Episode 157: Brad Luce, Part 1

The roar of engines and spectacular roostertails captivated Brad Luce at just two years old, igniting a passion that would transform him from wide-eyed fan to the voice of H1 Unlimited hydroplane racing. This candid conversation reveals how deeply racing can embed itself in someone's life, creating an unbreakable bond spanning decades. Through fascinating anecdotes Brad captures what makes the sport special to him. 
Ready to hear more racing stories from one of the sport's most passionate voices? This is part one of our three-part interview. 

1981 Columbia Cup Final Heat Video, Part 1

1981 Columbia Cup Final Heat Video, Part 2

*Digital Roostertails Photo

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Roostertail Talk
• 1:02 Introducing Brad Luce: H1 Broadcaster
• 2:27 Growing Up with Hydroplane Racing
• 6:14 From Fan to Broadcaster
• 19:13 Preparation and Humanizing the Sport
• 28:28 Memorable Races and Historic Moments

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:25

Ruchetel Talk, the podcast dedicated to everything about the sport that we all love. Hi, it's your plane, reece. I am your host, david Newton, and it's time once again. So sit back, relax and welcome to Rooster Tail Talk, we'll talk. Hello race fans, and welcome back to the podcast. Today is August 12th 2025, and this is episode 157.

Speaker 1: 1:02

Well, a few weeks ago, over at the APBA Gold Cup in Tri-Cities, washington, I stayed back a little bit extra after the race and had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Brad Luce, one of the official broadcasters for the H1 Unlimited streaming services. Now, if you've been to a race in Tri-Cities for the Columbia Cup in the past 30 years, or if you've been watching the H1 streaming, there's a good chance you've heard his voice and recognize Brad Luce. Brad Luce has a huge passion for the sport, as do I, and I know you as well, and I wanted to sit down and have the opportunity to get to know more of his background and for you, the listener, to get to know Brad a little bit more. I don't know if Brad's been interviewed before or not. I'll say I'll turn the microphone on him this time, as he's usually the one doing the interviewing, so hopefully it's an interesting take on his career and he's going to go into part one for today's episode and talk about his background, about racing, how he's a fan, and explain more of the why and the where that this all happened for him, because I'm always interested to hear when did that bug get started for that fan, for that person in the sport?

Speaker 1: 2:13

Now, we had a good chat and it was over a couple hours long, so we're going to have multiple parts to this interview, but this will be part one of three. So let's get into my talk with Brad Luce. Well, I'm sitting down, thankfully, inside after a long weekend of the Gold Cup here at Tri-Cities with Brad Luce. Brad, how are we doing?

Speaker 2: 2:39

I am doing wonderful. It was a great Gold Cup. We had some of the best competition I think we've seen in a lot of years. There was a lot of close, deck-to-deck racing and, as you know, and so do I, that's the kind of stuff that brings fans back. So I think it was a good, successful weekend.

Speaker 1: 2:54

Yeah, there was a lot of talk on the shorelines how close the racing was throughout the weekend. It was really exciting to watch, and I know you've been talking boats for the last 72 hours, more so than that, but I want to talk more boats, so I'm hoping you're in the mood to talk more boats.

Speaker 2: 3:09

We can always talk boats.

Speaker 1: 3:10

That's right, that's right.

Speaker 2: 3:12

Any time of year, any day.

Speaker 1: 3:14

I'm good to go. Well, brad, you made a big impact on the sport. Lately You're an official H1 announcer on the live streaming. You broadcast for Kona Radio for a number of years and you've had some time to broadcast. But before we talk about that part of your career, what's made this sport special for you Growing up? This must have made a really big impact on you as a person.

Speaker 2: 3:36

Yeah, it did, and I know many, many people of a similar vintage to myself. We kind of have the same story, but we grew up with boat racing. People ask me when I went to my first race. First of all, I was born and raised in North Seattle and so people say when did you get involved with boat racing or go to your first race? I don't remember it. I am told I was there and I guess I'm going to date myself here. I was told I was at the 1954 Gold Cup. I was two, so do the math and you know how old I am, I guess, and no, I don't remember anything about it.

