Episode 196: Kevin Eacret, Part 3

We wrap up our conversation with Kevin Eacret by getting honest about what it takes to run two Grand Prix hydroplanes with an all-volunteer crew. We talk team roles, race-weekend mindset and what the GP class needs to grow without losing its close-knit culture.

If you haven't heard episodes 194 and 195, I would highly recommend you go back and listen to those before listening to part three. 

Transcript

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Welcome And Series Context

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Hello listeners and welcome back to the podcast. Today is Tuesday, September 1st, 2026. And this is episode 196, part three, and the conclusion of my interview with Kevin Ekrit. Now, a few weeks ago, I went up to Monroe, up to the Richards racing headquarters, and had a great time talking to Kevin about his career in racing hydroplanes and especially talking about the Grand Prix. He's very excited about the Grand Prix racing, and it's fun to watch. And I think more fans are paying attention to this series now as it brings a lot of different aspects to the sport. But last week we talked with Kevin and he talked about a lot about his career, and we're going to continue talking about racing Grand Prix Hydroplanes and some of the people that have affected his time working with that. And is going to share some great stories along the way as well. But before we dive into this episode, I want to remind you that this is part three. I had two other parts to this interview. So if you haven't heard episodes 194 and 195, I would highly recommend you go back and listen to those before listening to part three. All right. I know you're ready. So let's jump in and listen to the conclusion of my interview with Kevin E. Crit.

The Crew That Makes It Run

SPEAKER_00 2:10

All right. Well, we talked a little bit about your crew, uh, particularly Jimmy, Jimmy James, but it seems like you have a very dedicated crew working with you. Absolutely. Can you talk a little bit about your crew members and what they mean to you?

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Okay, well, my crew guys are my crew guys. Um, we do run two boats, so everybody on this crew, whether you're at the race site, you see them working on the 17. When we come to the shop, you will see everybody work on each boat. So there is that, you know. We are one crew, is Richard's racing in the shop. When it comes to the water, we try to stay on our certain boats. You you know. Um, Jimmy, myself, and Paul, you heard me talk about already because we're the ones here in the shop. Um, Chad is our IT computer guy. He he jumps back and forth from both boats. Cannot do this without him because he doesn't know racing, he knows computers, and so he's the guy that's getting all of our data acquisition systems, whether it be the Motec Race Pack, he's the guy behind the clipboard or the computer board making all this stuff work for us. So definitely couldn't do it without him. Race site, we have two guys that come in from Indiana, Jason and Drew. Spectacular guys. Um, so yeah, I got Jason, Drew, Jimmy, Paul. When we're on the boat, those are pretty much racing. Those are our four guys, and Ernie is our five guys pretty much working on the boat and making sure that everything's good. A lot of times, I am very hands-on when it comes to trying to get valves adjusted and fiberglass repairs and stuff like that. Here at the shop, I'm very hands-on. The race site, you know, sometimes I slip away and go and hide out in the hall or and cool down when it's getting hot outside. And these guys make sure it happened and knowing these guys, if they say they did something, they did it. And we're all very aware of what's going on, and we have no problems of saying we screwed up or something didn't get done, because we have our checklist, we'll go through it, and we got to trust that everybody does what they do, and everybody does. So I could not be sitting here talking to you without the guys that are actually working on the boats because I get the glory, and they're the ones mopping up the oil and fixing the gearboxes. We've been having gearbox issues this year. Never in the past two years have we had gearbox issues. This year, since Valley Field, we've been pulling a gearbox after every heat and making sure things are right. And you know, it's the dedication of these guys doing so while I'm at an autograph signing section drinking water in the shade. These guys are laying on their bellies working on the boat, and so they're a tremendous amount of guys that tremendous amount of work. And, you know, but like I said, we get back here to the shop. If I have some fiberglass work, Austin has no problems laying on his back and grinding on my boat and getting a vacuum bag going on the bottom of my boat, you know. Um, Joel, he's got no problems. If you're here and you need a third hand, he will jump up on that boat. And, you know, everybody within Richards Racing has their own jobs. And, you know, everybody will talk about the guy is working on the boat. And well, we got some lovely ladies on our team, too. You know, TJ, she's my wife. She takes care of making sure we're all fed and everything like that. And Jen Cushing, Josh's girlfriend wife. Um, she takes care of making sure that we're on schedule with GPA and telling us where we're at and stuff like that. Um, Emma, she's Rob's daughter, she comes and helps sell t-shirts and she washes the windshields and does all that. So there's a lot of people on the backside of teams that they don't get any credit for what they do, and they're very important part of the of part of the team because they're taking care of the stuff nobody wants to do, the food and the registrations and stuff like that. And Austin's wife, she's a scorer for GPA, you know. Um, we brushed on he he didn't drive the first couple races this year. That's because him and his wife had a brand new baby. So he took time off for the baby, which he's been an excellent father, happy family. And um, but it it does come down to each and every person on this team pulls their weight and does something to make it happen, especially trying to run two different boats.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Yeah, yeah. Well, I've often heard like you're only as good as the people you that you're surrounding yourself with. And uh from my limited interactions I've seen with your team, it seems like they're a lot of hard workers and uh mesh well together.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Absolutely. We we we're clicking very, very well. Um from when Brian first started to where we're at now, I think we have two original crew members on that that started with Brian. And other than that, it's people that have come and gone through the doors, and what we see now we like to reference is it is the cream rise, cream rises to the top. And so this is who we got left, and everybody that's here, none of us get paid for anything. So this is an all-volunteer situation, yeah. And so for the time that these gentlemen invest into the race team has come to show because within three years, I think we've done pretty well as a new race team. Oh, definitely, especially trying to campaign two boats, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Right,

