as his dad Leon Richards who raced at a time when races were held on the St. Lawrence and Oswegatchie Rivers, Black Lake and several other smaller area lakes.
In recent years Richards’ yard and garage is the summer home for the Crush and Steeler Grand Prix boats and the Lil Crush which his daugher Leanna pilotted to a North American Championship in 2011.
Leanna didn’t race this summer but Richards served as crew chief for the Steeler Grand Prix 777 driven by Bert Henderson of Brockville, Ont.
Steeler 777 was riding high in the GP point standings before its season ended in a crash.
The boat was demolished and Henderson suffered serious injuries which have taken months to recover from.
The Ogdensburg racing contingent was involved in two other aerial, acrobatic crashes during the season but the drivers escaped serious injury.
Bill Vielhauer’s “Last Minute Again” won Canadian, North American and World Championships at the 2013 Valleyfield, Que. Regatta. This summer the boat was a Valleyfield show-stopper again but the gasps of the massive crowds came in startling apprehension rather than applause. With his brother Tom at the wheel “Last Minute Again” did a 360 flip in the air.
Tom Vielhauer escaped any significant injury and the boat was repaired and returned to the American-Canadian Hydroplane Association circuit.
Bill and Tom Vielhauer are the sons of longtime racer Bill Vielhauer Sr., who is also the grandfather of Leanna Richards. Bill Vielhauer remains an active member of the crew for both of his sons boats.
Joe Sovie enjoyed a banner season in a 1 Litre Modified Boat which he and his dad, Bob Sovie, built over the winter.
In July he won the Eastern National Championship but his season ended on in aerial rollover while chasing a world speed record in West Virginia.
Following the crash a picture of his bruised face became an instant Facebook doubletake.
But he healed quickly and even more determined to set that record next season.
—————
In an era when many boats are owned by the ACHRA, Bill Vielhauer Jr. owns his own boat which is maintained at his business “Bill’s Tire Center”.
In 2013 he won the 350 Hydroplane North North American, Canadian and World Championships at Valleyfield.
In July with his brother Tom behind the wheel his boat went airborne in what became a multi website instant classic.
Luckily Tom Vielhauer suffered no serious injuries the damage to the boat was repaired and the blue and white H8 finished with a season-best 78-point weekend at the season finale in Beauharnois, Que.
“Last Minute Again” finished in 14th place in the final standings with 282 points.
Tom Vielhauer went behind the wheel after his boat was sidelined for the season by engine problems in the second regatta of the season.
Derec Smith calls Vielhauer’s boat a “rocket ship” and Vielhauer plans no changes for the boat in 2015.
“The engine is running great and there is no reason to do anything to it,” says Bill Vielhauer Jr.
“And if I can lose a few pounds I want to get behind the wheel again.”
His brother Tom, who now lives in Syracuse, plans to be back in his boat next season powered by a new engine.
————-
For Derec Smith, the 2011 North America and Canadian Power Boat Champion in the 5 Litre Class, 2015 was a career season in two ways.
It started with his hiring to drive the 350 “Bad Influence” craft for the EMS Team owned by John McDonald’s Environmental Solutions and Mike Grindel Trus RSTZ Trucking Company.
Smith competed for the 350 Hydro Plane High Points Championship in the American-Canadian Hydroplane Racing Association right to the final regatta of the season.
He finished in sixth place with 355 points behind Samuel Page-Morin in “Canadian Tire” at 438, Kent Henderson in Steeler at 406, Yannick Leger in Super Nova a 388, Nicolas Rousse in “L’Oiseau Bleu” at 376 and Norm Ensbury in “OCR Racing” at 367.
“It was the closet race in years. Four drivers were in the race for the title right down to the last week of the season,” said Smith who now lives in Oswego with his wife Stacie, daughters Abby and Murphy.
Smith completed the season by winning a 350 Hydroplane race at the Wildwood New Jersey Regatta.
The Wildwood Regatta was also memorable because Smith earned the opportunity to drive the EMS “Bad Influence” Grand Prix boat in a three-boat race and took second to High Point Champion Brandon Kennedy in the “Miss Kana Unwind” dynamo.
“It was awesome to drive the Grand Prix boat, the power is unbelievable. I had a go-pro camera in the cockpit and in the video, when the boat took off you see my eyes really get huge,” said Smith.
“To me it was very special because so many other local drivers have raced in Grand Prix. My dad (Dave Smith), Jeff Richards and Frank Richardson all raced in the class and my cousin, Joe Sovie, still races in the class.”
Racers from Ogdensburg remain like a hyperextended family.
Dale and Gizzelle Wells help Smith at his races just as they did his dad.
“The support you get is awesome. When I raced Florida early in the season Chic and Neil LaRose came over,” said Derec Smith.
“Neil still does some racing down there and it was just great to see them. I still remember my first boat. My dad and I bought it from Bob Martin.”
————
If anyone logged more miles in the 2014 hydroplane racing season than Joe Sovie, they would need a private jet.
He raced on both coasts and at both ends of the racing spectrum.
Early in the summer he travelled to Olympia, Wash. and placed third in a field of seven very fast Grand Prix boats driving the GP Charger for Bassmaster Elite Series angler Dean Rojas.
In late August he and his crew of his dad Bob Sovie, his wife Valerie, his brother Lee, Tom Palmer and his son Ayden returned to Washington at Spanaway to race in thbe Western Divisions of the 1 Litre Modified Class.
The event marked the first time in 10 years that five fastest 1 Liter boats in the country had competed in the same race.
Sovie’s blazing and red and “Accelerent”, which he and his dad built over the winter, won the first qualifer and placed fourth in the finals.
“The boat ran very well but the water got rough,” said Sovie.
Earlier in the month it was all smooth sailing at the US Eastern Nationals at the 89th Hampton Gold Cup Regatta Hampton Va.
Sovie won an epic duel with the legendary yellow Y1 boat pilotted by hydroplance racing icon Dan Kanfush.
Sovie went on to score an unheard of repeat win over Kanfush in the Sunday finals of Summer Nationals at the Waterford, Mi. regatta
It was the final regatta in the career of Kanfush who owns nine US National Championships and the world speed record in the class.
Both Sovie and Kanfush reached speeds of 112 mph and approached the world speed records in the class in their Summer of 2015 duels.
Sovie’s season ended at New Martinsville, West Virginia chasing the world record on the Ohio River when his boat went airborne at an estimated speed of 115 mph, flipped over backwards and landed upside down.
“The course in New Martinsville is like the Bonneville Salt flats for boat racing. It is a quarter-mile straight-away,” says Sovie.
Repairs to the 100 per cent carbon fiber boat were made at Bob Sovie’s fabled cradle-of-a thousand crafts garage on Patterson Street. Powered by the Polaris three cyclinder engine, which the Sovie team innovated, “Accelerent” will be out chasing championships and speed records early, often and all over the country in the 2015 season.
Next season will also mark three generations of Sovie Family racing as nine-year old Ayden Sovie will make his debut the J Stock ranks with a 15 horsepower engine.
Time marches on and so does the bloodlines of racing.
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20141126/OGD/141128956/1039