Speaker 2: 4:12

Then the next question is well, what's the first thing you remember? And for the life of me I cannot remember the first, miss Thriftway. I can't remember the little boat, the mahogany one that was out here running with the vintage group this weekend. Can't remember that one in 57. But when Bill Muncy ran into the side of that Coast Guard boat in 1958, I did not see it. It was around the point from me, but I remember that incident like it happened an hour ago. I remember the word traveling up and down the beach that Muncie had crashed and all this and that. So I remember that and that's my first recollection.

Speaker 2: 4:49

But I don't want to think that that's why it became special, because I don't think that was it, but it was the old story. There wasn't any Seattle Seahawks or Seattle Mariners back then and basically in the summertime once a year the circus came to town and the circus was hydroplane racing and hopefully the gold cup race, with right in the middle of the Detroit Seattle rivalry and all that good stuff. So that's what I grew up with and some people grew up and grew out about racing and so forth. I never did it, just stuck with me.

Speaker 2: 5:23

There was something about the spectacle of speed and sight and sound and I had that conversation with my co-host, tanner Faust, just yesterday. I said it's never going to be the most competitive sport on the planet, but it is a spectacle and when it's right which it was this weekend, you mentioned the great competition when it's right it is so visually stimulating. There's the roar of the boats not like it used to be, but you still got the loud boat going by. You got all that water and air and the color and it's just. It's really good for the senses and I grew up with it, never grew out of it much like yourself, and it just stuck with me and I thoroughly enjoy it. I look forward to it each year.

Speaker 1: 6:08

Yeah, it's stuck in my veins too. I was here for the 84 Gold Cup. I wasn't born yet, but I was here, and so I don't recall my first race either, but it's just been a lifelong passion.

Speaker 2: 6:20

Well, if I can say it ouch, I remember the 84 Gold Cup really well. It was a good race. You missed a good one. Yeah, we thought, maybe Mickey Riemann was going to pull it off.

Speaker 1: 6:31

That's right.

Speaker 2: 6:32

Just couldn't hold off the turbine. Wow, and you weren't born yet. I don't even want to do the math on how old I was.

Speaker 1: 6:41

Sorry to bring that up. Well, do you have a favorite like thinking back on your nostalgia with the sport? Do you have a favorite team driver boat that just stands out for you?

Speaker 2: 6:55

You know typically my answer today to that question. If people look at the field today and say, do you have a favorite boat, what's your favorite team, who's your favorite driver, I usually answer with something like yeah, all of them, because I do. I love them all. I'm older and more mature to all of that. But as a kid growing up yeah, miss Bardall, ron Musson, that 62 Bardall that was my first real boat that I fell in love with.

Speaker 2: 7:22

And I always remember the time in the pit area at Stan Sayers as a 10 year old kid in 1962, when that boat came out I got the postcard you know of the boat with Ron up in the corner and I remember hanging over the fence that used to be in the center part of that, on the grass there what's still the grass and Stan Sayre's pets hanging there and seeing Ron over there and just waiting and waiting and finally he got to a point where I could yell at him and he came over and he autographed that picture for me and it's framed and it hangs on my wall. It's one of my prized possessions. Is that one? Because I did. I love that boat and then when Dixon Smith brings it out and runs it. I love that one. I always look at that one very fondly, but I love them all.

Speaker 1: 8:08

I love them all, and Dixon always puts on a pretty good show on the water with it.

Speaker 2: 8:12

He does Every once in a while. He kind of nails the foot a little bit and that rooster tail stands up. It looks good.

Speaker 1: 8:17

It looks real good. Well, you were a long time fan and turned broadcaster. How did you make that leap from becoming a fan to broadcasting the sport that you loved? Did you have a background in broadcasting? Oh no. How did this happen?

Speaker 2: 8:32

That's a great question and it's kind of an interesting story. I went to school at Washington State University. Go Dawgs Got the Edward Murrow School of Communication up there. I don't think I ever went in that building. No, that was not my background. I came out with a business degree in economics. But my roommate in college for a couple of years was a guy by the name of Frank Murray and Frank worked for.