Gearbox Trouble And Trust

SPEAKER_00 7:40

yeah. Well, I love what you guys are doing, and one thing I noticed on the hull this year, hoping you could talk to looked like there was some graffiti tag on there.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

There, yes, there is. Um past couple years, we've been running the 10 boat. I I've been very particular on making sure that my gauges are right and my engine tunes are right, and trying to get the boat ride right on the boat, and very conservative running the boat the previous two years. And pretty much told the guys this year that we're gonna run the boat, we're gonna run it hard, and we're gonna run it as hard as we've ran it since we've owned it. This is this is our year, so yeah, we um Valley feels pretty rough. You'll see in the back corner we came back after heat and didn't touch anything, didn't hit anybody, but we had a split in the rear deck. That happens sometimes, so we fixed it. And then well, I guess it started off in Madison. We came back in Madison, and there was a big crack on the top of the deck coming off of deck hatch, and it's like, Well, that happens. I hit a big hole down in the corner, and everybody saw it. It hurt. There's video of it, and um, well, it got our first crack, and it's like, oh, there we go. Well, then we got Valley Field crack, and then we had the mishap in Tri-Cities. Um, Josh Harnak and myself connected in the turn. Um 50-50 situation, racing accident. Yeah, when it first happened, I was blaming him. It was all him. And he was saying it was all me. Well, guess what? Cooler heads prevail. Josh and I have talked, and we've come to the conclusion hey, you know what? I didn't turn fast enough. You turned a little too quick. We're just gonna say it's a 50-50 racing incident. Yeah, that's what we're chalking it up as. But it did create more damage on the side of the boat, had to do more carbon repairs. And so Jimmy's wife, Teresa, the one that did the decals, she she likes doodling in graphics and arts, obviously. Yeah, yeah. And um, she is an artist designer. That's what she does by trade. And is like, well, you know what? I I want her to come and we gotta mark these. I'm a painter by trade. I can fix them. I could have painted them. Um, not a bunch of time to fix the spots in between Valley Field and Tri-Cities. We had a week. It's like, ah, I ain't doing it. I'm glad I didn't because we picked up more damage in Tri-Cities. All right, which didn't fix them before C Fair because, well, we only had a couple days. Well, got another spot from C Fair, so now we'll have a little more graffiti tag going on, and it's just our fun way of you know marking off the damage. You know, we got Madison stitched together 2026 and Valley Field, and so yeah, it is kind of our street art, it's our way of having fun with what we're doing. Nobody wants to repair their boat. Well, we had to repair the boat, and we're just gonna leave it that way because you know what, we're kind of freaks, and we're just gonna tag it up and leave it be where it stands. And it actually worked because actually some of the other teams have sustained damage and they saw what we were doing, and they're like, Hey, would you mind coming and tagging our boat? And so, yeah, she's actually got her artwork on two different boats now from tagging the damage, and it's just a fun way to have fun with unfortunate unfortunate circumstances.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Yeah, no, it's uh I really loved seeing, I think there were pictures that came out in Tri-Cities that first had that, or or maybe it was earlier in the year came out. No, it was Tri-Cities is when she started tagging. Yeah, just it's just a fun way to do that. No one's done that before. No, it's kind of like putting little tattoos on the boat.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

