Roostertail Talk

Episode 132: Chris Martin and Jason Colean, Part 2

David Newton Season 6 Episode 20

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Chris Martin and Jason Colean continue their interview in Episode 132.  Listen in as they continue to share their experience on the U-27 Wiggins Racing team.  They go into more detail about the 2024 racing season for Apollo Mechanical as well as what is in store for next year. 

*Note: Jason reminds you that this is part 2 of his interview in the photo

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Speaker 1:

Ruchetel Talk, the podcast dedicated to everything about the sport that we all love, Hydroplane racing. I am your host, David Newton, and it's time once again. So sit back, relax and welcome to Rooster Tail Talk talk. Hello race fans, welcome back. It's Tuesday, November 19th, and this is episode 132. In today's episode we're going to continue with last week's interview.

Speaker 1:

I sat down and chatted with Chris Martin from Alabama and Jason Kuhling from Eastern Washington, the Tri-Cities area two crew members for Wiggins Racing, the Apollo Mechanical Race Team. Last week they talked more about how they got into the sport and how they entered crewing for Charlie Wiggins and that great race team out of the eastern side of the United States. And today they're going to talk more about their experience the past year or two as they finished that rebuild and got onto the racing circuit. And they're going to talk more about those expectations for racing, their experience from the past year and what we can look forward to in the future. I don't need to give you much more background. You heard last week's I hope, episode 131. If you didn't, please go back and listen to part one before you get into part two here today. But let's get into that conversation with Chris and Jason.

Speaker 1:

Well, there was rumors that last year, in 2023, that the boat was going to come out west. It might have been mainly Jason sending rumors on that, I don't know. Uh, it didn't happen. Uh, can you tell? Tell me why? You know what was the official word and why it didn't come out last year? Where there's things?

Speaker 2:

just that was absolutely. The goal was to have it ready. Just, man dave and I and you know when chris would come home, come over from work. I mean we were working 12 to 15 hours a day, seven days a week on it. There was just too much work to get done.

Speaker 3:

Then it got to the point where we number one. We didn't have a sponsor, so it was on Charlie's dime. But we could have gotten the boat ready, probably for Guntersville. But we didn't want to sacrifice the quality of the build at that point just to rush it and have it ready. We'd spent so much time and effort into it at that point there was no use in rushing it right there at the end just to just to make the show. We said we'd rather just take our time, finish it right. That way when we hit the water in gunnersville we don't have any problems.

Speaker 2:

Like you see, a lot of boats do their first time out but even still, even after we missed gunnersville, we you know we were still optimistic. We were going to make tri-cities.

Speaker 1:

We didn't slow down after that yeah, well, I imagine that just helped you for this year to be prepared for the first race.

Speaker 3:

Right trying to make that last year, yeah and I would say you showed you're ready.

Speaker 1:

I mean bill walk. I don't think it was qualifying, I think it was in testing.

Speaker 3:

He did over a 160 mile an hour lap, gunnersville that was our second time away from the dock yeah, that's impressive the team must have been happy at that point, right, we were very, very happy at that point, right, we were very, very happy at that point. We were just happy. The boat went out, came back with no problems. Yeah, I mean just to come back with no electrical gremlins, no mechanical gremlins. The boat started up, ran how it should have ran. It responded well to the adjustments we made and the results showed. With that one, was it 163, 164?

Speaker 1:

I want to say it was 163, but you'd probably know better than that 163 sounds about right. Yeah, and did you have intentions of pushing it that hard, that quick, out of the box?

Speaker 2:

Oh, absolutely not, Dave just kind of felt comfortable with it and just let it go a little bit more, push it until you start feeling gremlins, and then leave it there and back off a little bit well, he came out this year with a big sponsor too, apollo Mechanical, and I think they put a lot into the team and also the sport they sponsored Tri-Cities Race, seafarer.

Speaker 1:

Do you know how that came about? How they were able to sponsor you?

Speaker 3:

I know Dave has a prior relationship with Bruce Ratchford, the owner, which Bruce is an awesome, awesome dude himself. If anybody ever has a chance to meet him, they'll see what I'm talking about right there. But I think Dave had a private relationship with Bruce and Bruce wanted to get involved. You know he was sponsoring the tri-seas racing. He was wanting to get a boat out there also and Dave and a guy named Steve Lampson had worked a deal out and Dave asked Charlie if he had a sponsor lined up. Would Charlie be willing to put his boat out there this year? Charlie said yes, thankfully.

