Roostertail Talk

Episode 146: Ted Porter, Part 1

• David Newton • Season 7 • Episode 10

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Ted Porter shares his journey from Formula Boats family business to becoming an H1 Unlimited hydroplane racing team owner who claimed 18 victories and multiple championships. His decade-plus career in the sport represents one of the most successful ownership tenures in modern unlimited racing history. Join us next week for Part 2 of our interview with Ted Porter as he shares more stories from his time as one of the sport's most successful team owners.


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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 to sit back, relax and welcome Rooster Tail, talk, tale, talk. Hello race fans, today is May 6th 2025, and this is episode 146. Well, we're back at it here at the podcast. I know we took a little time off from the last episode, lost a good friend and just needed some time for that. But I'm excited for today's episode because I'm going to be giving you part one of my interview with Ted Porter Now.

Speaker 1:

Ted Porter he hasn't been active in the H1 series for a few years. He still follows and comes down to races and shows his support for H1. But he was a limited hydroplane owner for over a decade, starting in 2005. Now in his tenure with the sport, he won over 18 races, which places him in the top 10 list of owners of all time for H1 racing, has a couple of world victories, won over in Doha many times. I think he owned Doha for a while and won multiple times over there, but it's an overall great guy and ambassador and supporter of the sport.

Speaker 1:

Now I got a chance to talk with him earlier in the year so you'll hear us talk a little bit about the weather, but I got this interview done in February and a little late releasing it, just had some other things pop up. But I'm glad to get this out to you now. So let's take off the interview as I talk with previous Hydroplane owner, ted Porter. Welcome to Richard L Talk. I'm sitting down here in Renton Washington talking from west coast to east coast, talking with Ted Porter, who's down actually now in Florida for the Miami Boat Show. How are we doing, ted?

Speaker 2:

Doing well. Thanks for inviting me today. Nope, I started the day in 20 degree temperatures and now we're down here where it's 84. So all good. Finally got off the plane to the house and got to call you, so we're all good yeah, I'm pretty jealous of the view.

Speaker 1:

It looks nice and sunny outside.

Speaker 2:

It's yes, it is in fact yeah, it's almost burning out too much, but nope, it's. It's sunny outside and uh, I'm inside in the air conditioning, all good, yeah yeah, it's a 30s here.

Speaker 1:

I just had an interest in snow this morning, so a little bit different view for you, mm-hmm, all good. Well, I'm excited to have you on the show because you've made a big splash on the sport, really made a big impact, I feel, in a lot of ways. I mean you were in the sport for over a decade, introduced a lot of new drivers, crew members, helped the boat counts and just really supported H1. And I think it hasn't been that long since you've been out of the sport. So I feel like fans know your name and it's still relevant with fans today. But they might not know some of your background and how you got started with boat racing and just your past around boating. Could you share a little bit about your background with boating before you entered the ranks of each one?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I grew up in a family of boating, even outside of racing, and my dad started building boats back in 1958. And I have six. Well, there's six of us in the second generation and five of us are in the business building formula boats in Decatur, indiana, formulaboatscom, and then we've got six kids, so it'd be our kids and next generation that are working there at Formula. So again, we've gone to the lakes, done a lot of boating. You know through the years we do a lot of boating down here in Florida and there's a small lake in Indiana that we do a lot of boating as well. About a year ago my wife and I did the Great Loop, where you get in a boat in Florida, take it up the East Coast, across New York, through the Great Lakes, up and over down the Mississippi and all the way out to the Gulf Gulf of Mexico or Gulf of Indiana, anyway, or America.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, Gulf of Mexico.

Speaker 2:

Come out through the Gulf and then back around to Fort Myers, florida. So that was a blast too, but anyway, yeah, that's kind of my background a little bit into the boating realm, non-racing yeah.

Speaker 1:

Well, I've heard that's a. That's a great experience, that little, that loop that you did. I have a friend from New Zealand, merv Sowden. A few years ago he went and did that and it was a pretty. It's a pretty long, long route too. How long was?

