Episode 113: Season 6 Debut

Roostertail Talk is back again for its debut episode for season 6.  In episode 113 I talk about what has been going on during the offseason for myself and the H1 Unlimited racing league. I also ask to hear from you, the listener, on what you want to hear this season.  Please reach out with your thoughts via email to roostertailtalk@gmail.com or on our Facebook or Instagram page.

You can show your support for the podcast and get some merch on our online shop. Currently we have a shirt and some decal stickers, we will be adding more products throughout this season!  

Chapters

• 0:25 Revitalizing Unlimited Hydroplane Racing
• 7:21 Hydroplane Racing Season Updates
• 18:10 Hydroplane Racing Podcast Audience Engagement
• 22:56 Podcast Promotion and Subscription Updates

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:25

Roussatel Talk, the podcast dedicated to everything about the sport that we all love. Hide your plane, reese. I am your host, david Newton, and it's time once again to sit back, relax and welcome to Roussatel Talk. Well, hello race fans, welcome back. We're back at it again here at the podcast. We're in season six of Roussatel Talk. I know I've said it before a few times, but it's hard to believe we're getting this far on the podcast, season six, episode 113 now, and we actually would have had an episode 113 back in November. I had some audio recordings of an old time interview but unfortunately a few of you got to hear it but unfortunately got pulled down due to copyright infringement, so that episode's not released any further for the fan base. But hopefully the owner of that interview will release that to the public and it can be heard because it was a fun interview.

Speaker 1: 1:34

But hopefully you had a good winter. Hopefully you got some time with family and friends and enjoyed the holidays and enjoyed some time for yourselves in these dark, gloomy days but it's getting brighter again because the racing season is on the horizon, looking forward to more racing coming up in the future. Hopefully you are as well. Hopefully maybe you had a productive off season, got some projects done. Whether you're racing one leaders, five leaders, grand prix, unlimited hydroplanes, rc boats, whatever it is, hopefully you got some projects done and got a little more than I did over here in my shop. I haven't done too much in my RC boat shop but I'm glad to be back in the air, glad to be back in your ears and hopefully enjoy another season here at Ruchitele Talk.

Speaker 1: 2:27

Fortunately for myself, I got some health issues to under wraps. I got to move forward with that and I had last year and a half an inflamed heart which doctors think I have something called sarcoidosis. But through some medical treatments I got the heart in the right size and it was a process to stay on top of it, just lots and lots of doctor visits. So hopefully, if your heart is ever acting weird or funny and just listen to your body and make sure you go to the doctor and get checked out. I know I've talked about before my father. He didn't do that and unfortunately he had a heart attack and passed away a little bit earlier than he should have. But you know, if something's going on with you and your, your body, listen to it, talk to a doctor and get it under wraps and stick around a little while. So, anyways, we're. We're not here to talk about medical advice, we're here to talk about hydroplanes and boat racing.

Speaker 1: 3:26

So it was a short racing season last year. We had five races. Did we even have five races? It went by so quick. How many did we have? Last year we had. We had Gunnersville, madison, tri-cities and Seattle. We only had four races last year.

Speaker 1: 3:44

The short, short season. Some great racing on the water though, and I loved ending it there in Seattle. The gold cup, and that final heat was a barn burner between Andrew Tate and the Goodman real estate and J Michael Kelly and the Beacon Electric, and I was surprised that J Michael won that. I really thought Andrew Tate had it won, but it's been. That seems like so long ago. Right, it's, it's been. It's been a over half a year at least since I got to watch that final heat on the log boom there in Seattle. Thanks again, nigel Steer, for letting me sit out on your, on your boat to watch that final heat on the the log boom, but seven months has passed since then. We're way past due for some racing, some, some fun things on the horizon, some exciting things hopefully for the sport. Let's get into some of that and we'll talk about what to expect from the podcast this season. No interviews. Today we're just going to talk a little bit about boats, hydroplanes, and then I'll ask some questions to you because I want to hear from you as well.

Speaker 1: 4:54

All right, well, back in December, on December 6 to be precise, there was an announcement from each one. They announced an exciting reorganization of the sport. They were going to collectively reorganize the sport and they had put out a press release From this organization. And I wanted to read a little bit from that press release here and kind of go into some depths and some insight, hopefully with that. But I said on the release, it's from Kenowick, washington, and lately in the sport there's been some, some bigger names coming from Kenowick, washington. We really hear a lot of a lot of history from Seattle but there's been some names in in tri cities in Kenowick. That's Starting to push the sport forward and and re-energizing the sport.