Speaker 1:

I'd say it worked out pretty well.

Speaker 3:

I would say so I'm happy with it. I think everybody else on the team is as well.

Speaker 1:

Steve Lampson. I know Dave has a previous relationship with him. He he worked hard on the Leland team for years getting the Pico sponsor and all the thousands of them and all the thousands of associate sponsors they'd have every year he was a.

Speaker 3:

He's another, just like Dave. He's a super, super hard working guy. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. Yeah, it's fun, and I love to see the retro-esque paint scheme back to the 90s Red, white and blue American flag. It's got your own touch, but it's not the same. But yeah, it's really cool, Although I bought a shirt in Tri-Cities and it's not red, white and blue, it's red, white and purple. Now I don't know what that's about.

Speaker 3:

I'll have to get you a new one.

Speaker 1:

Well, I would say things went well for the first race and you finished it no major damage and you go over, make the decision to skip Madison, so you're ready for the West Coast and then in Tri-Cities. Really, I think it was a scary wreck that you guys had. Yes, I was sitting on the shoreline at the entrance to that first turn, and so I think that heat day was a little bit late on the outside, and so I didn't see the Graham trucking spin out in front of him. I just saw his boat go up in the air. I thought it was a blowover miss, but he ran over Bobby Kennedy in the Graham trucking.

Speaker 1:

Tell me what was going through your minds that was right in front of the pits.

Speaker 3:

Yes, standing there on the docks. I mean you saw a big splash of water from the 12 kind of submarine and you're seeing Dave in his arc. You hope to God that you're not going to hit it, but you could hear it from the, from the 12 kind of submarine and he's saying dave in his ark. You just you hope to god they're not going to hear it, but you could hear it from the dock. You didn't see the collision but you could hear them hit yeah I couldn't see anything happen, but you could hear, I'm sure

Speaker 3:

everybody in the park heard that smack yeah, that that sound was, uh, that's the scariest sound I've ever heard in person. And uh, we all got very lucky that the damage that happened was all as worst as it was. It could have been very, very bad.

Speaker 2:

Both drivers perfectly fine and both boats repaired for the next week. That's about as good as you can come out of that.

Speaker 3:

If Dave would have taken a tighter arc, or Bobby's boat hadn't slowed down any, it would have been a lot worse. Or Bobby's boat hadn't slowed down any, that would have been a lot worse than what it was yeah, thank god, they're both okay and they're safe.

Speaker 1:

I would say some expertise came in there from Bill Walker's reactions, because he ended up going backwards. He wasn't upside down, yeah.

Speaker 2:

I couldn't even tell until I saw the video slowed down. It just happened so fast. I couldn't even tell until I saw the video slowed down. It just happened so fast. I don't know how he was able to physically react to that.

Speaker 3:

That's what I was about to say. If you watch the cockpit video from that accident, you can see as soon as it happens. Dave, he's on the canard, so to be his age and have reflexes like that is pretty remarkable.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there was no thinking involved.

Speaker 3:

It was just reacting to the environment. That was 100% skill right there.

Speaker 1:

Did you guys ever talk to him about the wreck after?

Speaker 3:

I did, yes, he was not to. We'll just say he was scared, Rightfully, so he was scared oh yeah, it was a scary wreck.

Speaker 1:

What was the full extent of damage to it? It didn't break any of the foam core ribs, did it?

Speaker 3:

No, none of the frames. We got a pretty big hole in the bottom of the sponson but, like Jason said, as far as the frames, nothing, at least that we know of right now, no frames were cracked or busted. We had a little bit of damage on the uh, the side of the non-trip deck. The skid fin took quite a lick on it. So, dave and uh, our crew well, dave and jason lowry they grinded on it and got it pretty well smoothed back out. But the biggest damage was right there, right on the bottom of the Les Fonson.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the deck separated off by the skid fin a little bit Almost like the skid fin kind of torqued it and the deck popped a little bit. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1:

Yeah well, I mean I'm surprised it wasn't for lyrics damage, uh, damage than that, because I mean him going that that speed, hitting the other boat, stopping like that, it's a pretty yeah, you know credit to charlie and how well he uh, he designed and we built that boat you went on well, how well we came through that yeah, was that a scramble to get it ready for CFair, or was it just a few days?