Speaker 2:

that it is. Well, my wife and I still have day jobs, so we, we were in a boat that we could go faster than others. I mean, some people you know say we're going to spend, you know they stop, we're going to spend four days here. Well, we're going to spend about four hours, refuel and take off again. So it was a little bit different, but we still enjoyed it. The scenery is breathtaking and just boating in general and and it's cool to see some of your own formula boats out on the water and some of our customers and everything so, but we actually uh completed. It was a little over 5,000 miles and we did it in about and this is just time days on the water. I mean, we had a few days that we stopped, but it was just like about 34 days on the water. So, uh again, a lot of people take months or years to do it, but we, we just uh we're looking to check the box and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, that's fun, that's fun.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I don't know if you want to dive into racing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, hydroplane racing in general, uh, you know, firsthand, I as a kid I had uh small hydroplanes that I'd pick up. Second hand, you know, typical of like a jay stock looking boat but you know, maybe round nose, so that kind of dates me. They were older boats and I'd go bomb around on the lake in them. But as as far as uh, as uh boat racing, I didn't do any. I did some snowmobile drag racing and things like that. But as far as uh boat racing, uh, our company was involved in offshore uh boat racing, kind of boats that we build. But, um, you know, hydroplane racing uh, and mostly watched it on TV while white world of sports and things like that through the years. And uh, uh, you know, later on figured out, madison is only two hours and change from well, probably three hours from home, but okay, okay, but yeah, no okay so you I'm just curious you played around on the lake with with outboards, but never raced outboards, is that right?

Speaker 2:

correct, right, yes, yeah, nope, they mostly just ran along the shoreline as a you know. Back then, you know, you could be nine or ten years old and they'd let you go out on the lake. And today, I think, you have to have a driver's license which somehow, when you get a car driver's license, it makes you an expert boat driver. But that's, each state has their own rules.

Speaker 2:

But that's kind of where we are with that. But yeah, no, I had fun a lake called Wawasee which is in Northern Indiana and my parents had a place on that. Before that we were on a lake called North Webster, which was a little smaller but no kind of grew up in Indiana around the lakes and we only went to Florida a couple of times a year. We're now there's a regional airline called Allegiant that flies around here and they fly nonstop from, you know, 20 minutes from our home there and they land 20 minutes from our home down here. So you know we can get down here and do some boating down here.

Speaker 1:

But anyway, yeah, yeah, and I know Florida down here and do some boating down here, but, um, anyway, yeah, yeah, and I know florida is a a great spot for boating and all that, but let's get, let's talk more about racing. There you go, yeah, and I believe. Correct me if I'm wrong on the years, but 2005, uh, mike weber raced a old leland boat and it was painted yellow. Were you the owner of that or were you just a sponsor? And then, no, we can't remember. Mike Weber raced an old Leland boat and it was painted yellow. Were you the owner of that or?

Speaker 2:

were you just a sponsor. No, we remember. I'm trying to trying to condense this down, ok. Ok, back back in the day I was on the Chamber of Commerce board in Decatur, indiana, where all of our family grew up and lived there. Family grew up and lived there. I was on the Chamber of Commerce board and one of the other board members said hey, I just heard somebody bought an unlimited hydroplane. I don't know if it was on eBay or something online, but it was kind of a wild deal. And it's this guy in Auburn, indiana, which is like, oh, that's not even like an hour and change from us. So chad sanderson, the, the gal, the husband and wife that I talked to about it, said, this guy, chad sanderson, has a car lot up there and we know him and and, uh, gee, would you? He's looking to race it? Would you guys be interested in sponsoring it? So, um, so that was uh, early 2005.

Speaker 2:

Um, and I believe, uh, somehow they got um, uh between Mike Weber and Chad Sanderson and uh, they got hooked up with, uh, bill Wooster. Um, you know that had the eight you ate back then and he was going to help help, you know, make sure the boat got set up right and at least uh run some laps to get some publicity. So, um, I talked to the family and said hey, you know, for X amount of dollars we can put our formula boats name on this boat. You know what do you say? You know, uh. So we brought the the uh the boat. I went up to look at it and talk to Chad, and he was all jazzed about it and everything, um, and brought it back down. I believe it was the U U 19 Appian Geronimo was the boat. And uh and uh. So he brought it down to the boat factory and uh put a fresh coat of paint on it. Uh, and then, um, it was either Pyro or someone from the U8 team at the time. Then, uh, scott Rainey came down and uh started rigging the boat. So, and it was, it was kind of a limp along thing.