Speaker 2: 9:00

When we got out of school, frank was in the communications department at Washington State and he wanted to be a sports director. He wanted to be a sports broadcaster and I'll never forget Frank calling me one time and he said Luce, you're not going to believe it, I got a job, he goes, I'm sports director for 610 KONA radio in the Tri-Cities. And I went Frank, they cover the boat race and he goes. I know they do. And this was 74 when we graduated. And he says and neither of us were married and so forth, and he goes, so you're coming over and stay with me. You got to help me with these boats.

Speaker 2: 9:36

So Frank and I, for years before we got married and all this good stuff, we would spend the weekend together. He'd go to work and I'd go sit on the beach and watch the boats. Well, they had a radio station. Kona had a post-race party after the broadcast each week. Well, because I was staying with Frank, frank would go to the party, he'd drag me along. So I got to know everybody at KONA Radio Dean Mitchell, don McInnes and all the guys. So I got to know them and it was always kind of fun. And then we got married, but two of our wives and families got started but we still kept doing the same thing and it was just post-race party and all that.

Speaker 2: 10:16

Don McInnes was their announcer at the exit of turn one and Don had retired but he had moved up to Wenatchee but he came down every year to pick up the mic and do the boat race. Well, then Don got ill and they had him over at the University of Washington Medical Center, which was where I was living, and I knew Don quite well from the station. So I would go down and see him in the hospital and he never wanted to talk about how he was doing. All he wanted to do was talk boats. So we'd talk boats and this and that, well, the long and short of it was Dean passed away.

Speaker 2: 10:50

And I remember June of 1998, my phone rang and it was Frank Murray and he said Luce, he says you want to join our broadcast. And I said, frank, I have never held a microphone before in my life. He goes that's okay, you're the guy, you know these boats. And he said we're going to have you replaced on McInnes, at the exit of turn one. And I said okay, and he goes, I don't know. And he goes well, it comes with, you know, a parking pass and a pit pass. I'm in, I'm in, you know, it's the holy grail, right? So, anyway, I come over and I do that race in 1998.

Speaker 2: 11:30

Then I think it was the next year, no, it was in 2000. Frank calls and he says we're going to change up the broadcast team and I said, okay, you still want me. And he goes yeah, oh yeah, he says, but we're going to move you from the Pasco side, we're going to move you into the pit area and you're going to take my job. You're going to take my job running the pit area and walking the dock. And I went well, where are you going? Are you going up to start finish line? He goes no, I just handed in my resignation. I'm going to work for CBC over, oh geez. And literally that's how I got into the pit area and became their announcer of the first turn, climbing up the pit tower, then scurrying down the tower, running down the Bernie's tree, interviewing somebody on the dock and running back. I was younger then, young man. However, I did that for almost 30 years and this, honestly, this year is the first year I didn't do it that. I didn't work for KONA and I felt a little. It felt strange to drive in and drive around by where the RC boats are, you know, and you come around that loop. My parking spot was right there in the pit area, but now I drove by it this weekend and went up towards start, finish, no-transcript, and it all just grew from there.

Speaker 2: 12:45

Subsequent to doing a few races with KONA, then Steve Montgomery got a contract to do the. He had two three-year deals I think there was six years where he had the radio contract to cover Seafair. He needed some pit reporters. He got a hold of John Lynch and myself and so we did the pit reporting for him. And then I met the guys back in Detroit during one trip to Madison, indiana, and suddenly they were looking for new announcers. I got a call to go back and work with Jeff Aylor back there. That's how Jeff and I came together and it just kind of all grew from there. And then I think it was 2012, 2011, 2012, I got called by H1. Sam Cole wanted me to do the season. I said okay, so I signed up for that, did it for a couple of years.

Speaker 2: 13:32

Those were the air guard years when H1 had some money so they could hire me, and not that I cost a lot, but I wanted somebody to pick up my airfare and my hotel. I mean, we do this for fun, right? We're not making any money here. So I did that for a couple of years. That was fun, and then it was pretty much doing not all the races but most of them, until a few years ago when H1 said we want you to do all of them. So it has been. It has been an extremely fun ride.