Speaker 3:

Luckily we had everybody right there all hands on deck, so when we got we had the talent on the team also there, everybody knew, just everybody hopped in and everybody did what they knew they could do, and it was just no matter. What would you say. Jason, two days, three at times we had it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, by Wednesday you guys are ready to pull out of town and then, naturally having your sponsor, have a giant mechanical shop a quarter mile down the road. Doesn't hurt either.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and hats off to everybody at Apollo. Man, anything we needed while we were there working on the boat we didn't have to leave that place. They sent their own workers to go get parts and pieces for us and make sure we were all taken care of. So Bruce and everybody out there at Apollo, a huge thank you and we appreciate those guys so much for that.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. That was just amazing.

Speaker 1:

Well, it's a great experience to get that much support from your sponsor.

Speaker 3:

You couldn't ask for a better sponsor than those guys.

Speaker 2:

They enjoyed it too. They were down there all week and they wanted to be a part of it. They wanted to learn everything they could.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome. Well, it's a good thing they have a mechanical shop and not a laundry shop or something like that. You got some more support, correct about that.

Speaker 3:

All right. Well, you left Tri-Cities. You got some more support.

Speaker 1:

Correct about that All right. Well, you left Tri-Cities. You got a third-place finish in Seattle and I was really hoping for a really strong finish in San Diego. I was hoping to get a little push there for the Gold Cup, but I don't know what really happened in the start there. It looks like Lane went away from VilleWalk but didn't even start the start. There looks like lane went away from villawak but uh didn't, didn't even start the race there. So, um, what was your output? Looking back on the season, would you say it was a success? What was your high? What was your low?

Speaker 3:

me personally, I would say it's a success. The boat came back in one piece. Everything is uh, everything's intact, nothing is broken. We, I mean we turned that lap in Gunnersville at over 160. We got the third in Seattle. I mean we consistently the adjustments we made on the boat, it was responding to those adjustments. So we know, going into next season, that we know we have a boat that we could, we could tweak on and I think we could win races with myself. This is a boat that we could we could tweak on and I think we could win races with myself.

Speaker 2:

This is a boat that's going to be. It's going to be able to compete for sure. I mean, the one that I kind of go to is I think it was heat five, maybe heat six in san diego, or you know, we had, we had jumped the gun, so it wasn't for much, but you, we were sitting out there in lane two pulling J Michael Kelly from the outside. So I mean there's definitely some huge potential in this boat yeah, yeah, I mean, a lot of things were impressive.

Speaker 1:

I would say as a fan, watching your team throughout the year and grow and improve upon things. It's unfortunate there wasn't more races to continue that and uh see where you, where you could go. Unfortunately, we have a long wait now until the next season.

Speaker 3:

That's the weight's the worst part, yeah wait from seattle to san diego is bad enough, but this wait from san diego to testing is it's horrible yeah, yeah, you only have what?

Speaker 1:

10 more months to go or something, yeah, just just pretty much, just just a year well, at least you can go down there in the off season.

Speaker 2:

I'm stuck back here in the tri-city. He's just waiting for facebook updates, like everybody else he's right about that.

Speaker 3:

I can leave my office and go sit in the boating until I want to. I am pretty lucky about that.

Speaker 1:

Well, did you ever think about moving down there permanently, jason? Because you were down there for what? A year and a half or so.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, what did I do? I went down there, I got an apartment and I stayed out lease and then some, I mean it was only supposed to be six months that I was going to go down there for. So, yeah, you know, Crystal, my girlfriend here, had a good job and if I was only going to be there for, you know, six months, it doesn't make sense to uproot everything and move down there.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Well, six months turned into 10 months, turned into 12 months, turned into 15 months. I Well, six months turned into 10 months, turned into 12 months, turned into 15 months. I mean, if I'd have known what it was going to turn into to begin with, I may have just stayed down there we would have welcomed him.

Speaker 1:

We definitely would have missed you on the RC circuit, that's for sure.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I would have missed it too.

Speaker 1:

Are you staying in Tri-Cities or are you going to move back down there? What do you think, Jason?

Speaker 2:

Oh, I'm here. I'm here in the Tri-Cities.

Speaker 1:

Well, chris will I'm sure be sending you some pictures next time he's in the shop to glow.

Speaker 3:

He's always hitting me up, wanting me to take pictures or go measure something for his RC boat.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3:

Go measure this, go take me a picture of that.

Speaker 1:

Well, a typical fan doesn't really know, like really, what goes on as a crew member, and for most crew members it doesn't start at the first race, right, it started the next year's racing off-season started when he got back from San Diego. So can you talk more about what that takes as a crew member to really help the team and flourish and have a successful season?

