SKIRACR...
This year was a special year for me and our team. It was the first year I completed the race by myself, meaning in past years i have always done the over and back class with another skier. I answered a thread by P4-5 for anyone looking to go out and ski the weekend before memorial. His name is Todd Kelm and the driver of the 27' Warlock from Gretchens Automotive. We trained almost every weekend after memorial day until the weekend of the race...4th of July is the only weekend we didn't go out. By the time race day came we were pumped and ready.
Race day:
We made a great start and made it out of Queens gate without any issues, and we were ready to run our race. There were 4 other teams in our class and we skied 3 wide all the way to the island. As we came out of the turn again 3 wide I saw out of the corner of my eye boat E-9, pulling Dusty Campbell, was turning around. Unfortunately they had some issues in the turn. Once we were about 10 miles out from Catalina Bret Kennedy and I were still neck and neck. I gave an up but my team didn't take it because my driver saw big rollers ahead of us. That is what gave us the edge, Bret's driver picked it up and in doing so, Bret got squirley and lost his wrap. After that we were all alone. I could see the finish line coming and knew we ran a great race. When i got in the boat we were cheering and high-fiving because we knew we just won our class. Our team was amazing and flawless on race day. I Never would have been able to accomplish this without the team I had... Success is when opportunity meets preparation...and we were prepared. I will never forget that day . we were all so proud.
Team Gretchens P4-5
Skier: Brian Samaniego
Driver: Todd Kelm
Obser: Larry Gebhart
Nav: Michelle Davison
Team Gretchens P4-5
Skier: Brian Samaniego
Driver: Todd Kelm
Obser: Larry Gebhart
Nav: Michelle Davison