Speaker 2: 14:05

I don't know how much longer I can do it. I have people that are I don't want to go too long and I know you know right where I'm going with that. I don't want to be the individual that sticks around too long and starts making mistakes Right. But if you get talking pretty quick and you get talking pretty fast, you can make a mistake. And so I've told people I said I need you to listen to me and if I start making mistakes, just come grab the mic and turn it off and say come on, brad, it's time to go. But I tell my wife, as long as I'm not making mistakes and people aren't doing that to me and I'm still having fun, I'll keep doing it. And as long as I physically can still do it. I don't think I could run up and down that tower anymore and go down to Bernie's tree. I'd be dead by Saturday afternoon. So this job now is a little more cushy. I enjoy it, it's fun.

Speaker 1: 14:57

Well, I appreciate having someone up there that has the knowledge of the boats right and gets that insider information and has that background and knowledge of it, but also that passion right. So it's appreciated to have that passion when you broadcast.

Speaker 2: 15:11

Well, thank you, I appreciate that I try, I try hard. There's people out there that know a whole lot more and I'm not ashamed or bashful about leaning on them. Help me with this. I learned some information this weekend about who actually designed and built J Michael Kelly's ride, the U8. That's that 2014 hull that came from Elstrom. Well, I had it in there. You know that Mike Hanson had a big hand in that.

Speaker 2: 15:40

Well, I met Ron Jones Jr's son. Oh, and I can't say his name. I'm sitting here thinking of it and I can't say his name. I'm sitting here thinking of it and I can't say his name right now, but a nice young man. He came up to me and he said I heard you talking about that hall. He said I'm going to tell you the real story. Oh, he said, because my dad and I built that boat. Yeah, I went, really. He said I heard you mention Mike Hanson's name and I said, yeah, and he goes. He came in when it was time to put the decks on it and he goes.

Speaker 2: 16:05

My dad was getting sick at that time, so he wasn't working as hard as he used to. He said but so I did. He said I did a whole lot of work on that hole. He said but it was my grandfather, ron, who designed it. He said that's the last boat that came off the drawing board of Ron Jones. So I'm hearing all this. It came off the drawing board of Ron Jones, really. So I'm hearing all this and I literally went over and took my little cheat sheets out and I was making notes and I'm going to update them this week. Yeah, it was an interesting story. So you never know where the info is going to come from, but sometimes it's little tidbits like that that I think are interesting. So I have a sheet with fast facts on each driver and sometimes it's an obscure thing, but I think it's interesting that you can toss out during testing and qualifying when you have a little time to banter about the individual boats and teams. Oh, definitely.

Speaker 1: 16:59

Yeah, yeah, getting to know all that little information here and there, it's fun yeah. It adds another flavor to it.

Speaker 2: 17:06

We've got and I'm assuming this is okay if we go off on a little tangent, of course we can.

Speaker 1: 17:13

I have many digressions. I encourage it.

Speaker 2: 17:16

We had one this weekend and I said it a couple of times Corey Peabody. The first time he drove here in the Tri-Cities he drove for Rob Graham. He drove that red, white and blue thing In 2019, he was the seventh boat in points going into the final. We ran six in the front row, he was the trailer and he finished a whopping seventh place. In 2020, he gets hired by Daryl Strong to drive one of those boats.

Speaker 2: 17:51

Since that time, since being hired by Daryl Strong, and since that race in 2019, corey had never lost on the Columbia River, right, yeah, and people go no, no, no, he didn't win in 2022. True statement, but he blew the boat over in Madison, he didn't race that year and little things like that. And now you've got JMK that, even though it's over the COVID years, he's won four straight on Lake Washington, right, and Muncie did it from 77 to 80. But those are the only two guys that have ever done that. So we've got another streak on the line next weekend, but a little obscure. Here's a good one for you. Mike has won four in a row on lake washington in boats with four different numbers the 12 the 8, the 9.