It's exactly and Jimmy's Jimmy's wife, she loves the racing, she likes to stand back and stand away a little bit, you know, which is great because she doesn't like the attention, but she's a beautiful woman and she gains attention no matter where she goes, yeah and she tries to fly under the radar. So, but it's great because it involves her and brings her into doing something, and now she does have her input into the boat, you know. Um, I talked about the people behind the scenes of our race team, and she is very she is one of them, you know. She allows Jimmy to spend his time to come here and hang out with me, right? Right. And so, no, it allows her to do her artwork, it gives her her escape of throughout the pen to release any tensions in her body or her mind. It she releases through her artwork and what she does. So, yeah, it's very fun because that way she gets to express herself also and has her little bit of input and time into the boat.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Graffiti Tags For Battle Scars

SPEAKER_00 12:24

So, well, thinking about the the repairs that you've had this year, are you gonna have a different paint scheme for next year? Don't know. We got to finish this year yet. Still thinking about San Diego, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

No, I'm not thinking about next year yet. We got a job to do in San Diego. Um, so yeah, we we got to get through San Diego, see where we stand, and don't know. We've talked about the same paint scheme, we've talked about a new paint scheme. Well, we'll just have to sit back and wait and see. All right, all right.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Well, speaking of San Diego, it's a tight points race going down there. Yes. Um, it was just announced, I believe, that the the 35 won't be there, I believe. Yeah, Kennedys.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

I still don't count them out. Yeah. I so they have said they are not coming. They um they're not real happy with their West Coast swing that they've done, but it is a long trek for them to go from the other side of the country back twice in a year.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

So So we'll we'll say two scenarios. One, if they don't.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

If they don't, I still gotta be on my game and I still got to pretty much take first place every time that boat hits the water in order to gain a points lead, I think. I don't I'm not sure. I am never one to track points. I don't know where I'm at in point. Well, I do know I'm second in points, right? But I don't know how far I am behind. I do believe the 135 is nipping at my tails. Yep, they're right behind you. They're right there, which go to be expected. We've been the three boats battling, it seems like, every final heat this year. So the 35 boat is very fast. But with that being said, I don't track points, I don't know what the point schedule is. I see where they're at at the end of the day, but it just gets in my head and it brings in added things to think about that I don't need my little pea brain. So my job is to drive the boat best of my abilities. We're in a race. I don't ever go into a race thinking, oh, I'll be good with third place here. No, right, I don't want third place, I want first place every time. Yeah, and so yeah, it it doesn't change. I have to be on my game. I have to drive smart, my crew's got to be smart, make sure that we don't make any shoot ourselves in our foot with any stupid mistakes, and we just have to stick to our game plan and our plan of going into the weekend, and that is to perform well, do well, and let the cards fall where they fall, you know. That way I don't get sidetracked in points, and it's like, well, if I would have done this, no, that's not how I work. I want to be, you know. Yeah, and so first year I was racing boat boats, I let points get into my head, and it was a secondary thought that I didn't need to think about because it pulls me off from your first vision and your first thoughts of what you have to stick with.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

So yeah, I feel like that's two separate things to go for is the points, points race and the actual race that weekend. You can't really focus on both at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

No, you can't.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

And some drivers are better at the high points, some better both drivers are better at just winning the races and period. And so it's just kind of interesting nuance between the two.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

And me, it just I gotta take care of my equipment. You know, a lot of times you worry about points, and then you gotta worry about where you finish, and points start overtaking where your mind should be instead of going, okay, well, I'm in front of this guy here. Maybe I should back off a little bit, save my equipment. Right. But then you start thinking about well, if there's a tie, then they're gonna go back on to who's the fastest lap time. And so now it's making you push your equipment even harder because you're afraid of the points situation. That's a veritable I'm not even thinking about. Well, don't even go there. Or we're not gonna talk about points anymore, though.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

All right, uh, well, one thing I'm always curious about with this, and I know a lot of people that have talked to me are curious as well.