Speaker 2:

I think the first race, uh, I think we uh, they hired uh Dick Lynch to drive it, okay, and uh, there there was, and there were some speed bumps along the way. I mean, we had a crew that was knowledgeable, but they were also learning at the same time. And, gosh, I could get out in the weeds. But just one quick note we got down there. I believe it was, yeah, southern Indiana, I believe it was Southern Indiana, but anyway, we got down there and we were running the boat and it wouldn't turn off. It wouldn't shut off. So we were in Evansville, that's where we were. So we were in Evansville.

Speaker 2:

Dick took it out for a spin. He had been on the water already once, but then he took it out for a spin and he radioed back. He said, hey guys, I can't get it to shut down, which is pretty obvious First time he came into the dock. So they got this bright idea. Pyro says, well, ok, you know, slow down as much as you can come past the dock I'm sure this is in the ocean manual, by the way, or already racing type. Yeah, slow down as much as you can, get as close as you can.

Speaker 2:

And and then they got together and they said, okay, there was three guys there and they said, okay, whoever feels they could do this, you know, jump onto the boat.

Speaker 2:

You know, here he comes by. And then boom, all three guys jump on this running boat, which I think we have pictures of. Somebody probably even has video of it, but I love to see that. So they raised the cowling and got it shut down, because I don't think you know, dick wouldn't? You can't drive a boat and shut it down at the same time. So anyway, they figured out the problem where the cable had gotten stuck up against something or unhooked or something. But anyway, long story short, they came to a pause and, uh, it was the first time I think it was towed in that weekend. But no, it was fun to watch other competitive boats race and it was fun to watch your name go round and round on, you know, in racing. And through the whole season it kind of built to where I think they got. Might have even gotten third in Detroit or something at the Gold Cup. It was kind of an intro year just to kind of get thrown into it to see if we liked it as a company or not.

Speaker 1:

I'm assuming that first year as a sponsor you had positive feedback from customers and and yeah, yeah, no, it was cool.

Speaker 2:

They, they were jazzed to see, uh, that the name was out there and uh, yeah it was all good and um, so then, uh, I guess, if we're moving on, and Mike, mike Weber, then kind of bent my ear about, hey, you know well, he drove it later on.

Speaker 2:

I think Dick may have only driven in Evansville, I'm not a hundred percent sure but then we transitioned into Mike driving it and then, um, then, yeah, then he started bending my ear, you know cause he wanted to, I'm sure, drive a better boat. And he said, hey, there's these two boats, you know, miss Budweiser, boats that are just kind of sitting out there uh gathering dust and uh, uh, would you, you know, would you be interested? And I'm, um, I was just crazy enough to uh listen to him and and, uh, uh, my family kind of bought into it and we uh kind of went out on the limb, limb. Um, I think a lot of people that get into uh racing, you know, start out with a good amount of money and end up with less. You know, they have a good time and they're competitive.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah. Yeah, racing is definitely not a sport where I think you really make money. I think I think roger penske said once uh, you don't enter racing to make money. I think I think Roger Penske said once uh, you don't enter racing to make money. You, um, you need to survive it, or something like that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, definitely, but uh, but, but yeah, I wouldn't trade it. We had uh thing I liked, I mean in the, in the amount of time we were in racing, uh, we were, I would say, extremely competitive, uh, right off the bat. You know uh first year and I hope.

Speaker 1:

I'm not jumping the gun. We were.

Speaker 2:

I would say extremely competitive right off the bat.

Speaker 2:

Oh, definitely First year and I hope I'm not jumping the gun here but the first year, yeah, after we did well, I could go back a half step to going back to Joe Little I started communicating with him about the boats and kind of struck up a deal which was way north of where I wanted to be, but if we wanted to do it we had to get it done. So, you know, we got the two boats, the three trailers, three trucks, um, yeah, five, five or six turbines which we built, that through the years we got more turbines and about four or five gearboxes and we built more gearboxes the years went on, but and several propellers, but we had propellers built every year too. So, um, yeah, it's something that, uh, you need. Uh, it doesn't just happen, it's the people behind the scenes that make it happen, and the crew chiefs and the crew members and everybody else that uh works really hard on the weekends and and back at the shop to make it all competitive. So you know, yeah, and that's.