Speaker 2: 18:37

Now I can't answer my own question. What's the other one? 12?

Speaker 1: 18:41

the 8 and the one and the okay, yeah, he got that's right. National championship yeah, yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2: 18:46

And when Corey blew over in 2022 in Madison, he had more points than Mike, so they renumbered the eight, the nine, that's right, that's how he ended up with that's right and he won for Rob Gray. First they saw the 12, the eight, the nine and the one.

Speaker 1: 18:59

Well, they better change their number before Seattle. So I would just put a one right in front of that that eight make it 18. There you go, there you go, all right. Well, I'm always fascinated about people's preparations for races and talk to drivers and the the mental things they go through and they focus on the race. But as a broadcaster, you're not just, you know, prepping to do a couple minutes on the water and then you can go relax. You're broadcasting for long durations of time. And what preparations do you take to get ready for a race of such magnitude? Because it's not just in one day, it's multiple days. You're doing the same thing over and over again.

Speaker 2: 20:41

I will admit that when I was younger and starting with KONA, I didn't do a lot of prep. I guess I was younger, faster, smarter or smarter, or at least I thought I was and I thought no, it's all up here, I've got it, it's all in the head. So I really didn't write anything down, and that kind of all changed in 2018, much more so. I used to make some notes, like these fast facts we're talking about. I would make a little note to myself, so I'd have a couple of notes. So if I thought, oh, this is a good time to pull, that up.

Speaker 2: 21:14

I'd look through a couple of notes and pull up a cheat sheet that said that on there. So I made sure I had the years right or the boat numbers correct and all that. But in 2018, my daughter-in-law and her family wanted to come up to the race and she ended up working for me as my producer for many years and she had never been involved with boat racing and so I was going to make her a spotter's guide, and so I pulled together this funky spotter's guide and it was two pages on each boat, all in the same format, had a picture of the boat, picture of the driver, fun facts about the boat, how they did the previous season, some facts about the boat, some facts about the team, a little bio on the driver, and then all these fun facts on the second page, and I started pulling these things together. So I built this book for her and she loved it and she cut it all up, made flashcards out of it so she could remember the boats and all that.

Speaker 2: 22:11

She had her family members quizzing her. They just flashed the boat up and she'd go U-40, bucket list, racing, dustin Eccles, okay, and off they went. It was insane, but people saw the book. People would come around and they'd go where did you get that book? And she goes oh, brad made it for me, could you make me one? So it started taking on a life of its own. Well then, three years ago, we changed the format a little bit, because we still are consciously trying to humanize the sport a little better.

Speaker 2: 22:46

You know, back in the 60s it was all boat, boat, boat. You go back and watch the videos it's Miss Excite, it's Miss Bardall, it's Miss Thriftway, it's not the drivers, not Ron Musser, bill Muncy, rex Manchester, and so we're trying to humanize it a little bit more. These, these are people that sit underneath those canopies, yeah, and they've got wives, they've got kids, they've got families and all this stuff. So we're trying to do that. So we changed the format a little bit and it kind of emphasizes the driver more than the boat. So anyway, like I say, we changed the format. Well, now I do these formally for H1. So far this year it's not a lot. Yeah, it's not a lot, yeah, it's not a lot. But so far I have distributed probably 25 copies of them to different media outlets and nobody's going to hear this, right? So I'm not going to get any more phone calls. Well, I won't put the.

Speaker 1: 23:44

I won't put your number in the bio, how about?

Speaker 2: 23:47

that. No, it's really good. Digital copies. I've got three of them today that I have to go and send out after I update, Given what happened yesterday. I've got to update for Seattle.