San Diego Pressure Without Point Watching

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Driving an unlimited versus driving a grand prix, two different beasts. Yeah, I mean, what one is is so much heavier and bigger than the other, and I feel like the power to weight ratio is just completely different. Can you describe the difference between the the two? Like how noticeable is that difference when you're driving? Very huge difference.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

It's a night and day difference. So um unlimited, yeah, they're big, they're bulky, and they have a lot of horsepower, but they don't have a lot of torque. So, and unlimited, that's why when you see them qualifying, you know, they're gonna say, we're gonna take the best of three laps, but they give them five, six laps a piece. Every lap they get a little bit faster, and they're a big momentum thing, and they start gaining their momentum as they go. Well, GPs are very light, very quick, have a lot of torque and a lot of horsepower. So you feel the actual acceleration, the kick in the pants. You can feel it in an unlimited boat, but it's just it's not the same, you know. Um unlimited boat, you don't realize how fast you're going. It's a bigger boat, heavier boat until you turn. And once you turn, your eyeballs smack the inside of your head, and your head smacks the inside of your helmet, and then you realize that you're about 200 miles an hour going into a turn. Well, a GP is a lot lighter, a lot, a lot more nimble. Now, granted, I only drove two boats. I drove the Leland boat that I had some time into, and I drove the O'Farrow boat once. Now that was a night and day difference between those two boats. So my recollection of an unlimited boat might not be fair. You know, um, Jeff Kelly, Corey Peabodies, Jimmy Shanes, they've been in nice equipment. Their acceleration and pulling through a turn, way different than what I experienced in the Leland hole. But the GP boats, they are a handful all the way around. They're loud, they're noisy, they're yelling at you. You step on the throttle, you feel your head get sucked into the back of the capsule. And so drivability ways is just two different things. If your foot bounced off the throttle in an unlimited, I was upset because it felt like it took a while to get that momentum to come back. Yeah, your foot bounces off the throttle in a GP boat and you're back on it, it's instant right away back to whoopee. So you can't really compare the two because it's it's trying to compare apples and oranges. They're they're both different, but they're both spectacular in their same way.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

So, you know. Yeah. Well, which do you prefer to race and which is more fun to drive? Which could you could have the same answer, but I feel like those are two different questions.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

I prefer to race the GP boat because you don't have the hoopla and the spotlight that you're supposed to have with the unlimited boat. You know, unlimited boat, everything, you know. GP boat, we're having fun. It's me and my buddies hanging out, we're playing with this. You know, everybody can walk up and they look at the engine, wow, blown big block. We can all relate to them. You know, and the unlimited, they're fun. But they're big and they're heavy. They take up twice as much shop space. It takes twice as much personnel, you know. A lot of times it's Jimmy and I here in the shop working on the GP boat. If I'm not here, Ernie will be here. And it's Ernie and Jimmy playing on the GP boat. And um and you can make that happen with a GP boat. You can make that happen. And an unlimited boat, it's hard to make that happen, you know. I mean, shoot, you have a hard time putting a skid fin on the side of an unlimited boat with one guy and no crane. So you can't do it. And at least it's they're manageable, you know, they're smaller, you don't need the shop space. And even though the haulers are starting to get to be about the same size, but you don't need the same size hauler. You know. Um, you start doing cross-country trips, yeah, you need the bigger hauler.

Unlimited Versus GP Driving Feel

SPEAKER_01 20:50

Because, you know, like us, we're traveling four engines, all kinds of spare parts for two different boats. We pull a lot of weight around. So the bigger hauler, that's why they're transpiring into the bigger haulers, you know. Um, but no, I've I've been really enjoying, I enjoy boat racing all around. So it doesn't matter. In board racing in general, I enjoy it. I enjoy driving all boats. One class in particular, no, uh, I'm still racing, you know. So as long as I can say I'm still driving and racing a boat, that's gonna be my favorite class at that point in time.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Right now, it happens to be GPs. There you go. All right.