Speaker 1:

I think at that time that was the best package you could buy for yourself to enter the sport as an owner. The Budweiser sat for a year, I think, maybe less, and you got it. And were you able to get many of the crew members back to work on those boats or was that kind of a big mistake? Yeah, we got some of them.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, john Rice, aka Fish, he came on in the early years and there was a couple other guys as well that we had and yeah, if I mentioned every crew member, we probably had 50 of them through the years, you know. But but yeah, we had a lot of good people in through the years and even in the years where the equipment was needing some attention. You know my crew chief, tom Anderson, was always there and you know I had two guys back at the shop building. We called them disposable parts because you know the wings and the uprights and fairings and things that cowlings. You know you go to a weekend at Detroit or you go to another weekend. You know name a few different places Seattle is brutal, yeah yeah.

Speaker 2:

There isn't hardly any that are real friendly on the boats, right, right, so no, that's the main thing too that I really enjoyed through the years was the people. Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean it takes so many people volunteering, crewing, working in-house, working at the pits drivers it takes a village to make it happen. Yeah, Especially I mean you double down and triple down for some years with your house working at the pits drivers. It takes a village to make it happen. Especially I mean you double down and triple down for some years with with your holes always, yeah, we had always running multiple boats which was great for the sport, but yeah thank you, yeah, and some of that came just through.

Speaker 2:

Uh, we would get in an accident with one of the main, the primary T5 or T6. And then I guess there's some drivers or some owners I'm sorry that spend weeks or months or years rebuilding their boats and I wanted to get it done and back on the water in a matter of a couple days, and if that couldn't happen, I'd try to run some kind of a boat, because the thing we were trying to do was keep boats on the water for the sport.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know, yeah, we were going to win. We wanted to win, we wanted to have a good time, but part of it was, I felt, you know, at the beginning of the year you make a commitment to be at the races and you're letting yourself and the other teams and the association down if you're not there. So that's that's kind of what we did. That's how we came up with the, the first U5, which was the, the one that they raced in in 05. That's the one that we used as our first backup boat, and then the.

Speaker 2:

The other boat was the 57, which you know had a history in itself of starting out, I think, as the lobster boat, and then eventually it was like U10, maybe Ahern Rental or something like that. But anyways, that was our second backup, and then that one evolved into being, you know, a pretty steady race boat for a couple of years too. So you know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but what do you think? The biggest challenge was having multiple boats in the field at all times.

Speaker 2:

Well, it's having a comparable, equal equipment to run in the different boats, because, um, a lot of it is. Uh, you know, your, your crew that works for your team, and your crew chiefs. You need to convince them at the same time that you're not just you don't have a screw loose and you're crazy to do this, but you want to help the sport. The sport's short a boat or two. If you don't show up with three boats, they're going to be. If you just take one, they're going to be down two, and so you end up racing three, um, and have some pretty good luck. I mean, we, you know, we race different weekends and we'd be either two on the podium, or, you know, two on the podium and one just off the podium, or whatever you know, and have three boats out there running around. It's, it's, it's a wild site.

Speaker 1:

Definitely.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, definitely. Well, you mentioned the personalities that you've worked with and I know you worked with a lot of great people in the sport and you had a lot of great drivers in the sport, and I was wondering if I could list off your drivers, and not to not to rank them against each other, but just to maybe you could share your best impression or best story for each driver. I'm sure, like children, you have your favorite, but you don't want to share that out publicly.

Speaker 2:

But I'd just like to hear Well, I might. We'll see.

Speaker 1:

Okay, well, let's do it then. All right, let's start off with the first year. I believe I started off with Mike Allen.

Speaker 2:

Yes, Mike Allen. He was a super guy, hard racer, didn't know any limitations. I mean, he just put her to the mat and let her eat, did, and I kind of. He was driving a t5 at the time and t5 is, um, it's got a few. It was one of those boats where it would go blistering fast but it would look like it was uh, sticky on the water and then next thing, you know, you're seeing the underside of the boat and you know that's not a good thing, you know. But we did figure out. A few years later we added some, modified the hall a little bit. The runners in the front shoes in the back did some mods and it's been super user-friendly.