Speaker 2: 24:02

I've printed this year I think a dozen at least. They're in little notebooks, Everything's in sheet protectors and it's all in order. And then I have one of the people on the official tower has asked me for just a pure one-page spotter's guide with about a number, a driver picture and a name, and so I have that and I laminate that for them. So it actually, though, to really answer your question, it's really helped me. Yeah, because I go and I get these obscure facts and I do update them after every race. Like I have the number of wins that a driver has, and there's always a section at the bottom andrew takes tate's next victory. Well, uh, andrew came. Andrew came into the season with 10 wins. His next victory would be number 11, blah, blah, blah. We got that in Madison, so we had to update that that he has 11 wins, and his 12th win will tie him with some guy named Mark Tate. It'll also tie him with some guy named Gar Wood and it'll put him don't quote me, I think it's 15th on the all-time win list so.

Speaker 2: 25:11

I have that little thing in there that you can talk about. I think it's cool that he's going to tie his father, and so it has really helped me get better, more interesting information as opposed to just thinking what I have in my head, and it's also made sure it's accurate. I do the research on it and then I send them. Before I publish, I send to a couple of people and I say read these things, go through it with a fine-tooth comb, tell me if I'm right or wrong. And I know they're as crazy as I am, and everybody comes back with a little thing here or there, but I think they're pretty good. I think, yeah, from an accuracy standpoint, well, I'll slip you my email before you go. So there you go, there you go. I can easily do that, and actually the binder you have in front of you that is the size of it.

Speaker 2: 25:59

Okay, and it comes personalized with a little sheet and I honestly will make sure you get all right. Well, I appreciate that.

Speaker 1: 26:04

They're kind of fun to do yeah, well, I like, I like hearing that you're trying to humanize the sport more, because I was talking about simmons years ago and he said when driver, when the boats went to canopies, the sport kind of lost. That naturally right, because before you saw the drivers in there they were bouncing around waving at you, you could see them, the whole heat, right. But yep, you kind of forget sometimes that they're in there, they're under that enclosed canopy, they're strapped in and there's a human in there. We tend to forget that. We just look at the boats and see how fast they are in that spectacle.

Speaker 2: 26:38

That's it, and it becomes the boat. And, to your point, there's a human in there with a personal story, and some of them are pretty good stories. Yes, they are the whole Jamie Nielsen playing a year for the Kansas City Royals and their farm system. That's good stuff.

Speaker 1: 26:53

Yeah, it is it is Well, I mean, you've called so many races now and over the years, with different drivers, different race wins, but you have to think back and there has to be one race that stands out in your mind saying this was just so much fun to watch, and that you probably replay that and over again in your head like an old vhs tape. What's that moment for you?

Speaker 2: 27:18

first of all, you said that like it sounds like you've seen this gigantic chest of vhs tapes that I do have. I don't have a machine to play them on.

Speaker 1: 27:30

I'm just thinking about the big chest I have in my house. There you go.

Speaker 2: 27:34

Your house must look a lot like mine.

Speaker 1: 27:36

Yeah, I think it does.

Speaker 2: 27:38

That's a good question. You know, I enjoy Golly, that's really good. I've got one race in the back of my mind and I'm just trying to think if there was anyone different. But I I was actually asked this question a number of years ago on the air when I was on with ko and a and they were saying brad, you've seen basically all these races here in tri-cities, you have a favorite. And they hit, hit me with that on the spot and I went oh my gosh.

Speaker 2: 28:08

But I've thought about it a lot and maybe it is my favorite one for a number of different reasons. And it's the Columbia Cup in 1981. And the simple, short answer to that is why would that be your favorite race? Well, in the final heat, on the final lap, three different boats had the lead on the final lap and those three boats were driven by Muncie, Shenoweth and Hanauer. That'd get much better, Right? So I kind of thought well, you know, maybe that's it, and it was pretty dramatic. Anybody that was here that day, I think you probably missed that one, yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:48

I wasn't there, I would have seen the tape.

Speaker 2: 28:50

There you go. Well, one year it was like three or four years ago on KONA, we were talking about it again because the museum brought those three boats over. They had finally finished the restoration of the Squire Shop, so they brought it over and I said do you realize? We have these three boats here that were all had a shot at the lead or had the lead on the final lap. So there was all this discussion about it and so when we were talking on the air about it, I said I'm giving all the fans up and down the beach, you have a homework assignment tonight. You got to go pull that one up on YouTube and watch it. I believe it or not. I had some people come up the next day and say I watched that, it was really cool. But the other one I guess that comes to mind.