Career Highlights And Team Pride

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Well, with those, with that said, thinking back on your time with the unlimited and your time here with the Grand Prix, what do you think has been your biggest accomplishment so far for each class?

SPEAKER_01 22:53

Well, biggest accomplishment for the unlimited class is I will be able to go down in history saying that I have the last. Two heat wins in Leland's history. Yeah. I had a heat win in Detroit and I had a heat win in San Diego. So that's probably the biggest accomplishment. Got rookie of the year. Well, yeah. Rookie of the year in the unlimited. We talked about rookie of the year earlier. Right. But no, those were pretty big achievements, just getting the heat wins. Granted, I didn't outrun the boats. Boats jump, boat broke, whatever the case might be. The end of the day, I got the heat win. So you gotta start before you can finish. Yeah. To finish first, of course, you must finish. Exactly. Must finish before you can finish first. Um GPS. Um National High Point Championship, I guess, would have to be the accomplishment. Everybody wants to be on top. And I didn't do it by the fastest boat on the water, but I did do it by being the most consistent boat on the water that year. Um so yeah, that was a great accomplishment. And just being able to be a part of this GP team that I'm now is a proud accomplishment because I feel that I had maybe sort of a little something to do with help bringing the team together, maybe. You know, it might be my own personal accomplishment, other people might see it that way. But um I I I absolutely love the team I'm with right now and the personnel that's on our team. I mean, we have a great team. I will go to bat for each and any person on this Richards racing team. And yeah, I'll treat them like my family. So tell you what, don't let me hear you disrespecting anybody on my team. You're gonna hear me come at you because I will go in defense for them. So yeah, that's that's a great accomplishment to know that you part of putting together what I feel is one of the best GP teams on the water.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

Yeah. Well, it's something bigger than yourself, right? You like you got these groups together and working together towards a school.

SPEAKER_01 25:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's I always gotta give credit where credit's due. And it's the people around me that have helped bring everything together, right? You can do as much as introducing people, but how they do with their own personalities and their own traits that they bring to their team is what they do with it. And for each and every person to have painters and engineers and contractors and truck drivers, and you know, we're all come from different worlds, but yet you come inside these doors and we all come together as a family and everybody mixes together, it's a great feeling to be a part of. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Well, with all this said, I I really enjoyed watching the Grand Prix class uh now for a few years, and uh I really want to see it grow and expand. There's there was quite a few boats on the circuit this year, but they weren't. I don't think there was one race where everyone was there together um for whatever reasons. But in your opinion, now you've got some time behind the seat, you've been running this team. How could we what do you think needs to happen for the sport to grow? Because I would just love to see um you know double the amount of boats. It's an it's in a dream world, right? Yeah, but more races as well, and maybe some races that aren't attached with H1. You can be the the the star class.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

I I do believe that we can um we need to we we need to expand our series. It need to get more race sites, obviously. More race sites bring more boats, and the root of the problem is always boils down to money, you know. So um perfect world, we would get some great series sponsors to help ease the cost of running these boats. There are massive amounts of running these boats.

Growing Grand Prix Racing The Right Way

SPEAKER_01 26:54

And if we could get some series sponsors, people love the GP boats and they love the noise, it brings them back to the nostalgia days. And so we got a great group of teams that run in the GP class. We just need to come together and unite on one page, whether it be HRL, GPA, and there's gotta be a way to get the boats out of the garage and get them on the water. Do I have the crystal ball to tell me how to do that? Nope, not yet. But um, you know, it normally the deciding nominator is money. And so, could we find the perfect series sponsor to where we can bring on a perfect series? You know, I think it'd be great to have about eight races, maybe seven races throughout the year. Yeah, try to spread them out a little farther throughout the summer. I mean, four races and five weekends is kind of a gauntlet, especially when two are on one side of the country, two are on the other.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

Yeah. And most crews have their own day jobs where they're I mean, perfect world.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

We'd have a East Coast series, west coast series, and we'd decide the winner in the center of the country someplace. Right. You know, that would be the ultimate goal. But given the amount of boats that run, I mean, it would be nice if we had a series and we could show up to every race site with 14 boats. Right. You know, and um there's plenty of them. We had 14 boats at San Diego one year, so it can be done and it will be done. We just got to make sure that we try to do it in the right way.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