Speaker 2:

Since she was brutal, I mean, had her moments, I definitely wouldn't blame that all on Mike, but he did get caught in the cockpit a few times, where it gets away from you. But that's in the cockpit a few times, uh, where it gets away from you. So, but that's in the. You know, in the 10 or 11 years we were racing, uh, yeah, well, I think we went over six times. So, yeah, uh, in different, different holes. So you know, yeah, but uh, but no, super nice guy, mike Allen, uh, great racer. Uh, we just, uh, just, through the years we would go to a different driver or whatever that we thought would give us the advantage with the field we were racing against.

Speaker 1:

Another driver you named earlier, Mike Weber.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, mike Weber, super nice guy. He was a good racer. I think his personality made up for any shortcomings he had in in racing. Um, you know, even though he's a weber, I think he's the cream of the crop when it comes to being being a nice guy and everything. Nothing against the other ones. But I'm just saying mike is a nice guy and I've heard him get sideways with people before too, but he's he's, he's a straight shooter. You know where he's coming from. Uh, just like the rest of the Webbers here. There's never a doubt where they are and they'll um inform you of it. But no, he's really nice guy, helped to get in, help get me some contacts with people.

Speaker 2:

I mean, he set me up with with Mike Allen, which, again, you know not to jump back to him, but that first year was just mind blowing and I'm sure we'll touch on that here in a little bit. But yeah, we, we had a, you know we went to Valley Field and on a race with, with a crew, a team and a crew that the knowledge level was not there, but the equipment was made up for it and nothing. Nothing against them either. They just got more knowledgeable as years went on. But yeah, we went up there and won that first race with a rookie owner, a rookie driver and a rookie crew chief and went on to the national championship that year. But we'll keep strolling along here with the drivers, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Okay, yeah Well, one thing I was saying, like it doesn't matter what sport you're doing or what challenges any first year into that, it's going to be a pretty high bar to set. So it was impressive to see the victories that you had, and success you had in the first year of racing.

Speaker 2:

Yep All right.

Speaker 1:

Next on the list Jeff Bernard Jeff.

Speaker 2:

Bernard, jeff, bernard, it's exciting to see that he's going back into the U12 again this year. He drove for us a couple times over the years. He is a nephew of Mike Weber and it's really cool the way the race community is connected. Uh, because they can help you out in ways you know to keep the boats running, to drive the boat with all their heart. And uh, um, no, jeff, jeff's neat, and Christabel and their kids, it's, it's kind of a, it's a neat family. Uh, it was always a joy to have him around the pits and uh, um, no, it's it. You know, we kind of lifted each other up to. You know, if something went south during a heat or something that we didn't end the way we wanted to, we'd talk it over and get rolling again. And now Jeff's a good kid. Good kid, but no, he has matured through the years and, yeah, he's got a great future ahead of him. Yep, excellent.

Speaker 1:

What about Cal Phipps?

Speaker 2:

Cal Phipps is. He's a character super knowledgeable of race boats, hull bottoms and he's the one that helped with the mod of modification. He brought a guy down, tim, I think. I think he passed away, but anyway, it really Cal's another one of those that just speaks his mind and sometimes you know it's in your face, but it's something you need to hear, you know, yeah, and you have to take a moment to just you know.

Speaker 2:

okay, he didn't just say this for hearing himself speak, you know, it had substance to it and everything. The first time, I believe he got in the cockpit the year we were running, we had our current driver I'm thinking it was Jay Michael, I'm pretty sure was running that year and we, you know, we put Cal in the hall for the first time and he went out and laid down a faster lap and that was the beginning of a little bit of a rivalry there, but a friendly rivalry so I think at that point he just didn't know the limits of the boat and so him being there helped to push everybody to do better and go faster. So, yeah, yeah, he was a good guy. Still is, yep, yeah.

Speaker 1:

How about Jesse Robertson?