Speaker 2: 29:35

Going back further, when I was a young kid, probably that 65 Gold Cup on Lake Washington. It was epic to me. It's etched in my mind. That's the year that the Exide caught fire and burned to the waterline after being the top qualifier. Was that the year they did the 120 lap? Yeah, this is scary. I'm going to kick this out and do not. You cannot have the followup question to ask me why I know this, but for some reason it's in there. Yes, they had the three lap qualification average of 120.356 miles an hour and their fast lap was 120.536 miles an hour, and don't ask me why I know those numbers and as much as I love the Bartle, I said earlier, that was maybe my first boat that I really really fell in love with.

Speaker 2: 30:25

I did love the Exide. I love the boat so much I was really falling in love with. I did love the Exide. I loved the boats so much, I was really falling in love with the boats. At that time I was 65. Gosh, I would have been 13. But I remember that day really well.

Speaker 2: 30:38

I remember that first run down the backstretch and Exide being on an inside lane and the fireballs coming out of the stacks. And then Rex Manchester was leading that race race and he was going to win a gold cup and he had gotten the jump on ron mussen and the bardo and he was going to win this thing. And lap after lap, they just kept going and mussen was not going to be able to chip into that lead. Meanwhile we're just watching bill brow stand on the back holding the tail. He didn't jump in and didn't jump in and finally he jumps in the water and I'd have to go back and watch it again or see it again.

Speaker 2: 31:14

I don't know what lap he jumped in the water, but the rule has since changed because back then the final heat, you had to run the complete heat, and if it hadn't been completely completed that's something you can say you had to run all the laps, and if you hadn't, then you had to rerun it. Now, in the rerun you only had to run three of the five laps, but that rule has been changed, now that if you do three of the five laps and the first running of the final, it's legit. So I don't remember when he jumped in, I just remember it being late, but they had to rerun it. And then Ron Musson and the Bardol got the jump on Rex and we all know that story of how that all ended. Yeah, that race sticks out in my mind.

Speaker 1: 31:59

Yeah, there's so many fun races over the years, oh gosh. And another significance. I'm just thinking about the 81 Columbia Cup. That was the last time that Chenoweth and Muncie and Hanauer were all together in Tri-Cities the other piece to that and I can't quote the details about it.

Speaker 2: 32:29

This is the type of stuff if nature of hydroplane racing was on display, Because you had conventional hulls, you had cab overs, you had Rolls Merlins, you had turbocharged Allisons, supercharged Allisons, automotive power tunnel boats because the Aeronaut was in here. It just goes on and on and on. There is a whole list of all these different things that showed up at that race. In the end it came down to those three big names.

Speaker 1: 32:58

Man fun times to think back on. Oh they were.

Speaker 2: 33:01

Yeah, they were great. I didn't have a care in the world.

Speaker 1: 33:04

I guess I did Gosh.

Speaker 2: 33:06

I was 81. I was a young man by then. I had graduated, had a life and a career. Still, you had that Columbia Cup weekend always circled on the calendar.

Speaker 1: 33:16

It's a holiday. In airbooks it is Second Christmas.

Speaker 2: 33:20

I'm not sure it's the first Christmas.

Speaker 1: 33:24

Well, that's all the time we have for this week. Knuckleheads, I hope you enjoyed part one of my interview with Brad Luce. Don't forget to come back next week as I'll share part two and then the following week with part three. It was fun to get to know Brad a little bit more on a personal level and hopefully you enjoyed getting to hear more of his background, about being a fan around the sport of hydroplane racing, about being a fan around the sport of hydroplane racing. Don't forget, we're on social media Instagram and Facebook, as well as online at roostertaltalkcom. And while you're there on the website, check out Roostertail Talk Plus, the premium subscription, where you get access to a password protection part of our site, entry into a monthly raffle prize drawing, as well as early entry to all new episodes. But that's all we have for this week, so until next time, I hope to see you at the races.