Speaker 1: 5:39

But it goes on to say the H1 unlimited hydroplane series will take a fresh step into the 2024 racing season With an exciting reorganization that will look to propel the popularity of the sport back to its rightful position within the motor sports community. The overall reorganization includes new members of the H1 board of directors and a new entity, hydro town group, focused on enhanced promotion, public and media relations, marketing and sponsorship experience for H1 and limited. Well, right there, that sense it kind of sums up what the sports needs. Right, it needs more promotion, it needs more, more reach to the public, media relations, marketing, and that's really what the sport needs to to go to the next level. Let's go on and hear a little bit more of this. So it says.

Speaker 1: 6:30

The hydrogen group, along with a new H1 board, have spent the past several months developing plans to re-envise, revitalize and re-integrate the sport of unlimited hydroplane racing. The excitement around this Revitalization is already producing exciting obligations from at least six boats pledging to compete in the full series, with additional boats currently in discussions, along with commitments from six race sites across the country and one in Canada. Well, we've had, you know, all of our races. I think so far I have had six boats pledge to be at the races. It's nice to see that's gonna continue. Hopefully we can get a little bit more out there than just six. They're talking about having a six race series across the country and one adding in Canada.

Speaker 1: 7:21

Let's go on and look a little bit further here to what it says. There's a quote here from Mike Denzel, the chairman of the board of each one Unlimited. Mike's a great guy who's been a part of the Love the Tri campaign there in Tri-Cities and has really done a lot of work for the Columbia Cup. He's the co-founder of the HydroTank Group. But he goes on to say we all have a passion for hydroplane racing and wanted to invest in the promotion of the sport and reintroduce it to a larger audience through enhanced media and sponsorship opportunities. We're excited about these changes within H1 Unlimited and encouraged by the discussions with race teams, partners as well as race sites that have already taken place. All of us are committed to the long-term success of all our race teams and race sites as we prepare to kick off the 2024 season. So some great words from Mike so far in the press release.

Speaker 1: 8:19

A lot of buzzwords re-vigorate, revitalize, reintroduce but what does that mean? And one thing, unfortunately, that some fans kind of cling onto is they get excited about this but they don't quite understand all of the hard work and dedication and work that goes in the back rooms. We only can only know so much of the hard work that they're dedicated to doing. Time will tell with this for sure, but it looks like they're trying to get back on Lake Kelowna. They have the 2024 season, which was tentatively placed on the 2024 season back in December. Unfortunately, it's not on their official press release for the schedule, which their official schedule was released here just a little bit ago.

Speaker 1: 9:11

Their official schedule for this year is going to be made 31st. They're going to have a test session in Tri-Cities. June 29th and 30th they'll be in Gunnersville Lake Hydrofest in Gunnersville, alabama, then the following weekend, july 5th through the 7th, the Madison-Rigana and Madison-Indiana, and in July the 26th through 28th they'll be in Tri-Cities, washington, in Seattle Seafarer, august 2nd through the 4th, and then there's two other additions here that weren't on the schedule last year. San Diego is on the schedule for September 13th through 15th we missed having that race last year and August 23rd through the 25th will be the APBA Gold Cup in Detroit, michigan. I know fans are clamoring at that, detroit race being back on the circuit. A lot of history, nostalgia and a big fan base over there that's longing for that to come back. The unfortunate thing I see on this official schedule, though, is there's a little asterisk around Detroit and a little asterisk around San Diego. That's tentative events. There's still a lot of time for that to happen. So I'm hoping that sponsorships will rise up, because when we talked last fall, we talked to the gentlemen in charge of the San Diego Bay Fair, greg Mansfield, and basically just bottoms down to money, and that's why the race was not able to happen this last year due to the withdrawal of Home Street Bank as their main backer of the race. So hopefully more sponsorships will rise up so these races can happen.

Speaker 1: 10:58

I've been looking forward to having Detroit back on the circuit. I know we haven't had that on the circuit since COVID, and God, I would love to have that back and experience that once again. If that happens, I'm going to Detroit this year. Never have had a chance to go to Detroit. I've heard so many tales about that Ruchetail turn. So fantastic, the boats coming straight at you over 200 miles an hour and then whipping around pretty much doing a 180 on that hairpin turn. That's something I got experience. I'm hoping they're back in Detroit this year because, man, I want to go.

Speaker 1: 11:34

Anyways, back to that press release for Hyder Town. Well, I mean, it's a lot of ex, a lot of hope in this press release. Right, and that's what the sport needs. It needs hope. Unfortunately, another thing that is just playing the sport is the turnover and leadership. Always pledge and hope, always trying to bring hope back into it. But as a fan we got to cling to that hope and really just clamor at what we can and hope it can be propelled by this new group.