Yeah. So yeah. Well, I hope to see it happen. I would love to see it grow and expand and and uh have more uh more of a product for the fans because I think it's uh it's one I think a lot of fans are looking at right now and are excited for the series.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

Yeah, you you bring up product, and that's that's the main thing, is what it is, is the GPs have been working on their product. Back in the day with these engines, they can be temperamental, but everybody talks about the reliability of a GP boat. Well, I've been running the same engine all do all year long since spring training. No major catastrophes, no failures. So I think we're starting to get the reliability of the GPs down. Now, how greedy do you want to get? You you can turn them up and you can lean them out and you can blow your stuff up, but that's not gonna help the cause, right? Um, I think the reliability's coming. People are starting to see we're starting to get more boats every year, and you know, you see some new owners coming out, and very grateful for them to come out and excited. And in the same aspect, I've you know, the newer teams coming out. I've been one of the first to give them a call and say, hey, I don't know everything, I might not know anything, but I'd be more than happy to lend you any insight that I might have. Yeah, so that's the good thing about our GP class is people are willing to help, versus for say the unlimited class, everybody wants to be secretive because well, they're all very close in competition, nobody wants to give it out. GP class, we're gonna tell you what we're doing in the shop. You know, we're gonna help you out. Two years ago, I had the Kennedys, um, the Luptons and the Lupton's engine guy, Grant Rivers, all three of them were at our boat in Valleyfield trying to figure out what's going on and we need help. And they helped Jimmy and myself come up, you know, try to figure out the engine wasn't running right, it was just super fat. And so they were willing to come and help us to improve because we want to beat you on the water, not on the trailer. So that's kind of the way the GP class looks at it is we want you on the water, not on the trailer. Let's do our thing. So that's what makes it fun. And with doing that and everybody helping, it will help the series in return. We'll help bring more spectators and sponsors to the sport.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

Oh, undoubtedly, yeah. Yeah, I'd love to hear how close-knit the Grand Prix series is with one another, especially helping out and lending a hand.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

No, absolutely. I mean, uh, outside our door right here, you see the 235 and the 135 parked in our shop. Yeah. They want to go to San Diego. Ed did not want to tow his stuff all the way back to San Diego. Yep, come park your stuff in our shop. It's on tilt. As a matter of fact, I got a little work to do on the 235 to help them out. They've got a wing issue. They want me to re glue a bracket onto their boat for them. And they're like, go ahead. And I don't foresee another unlimited team taking their boat. Right. I don't see BWR shop boat going down and storing their boat at Strong Racing Shop. Right, right. Because they're not gonna want them. Well, are they measuring out our boats? No, we ain't touching your boat, we're not measuring your boat. We don't, yeah. Your boat is your boat, we're doing our thing. But you need storage, indoor storage, here you go. Park your boat, got his trucks out front, they'll be back here in another three weeks getting ready to go to San Diego.

SPEAKER_00 31:56

So, yeah, different team, big family. Yeah. Well, I love the conversation with you, Kevin. It's great to get to know you a little bit better and wish you all the luck down in San Diego and let your freak flag fly.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

There you go. I appreciate your time, my friend. All right, thank you, Kevin. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

Well, listeners, I think we all have a little freak in us. So I know we all have our own freak flag. So let him fly, be yourselves. And it was a great talk I had with Kevin. I really appreciate the time he gave. And he's just a a down-to-earth guy that tells it how it is, straightforward, and I think he'll do about anything for anyone in the sport of hydroplane racing. Fantastic individual, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they continue to develop the program over at Richards Racing. The freak has gotten faster uh the last couple years, and uh I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of success out of this team. Well, listeners, I hope you really enjoyed the episode. Again, I had a had a great time talking with Kevin. I'm looking forward to the next interview. I pre-recorded this episode a few weeks earlier because I'm I'm back into school. I'm teaching once again, so I'm not sure what we'll have in store for you next week,

Final Thoughts And Sign Off

SPEAKER_00 33:09

but I promise you we'll have an episode out next week and we're gonna continue doing this until the off season, um, probably through late October or early November. But like I said, that's all we got for you this week. So until next time, I hope to see you at the Rail.