Speaker 2:

Jesse Robertson was a neat guy to have around. He's got a marketing background, kind of an art, so he helped us with a little bit of marketing stuff Driver. He did a great job, went out there and laid down some laps. I think we might have had a podium finish with him once, but just having him around the pits we kind of had. He was almost too pretty to sit in the seat. He looked kind of like we called him Fabio or whatever, but I don't know if he ever did to his face. But I mean it's just one of those deals where he looked like somebody that people would want to come over and get his autograph and everything.

Speaker 2:

He was a talented driver did great. I think we only had him about one year but we were just shuffling drivers around between the different teams. We've got a, a couple big sponsors come in and kind of poach some drivers away from some teams and that was short-lived, anyway, 50 words or less. They come back hoping to get a ride back, and we had a waiting period after that, but all is well. And we had a waiting period after that, but all is well. I think anytime we can bring somebody into the sport a new sponsor or something a multi-year commitment is important and not building up the expectation beyond what they expect to get. But no, it's always good to have fresh sponsors in the sport, no doubt about it. That is, fresh sponsors in the sport, no doubt about it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah Well, that is one hard thing in the sport. Just a thought came across my mind. There's a limited amount of boats, but I feel like there is. The drivers are two, three, four fold. For how many boats are out there that want to race and could race and have potential to be in the cockpit? But it's hard to get your time in the seat.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of talent out there.

Speaker 2:

There's no doubt about it, um, and it's, it's the team, the crew chief and the equipment behind the driver that helps them to look good. I don't want to belittle anything on the driver, but, uh, before the races, uh, you know, our crew chiefs, um, you know, like Tom Anderson, he would sit there. They'd calculate where they Other teams do it too but where the driver needed to be, at what time. And if this happened, then this A plan A and a plan B, they might even have it taped to the dash inside the boat, just so they remember. It's all a team thing, no doubt about it. You know, our job is to make the driver look good. So at the end of the weekend we look good. So you know.

Speaker 1:

All right, how about Jimmy Shane?

Speaker 2:

Jimmy Shane. It's kind of funny how we got Jimmy Shane. We started out using him on a little bit more of a part-time gig, uh, and then I asked him to come back, uh, to do a full-time gig. But, uh, he's, he's a good, really good-hearted kid. Um, he's, uh, he's a great racer. Uh, you get him uh, in a boat that runs fast and he will take it across the finish line first. There's no doubt about it. He's uh, good equipment, good conditions. He's an amazing driver, definitely, yeah, so I, I like him, I like his whole family.

Speaker 2:

Um, we gave uh bianca a in the early days and we, I was looking to try and build, uh, I guess, a female into racing, uh, and uh, you know, I asked, uh, mike Weber for a few names and he gave me some names and then, uh, we came across Bianca and, um, although it didn't work out, you know, for her to qualify, it did, obviously, between her and Jimmy. They got a couple really neat kids and so that they kind of met between racing here and then going to Doha, which is a whole other story. But, yeah, really cool. But an interesting little twist was I had originally pegged Kelly Shane before I even got real warm on Jimmy. I definitely needed him to come in right away to fill a temp spot in the 57 over in Doha. But Kelly Shane was definitely on my list even ahead of Bianca.

Speaker 2:

Nothing against Bianca, I'm just saying. But an unfortunate situation happened where she went for a ride in a Jersey Skiff, I believe had an accident and hurt her back really bad, broke it or did something, and that even held her back in some of the other racing that she did. But but uh, probably little known to the public, she was gonna be the, the one I was gonna try and put in the, you know, in the seven, but uh, okay, didn't happen. So too bad time. Yeah, things change, uh, fate, history, whatever. That's life, so a bummer, so you never know where that would have gone. But uh, yeah, definitely changed history, but it's what it is, so yeah, I feel like there's a huge file for hydroplane racing.

Speaker 1:

That's under the the what if file. Right, so that falls in there. Yep, all right. J Michael Kelly.