Speaker 3:

Like you said, it started right when we got back from San Diego with just washing everything down and desalting everything. And once we got everything desalted and got the boat back inside, the next step is to remove all the hardware and everything that has to be inspected to forever for cracks and all that, and then really just kind of digest the season and see what we want to improve on or what we may want to modify on the boat to pick up, you know, those extra mile per hours that we need to, uh, to be right there next year. Yeah, yeah, jason, are you gonna try and make?

Speaker 1:

it down there at all to help out in off season. You think to be right there next year. Yeah, yeah, jason, are you going to try and make it down there at all to?

Speaker 2:

help out in offseason, you think, you know if well, it's kind of one of those that if I can, you know I'd need to spend three or four weeks down there to really make it worth the trip down there. That's kind of, you know, difficult to do when you've got a job up here and stuff. You know I took all the time off to get off to go and do the racing season. It's kind of hard to get off more time like that true true?

Speaker 3:

yeah, then you. You have a job now too, so it's a lot more difficult than it was the first time you came down. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Chris how many members do you have how many Actively down there?

Speaker 3:

Down in Alabama. How many crew members do we have? Yeah, About five of us Bobby Mark, okay, but right there in our shop it's just Charlie, myself and Jason Lowry, and then we have a few guys who live in the vicinity of the shop who will come by. Whenever we kind of arrange a crew day or whatever something needs to be done, then we bring in the extra hands the hardcore core members has always been pretty small yeah, it's just mainly us three Charlie, myself and Jason Lowry.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

We're there on a daily basis.

Speaker 1:

Well, I was hoping you could settle some rumors for next year. I mean it's never too early to settle the silly season with rumors. First of all, do you guys both plan on accruing next year for Wiggins?

Speaker 2:

Oh, definitely.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I'll be back, for sure.

Speaker 2:

Alright, that was some of the most fun I've had, yeah is Wiggins going to make a full season next year? Oh.

Speaker 3:

I have no idea on that. Just if I was to say myself, I would probably say no, just.

Speaker 2:

I would think they would. Maybe We'll see. Well, there you go we don't know.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean, you see, right there.

Speaker 1:

We don't know yet Okay. So you haven't talked about that.

Speaker 3:

We shall see.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 3:

No, we haven't had off-season meeting, crew meeting yet at all. I mean everybody. Just we're still kind of winding down from last season. So I'm sure at some point this winter, I'm sure before Christmas, we'll have probably something like this a Zoom meeting with everybody on the crew and kind of have a meeting of the minds and see where everybody's at and what everybody's opinions are on the season and what they would like to do going forward.

Speaker 1:

Okay, All right. I had two other rumors. I wanted to see if I can settle here. The other one was Apollo's new return next year. Is your head sponsor? Paddle sponsor.

Speaker 3:

I sure hope, so I know.

Speaker 2:

Can't confirm, but it feels pretty good yeah.

Speaker 3:

I can't confirm it, cause I don't want to speak for Charlie, but I sure hope so. That's all I'm going to say.

Speaker 1:

Well, I hope so too. The last rumor is that Jason's actually going to take over his driving the boat because he's so impressed he got better finishes than Bill Locke did with his RC. Is that true?

Speaker 3:

Yes, that's true, that's the rumor I'm hearing as well.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I may have started that rumor, but I'm hearing those rumors. Yeah, there's a lot of talking. Slam Jason. Yeah, our last straight. All right. Well, do you think Bill Walk will return though next year and give?

Speaker 2:

another stab I do. I feel pretty comfortable saying yes about that one.

Speaker 3:

Dave's super motivated to get not only one more win for himself, but he really, really wants to get a win for Charlie and for Bruce at Apollo. Yeah, Rightfully so. There's a lot of hard work and blood, sweat and tears and cuss words and everything else that's went into this boat.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, it'd be great to see a win for for Wiggins and for Apollo mechanic and everyone involved. So you've done so much for the sport, and then I think it'd be good. It'd be awesome to see something back for you down in down in San Diego, though, chris, just a few weeks ago, uh, you won a prestigious award, I think, for your crew.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1:

I did. Can you talk about that?

Speaker 3:

It's these headphones that were painted by a crew member. I can't remember his name. I'm sorry, but back in the Pico days they had these headphones painted for the crew. The Pico days they had these headphones painted for the crew. And this is something Dave and Charlie started this season with us that at each race, these headphones are awarded to a crew member that they recognize for not only working hard but kind of doing, doing extra, doing more than your duties on just your duties on the crew. And that was uh yeah. That was uh yeah, that was really cool. Kind of got a little choked up when they did that. Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

And then you went into the last race of the year and you get to keep it all season.