Speaker 1: 12:06

But like I said, in the press release it did have Lake Kelowna as a tentative. Hopefully they can add it to the schedule in Pentecan, pentecton, pentecton I'm not saying that right Pentecton, pentecton. Well, anyways, how you say it in British Columbia, lake Kelowna, hoping they can get back there. They raced in Kelowna, which I think is on the other side of the lake, from Pentecton Pentecon I can't say that word, we're gonna call it Lake Kelowna, but it's back in the 90s. They raced there for a few years, a number of years. It was a fun trip to go up there and I'm looking forward to going back up there again someday. That'd be fun to watch a race up there.

Speaker 1: 12:53

Press release did also state at the bottom who's on the board, so it's nice to see some transparency. The members who are present on the board, who's active in helping out the sport, and it looks like the new H1 Unlimited board is gonna include two members from the 2023 season and five new members, so seven members total. Five are gonna be brand new. So new members on the board is Mike Denzo, who he gave that statement earlier. He's a longtime Tri-Cities Waterfowlies board member, has been elected the chairman of the board and Mike I guess he has a strong presence in Tri-Cities and he's really just a huge backer and supporter of the sport. Glad to see his name on there.

Speaker 1: 13:41

Darrell Strong, the owner of the Strong Racing team, is on there, as well as the co-owner of the U11 Legend Yacht Transport, shannon Rainey. They're gonna continue their work from previous years. But also new members on the team is the HydroTown Town co-founder. Representative from the Miss Madison Racing team, goodman Real Estate, charlie Grooms. We also have H1 Media host and race site, pa voice, brad Loose and the bucket list racing flavor, our pack co-owner, kelly Stocklin. So glad to see some new Members there. I know Kelly Stocklin Well. I mean everyone on that board is huge, huge backer, huge supporter of the sport and have done so many things over the years.

Speaker 1: 14:31

So hopefully these members getting together can Push it to the next level, get some more race sites and Grow what we can for the sport and bring it back to to that heyday and make it make each one unlimited more of a household name. Get some more popularity with it. Like seeing some a few things they've done so far this offseason talking about their PR and and getting the word out there about the sport. They were had representatives With the Gunnersville people Lake hydrofest recently at the Louisville boat show Help promote the Gunnersville Alabama race, the, and the Madison race. They had a boat on display there for hydroplane like unlimited class as well as Grand Prix and I believe Jeff Bernard and Andrew Tate were down there Talking to fans, getting pictures taken and just getting the word out about the sport, which is what we need. We need to see more of that and I'm glad to see that happen again.

Speaker 1: 15:33

I remember that being a big part of the sport in the 90s different boats going to some our different teams Going to some different boat shows and media events, which is just great for the sport. So some hope, some prosperity for the sport there. Glad to see it never propelled a little bit for further forward there and Unfortunately this offseason we just we don't see the product right. We're not going to see a boat on the water for a few months, probably not till the end of May, and when the real excitement happens is when we see the Rooster tail's fly. But it's. I'm glad to hear a lot of work is being done behind the scenes to make this happen. It'll be fun to hear. Maybe we'll have some, some more press releases coming out soon.

Speaker 1: 16:16

I like to hear some more news about the sport. Of course they're. They're pumping out the various videos, some great videos Of the sport. The past few years of the drone footage and onboard footage. Keep in social media. Live with that. Besides, besides those news news points, not much to report on the offseason of each one unlimited.

Speaker 1: 16:40

Some other fun things going around around the world and in boat racing. The e1 series just kicked off their their debut race over in other side of the world there and had a big race, and All electric boats race together on the water for the first time, which they're making a big deal about, and rightfully so. It looks like they're kicking off a new racing series on water which could be exciting to watch Some big names involved with sport. Tom Brady has his own team and he actually won the. His team won the first race, so quite curious to see what pans out from that. But what's?

Speaker 1: 17:18

Let's talk about the podcast, though, and I but I'm joining on and on I've got on several digressions here and part of this episode too. We're starting off kicking off season six and Looking through the future of this season. Where we're gonna go, what, what interviews are we gonna do? What content are we gonna create here for this podcast and really the first few seasons? I Wanted to hear and I wanted to talk and capture some interviews from people we're on the sport who I found interesting and who I didn't know much about and I wanted to know more about them and I wanted to get their stories that, because they have their own stories that are entertaining and interesting to people around the sport, because I reach an audience where the casual fan is listening to an experienced racer and there's so many stories in between that the media doesn't always take and get.