Speaker 2:

J Michael Kelly, super, super good driver. I think you could put him in a rowboat with a big engine on it and he could go out there and turn some really hot laps. It just seems like no matter what kind of boat you put him in, if it's off, you know it's not running quite like it should, then he'll get you lane one and you know you'll do really well. And there's, yeah, he went on his lid at least once. Everybody has to do it at least once.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, but he's really good yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, really good. He left the team. He was one of those that had a waiting period. After he left, for a big sponsor asked to come back, and I just told him he's going to have to wait a couple years before I get over it. So, anyway, it is what it is, you know. But when he did come back, he raced amazing for us again too. So yeah, and I'm not not taking away from jimmy, I'm just saying that jay michael is, he's uh, he's an amazing driver, definitely, no matter what you put him in.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, yeah, definitely from a different breed there scott littycoat sciddycoat.

Speaker 2:

Super personality. Obviously he wanted Doha for us. I think he had great equipment. I could go on all day. We had drivers that would come on the team and they would ask, hey, I'd really like to drive T5 or hey, I'd really like to drive T6. And usually the senior driver would get his choice. The senior driver would get his choice and you know, we just changed the numbers on the boats and we wouldn't really necessarily tell the public which one was running and let them guess. So that was kind of a fun part of it.

Speaker 2:

But uh, I believe I believe scott ran uh t6, which was the newer hall, and uh did a great job. He hang it out there and and and he did well for us. Super personality, great family enjoyed it. All of their whole family is fun. So is Jim Michaels too. I forgot to mention that, but but yeah, scott, he's, he's kind of a, you know, he, he. I think it works for a feather like. Know, I think he works for a feather-like coach, I think he does. They do build, you know, high-end motor coaches on Prevost chassis. So he's got a little bit of a sales side to him and a little bit of a. He's just a super nice guy, always smiling, always chattering. He's a really good guy. Did great for us. But again another one of those that that uh left to go to another sponsor, so anyway, yeah and he's still waiting all good, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Well, it's fun to see his son's getting into racing now, just like jay michaels family and other families. But yeah, yeah, yep, really fun to watch. Very cool yep, mark evans mark evans is a hoot.

Speaker 2:

I I brought him on um. You know he he's raced long enough ago that it was kind of um had to teach an old dog new tricks. You where he'd go out there and he'd early on. You know it was like he never got out of the cockpit. So he jumped back in day one. He's sticking his nose down in there and kind of ruffling some feathers and it wasn't an unsafe situation at all. He's just like he's like a cowboy, just we're going for it. And you know he's just like he's like a cowboy, just we're going for it.

Speaker 2:

And you know he goes out there and he he's always got something funny to say, he's always got everybody laughing and smiling and having a great time around him and and and he's a great driver too, has been for years. And he he was willing to jump in the the 57 and you know it wasn't the best of the best but he went out there and you know we usually let him qualify in one of the other halls and then go out there and just you know, race meaning qualify as a driver, and then once they get qualified, we put them in the other boats to qualify the boat. So it. 57 is a great. It's a great haul. It's not being run right now. But yeah, mark, I probably talk with him more than any other driver just because he and I just chat about things and vintage boats and mahogany and merlot, all the neat stuff. He's trying to get me hooked into vintage stuff. That may happen someday, we'll see. All right, Fantastic.

Speaker 1:

I think I got all of your drivers listed there. Did I miss any?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think I sure hate to miss anybody. I think we got them all. We did let guys take rides in the boat that are racing today. Anybody, we did let guys take rides in the boat that are racing today. I know Corey and Jamie Nielsen, I think. Andrew, I think he might have got a ride in our boat just to go out and lay down some laps, just to see what it was like. But yeah, we tried to do that whenever we could. Okay, okay, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Well, before we move on with the interview, do you want to say who your favorite was?

Speaker 2:

No, you can almost hear it in my voice. But favorite, in what way?

Speaker 1:

The ones that raced the best or the ones that you wouldn't?

Speaker 2:

mind going and having a beer with sometimes.

Speaker 1:

There you go, there you go, yeah, yeah, all right. Well, knuckleheads, that's all the time we have for this week. Make sure you tune in next week as I'll have part two of my conclusion of my interview with Ted Porter. I know Ted shared some great stories in this episode and he has more to tell next week great stories of this episode and he has more to tell next week. In the meantime, check us out online on our website, wwwroostertaltalkcom, and also on our social media pages on Instagram and Facebook.

Speaker 1:

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