Speaker 3:

That's right, I get to look at it all winter.

Speaker 1:

Oh, is that that that headphones passed on to the next person at each race? It is, it's like a weekly award.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's cool.

Speaker 3:

I do. They may come up missing.

Speaker 1:

That's funny.

Speaker 3:

Oh cool.

Speaker 1:

That's a fun award. That's a fun tradition your team has. Not too many teams have something special like that, so that's cool.

Speaker 3:

No, it's just it's cool to be uh, to know that they recognize what you're doing. I guess I mean it could be looked over during the, during a race weekend. I mean everybody's so busy with what they're doing that you kind of overlook that everybody's out there busting their butt. And look that everybody's out there busting their butt, and I would say 99% of everybody on every crew. We're all volunteers. None of us are getting paid for this, so it's cool to be recognized that you're trying.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic. I think the biggest award when I was on Muscatel's team is if you're caught sleeping during the race. They would take a picture and the next day that would go up on the trailer.

Speaker 3:

So that was we would all, we would all be screwed. I think we all take a power nap at some point.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we found every bit of shade that that trailer can provide.

Speaker 1:

Yes, oh, all right. Well, I know you didn't make it to the full season this year. You didn't go to Madison. It's only five races. It's not as extensive of a circuit as it used to be, but, as a crew member, what's your favorite place to go and be a crew member on the 27?

Speaker 3:

As a crew member watching the race, madison is the best place to go. I mean, you're right there on the dot, the boats are just a few hundred yards right in front of you. Yeah, that's without a doubt, I guess. As far as the overall race experience, I like Seattle Really. Yeah, I like Seattle. Just the experience with the crowd and everything. I'm an airplane freak myself, so I love the air show. The fan interaction in Seattle to me is better than it is anywhere else.

Speaker 1:

Okay really Wow. Yeah, and there's quite an extensive air show there as well in Seattle. If you're an Air Nut, that's a good place to be.

Speaker 2:

I was surprised. This year Air Nut's featuring the boat race.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, I was surprised, though this year I feel like Seattle had more fans than it has had in the past, at least more people.

Speaker 3:

There seemed to be a lot of people there this year. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Well, how about you, Jason? What would your answer be for that?

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm 100% a homer. I love the Tri-Cities. Takes the cake, Nothing better. Now there's nowhere that I didn't enjoy going. You know, we went to San Diego. I'd never been to San Diego and I just had a fantastic experience there. I agree, San.

Speaker 3:

Diego was fun.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's a fun place, I think, except for one thing the salt. It's the only bummer down there.

Speaker 3:

It just doubles your workload.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, if we could find a race to go on the schedule after San Diego, I think that'd make a lot of crew members happy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean years past.

Speaker 3:

then we go down to Vegas and I was about to say we need a season-ending showdown or something like that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Just to wind down everything Right right, yeah, and just desaltify everything and clear it out. Yeah, well, hopefully they can get something in the future. But it's been a while since I haven't ended on a saltwater course. It's been a long while. I'm trying to think back to when the last time that was Except for last year, obviously, but still. Yeah, well, yeah, I guess it was last year because they didn't have San Diego.

Speaker 3:

All right. Other than that, it's been a long time yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, because for a lot of years it was in Doha and then they haven't raced in Vegas since the late nineties. So, yeah, all right, well for the fans out there that have shown interest in being more active in the sport and crewing. What advice would you have for them out there?

Speaker 3:

Volunteer, find a crew member, find a team owner and just speak up to them. You would like to help. But the main thing is to show the interest. Don't just be there to take pictures and tell everybody, hey, I'm on a crew. The the more you work and the more you learn, the the more they want you around. But the easiest way to, just like I said, to volunteer, if you can't do it at a race like me, and I think jason was the same way do it on facebook, instagram or whatever, and I think Jason was the same way Do it on Facebook, instagram or whatever Social media. Comment on a post, shoot them a message. You never know.

Speaker 2:

Jason, yeah, definitely just to, just to get involved as much as you can. That that's kind of so. The working with the Wiggins team was kind of ideal for me because I'd always wanted to be a crew member but living in the Tri-Cities there's there's not a lot going on here. So you got to make trips across the mountain to get involved with the team. And you know so you're. You're driving six, eight, six, eight hours to. You know, go spend a couple hours working on the team. And you know so you're. You're driving six, eight, six, eight hours to. You know, go spend a couple hours working on the boat. And there's a lot of travel to to really make an effect. So might as well just move there all at once and spend all your time there there you go, there we go, all right.