Speaker 1: 18:10

So I wanted to capture that and save some of those stories with some people who I found interesting and I didn't know much about, including Chip Hanna or in Jeff Bernard, some of the current racers, like Andrew Tate, burt Henderson, but also Kelly Stocklin is such an interesting person I didn't know much about. I got some great, great stories from, but the Webbers also Dave Villach had some awesome stories, and Jimmy Shane and Steve Reynolds neat brown. I really talked to some people who I just thought were so interesting but I didn't know, know enough about and wanted to know more about. But this podcast isn't about me and I have fun doing it. I really enjoy talking about the sport that that I love and you love so much.

Speaker 1: 18:55

But I want to hear from you because, as a fan base, you, you drive the show what, what are you interested in? Do you want more interviews with drivers? Do you want more interviews with crew members? Do you want to hear more about the, the backside of the sport, how the boats work? Are there questions you have that you maybe you're too afraid to ask your friend how? How does a skiffin work or what? What's up with the rudder or the prop? Or do you want to hear more of that insight? Do you want to hear from our owners of the sport? We've talked to Darrell, darrell Strong. I've talked to Kelly Stocklin, nate Brown and previous owner. Maybe you want to hear more from the owners or people run the sport Each one, unlimited officials, people on the board.

Speaker 1: 19:43

Do you want me to try and reach out to more people running the race events? Because it takes not only the people at each one but also the people at the local, local venues. I've talked to people behind San Diego Bay Fair, seafarer. I've talked to people behind the Columbia Cup, behind HydroFest. Or should we talk to more fans? I've enjoyed talking to some, some various fans. Or talk to Gary Laws and some other other various race fans on the shores of each one races.

Speaker 1: 20:17

Maybe you want to hear more about the present racing or the past racing. Do we want to blend our mix of of everything? Are you digging the old audios? I've been digging up from the 80s, 90s, 70s from various race sites and relive in those days, but really I just want to hear from you, the listener. I would love if you could reach out. Let me know what you're thinking. What do you want to hear? I would love to hear from you. Email always works best. You can reach me at ruchateltalk at gmailcom. So ruchateltalk, all one word R-O-O-S-T-E-R, that's Ruchatel, and then tail is T-A-I-L, that's Ruchatel, and so then talk T-A-L-K. Ruchateltalk at gmailcom. Love to hear from you. You know always reach out. You can message me on social media. I'm on Facebook and Instagram the most We've got. I've got a page for Ruchatel talk on both of those. Always DM me. But I want to hear from you, I want to hear from the fans. What do you want to hear more of?

Speaker 1: 21:26

I did try to reach out over the fall to get some interviews lined up. I ended up getting ghosted for the first time on one of them, which is rather unfortunate, but I had a couple other leads on things that just didn't pan out yet. But I'm hoping that we can this spring talk to them and I don't want to drop names in case it doesn't happen. One interview I do have. That will be our next episode.

Speaker 1: 21:52

Many of you know Doug Brow passed away a longtime supporter of the sport racer crew member, his father, bill Brow, the milk ban, big name in the Seattle area in the 60s and the 50s and hydroplane racing. I got a chance and I talked with him and I got an interview shortly before he passed away and I didn't feel right about releasing it right away with his death, so I held on to that that's going to be coming out in a couple of weeks. That'll be our next episode. My first interview for season six. It was a different story. My first interview for season six. It was a dear friend of my father's and knew it was such a big part of the sport. It's so sad that he's passed, but I will, I will, I did save that interview and I'll be releasing that for the second episode of the season. So look for that in a few weeks.

Speaker 1: 22:38

But in the meantime I just I want to hear from you. I want to hear what you want to add to content for this. Love it. If you could reach out, send me a DM, even just chat about the sport. Such a long, such a long break. I'm waiting for more racing to come along.

Speaker 1: 22:56

And one other thing I'm gonna ask of you please, if you haven't yet, please rate and review the podcast, or your experience of the podcast really helps out when I'm reaching out for others to get interviews and reaching out to try to get sponsors and whatnot for the podcast. Just to get the word out for the podcast. If you listen on Apple podcast Spotify doesn't matter Please just go ahead and go on there, rate and review the podcast. Love to see some more reviews come out for the podcast. Don't forget we this is offered on all major podcast platforms with its cast cast box Spotify, apple podcasts, pandora were available on all those all those platforms.

Speaker 1: 23:40

You can check us out on our website as well wwwroustrateltalkcom. I do updates on there and my social media. There's links to all the episodes on there as well, so you can listen to it many, many different places. And finally, if you want to add, be added to subscription list, there's a option there where you can be added and I can email you updates from when new episodes are released. So, yeah, we're back. I'm looking forward to getting another episode out and talking to some more people on the sport and sharing my conversations with you, because, again, it's not about me in the sport, it's about the sport and the other people that make it happen. So, again, let me know. I want to hear from you, tell me who you want and we'll see what I can make happen, but until then, I hope to see you at the race.