Speaker 1:

uh, well, last question for both of you. Uh, you, you went through a lot this last year going to different race sites, getting the boat prepared. If you look back, what's the one moment that makes it all worthwhile, like your one experience?

Speaker 2:

Hearing that boat fire up for the first time and leave the dock in.

Speaker 3:

Guntersville. That's exactly what I was about to say. That first time it pulled away in Guntersville. As soon as it pulled away, that was it. That made every bit of it worth it right there. The rest of the season it could have whatever happened the rest of the season. Just seeing that boat go out from Guntersville right there made all the work and everything worth it.

Speaker 1:

Did you have that goosebumps moment when it pulled away? Did you get goosebumps on your arms?

Speaker 3:

it was a surreal moment, very, very surreal fantastic.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's a trailer fire the couple days before. That was another big one.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, then you knew it was going to happen well, well, that was the crazy thing.

Speaker 3:

I mean, I guess a lot of people didn't know, but the Thursday of the Guntersville race, up until even noon, 12 o'clock that Thursday, that boat had not been fired. Wow, like you know, the parade was that Thursday where the boats were getting pulled into the pits of Guntersville. We still hadn't fired that boat. We fired it at maybe 3.30 or 4 pm. We fired it, loaded everything up and we timed it just right to where we were pulling. We zippered in line with all the other Unlimiteds coming across the lake at Guntersville. We missed the meet and greet and we fell in line with them as they were pulling into the pits. That's how close we cut it.

Speaker 1:

Well, a lot could go wrong without getting a successful trailer fire. That was, I'm sure, a huge salve relief right there.

Speaker 3:

Yes, that was awesome.

Speaker 1:

Oh, fantastic, All right. Well, guys, I appreciate your time and I love talking Hydros with you and I'm hoping to see you out there next year.

Speaker 3:

Well, guys, well, I appreciate your time and love talking Hydros with you, and I'm hoping to see you out there next year. Yeah, absolutely yeah, thank you for having us. Come find us and we'll set you up in the boat.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's all the time we have for this week. Hope you enjoyed my chat with Chris Martin and Jason Colleen as we talk more about their crewing experience. And again, if you want to be a crew member, I know there's a lot of teams out there, several teams that are actually looking for help right now. This is the perfect time to join. Whether you're in the Madison area, alabama area in Washington State, there's several teams out there that are looking for a few good men and women to help them crew. So don't feel awkward or shy. Reach out, because there's teams looking for help right now. But really enjoyed talking with Chris and Jason. They're two great guys that give it all for the love of the sport and just really enjoyed chatting with them and can't wait to see them back out on the race courses next year.

Speaker 1:

One question though as I was going through this editing process, I really wish I would have asked Chris about how he liked the barbecue food in Seattle, because Caveman Kitchens actually catered the Apollo Mechanical U-27 down at Seafair and I was really jealous because every day at lunch they were having Caveman barbecue and that's a local staple here in the Western side of well, the hydroplane community, because a lot of people from the hydroplane museum and other shops love to go down there and get barbecue. That was, it's always my favorite. When I go down into kent I always have to stop at caveman kitchen. That was my dad's favorite. Had a lot of banquets in the museum that were actually catered by caveman kitchens and I love it. And just from crisp, being in the south, I know they've got a big reputation for having great barbecue down there. I was curious on what his thoughts were. So next time I see you, chris, I'm asking you I wanna know how you like the barbecue that we had there at Seafair at Caveman Kitchens. But that's all we have for this week, so really hope you enjoyed it.

Speaker 1:

Don't forget to like and subscribe on Facebook, instagram or online. We have our website, roostertelltalkcom. And, don't forget, we have that Rooster Tail Talk Plus subscription service where you get early access to every episode as well as a monthly raffle prize drawing Next month. I'm not quite sure what I'm gonna release for next month for my Rooster Tail Talk Plus subscribers, but I've got a few things in my archives that I'm gonna dig through and I'm gonna find something good, because it's December and that time of year, so I wanna get a good Christmas gift for my subscribers. Next week we're gonna have a trivia four-part interview with two brothers who are in the sport, so I'm looking forward to getting that out to you. And until next time, well, I hope to see you at the races.