May 19th, 20th & 21st, 2006 we went to the 18th Annual Budweiser Drag Boat Nationals at Lake Wappapello-Poplar Bluff, Mo with Big Dick's Halfway Inn Motorsports Drag Boat Team and Little John's Marine Service.  We were running four boats altogether.  A Pro Mod called "Dick Tater", a Top Eliminator called "Kwitchabitchin", a Modified Eliminator called "One Xtreme Ride" and a waverunner called "Daddy's Little Girl".  Maureen and I went along to help with the T Shirt sales and took care of the cooking for the crew during the weekend.  Little John used my Explorer as tow vehicle for his boat "Kwitchabitchin" as we had to take his truck in to get some exhaust work done.

Friday we got all set up in the pits and did some tuning and testing.  Saturday during qualifying we cracked a head on "Kwitchabitchin" after turning in some pretty decent runs.  This left it up to "Dick Tater" and "One Xtreme Ride" to shoot for wins.  "Daddy's Little Girl" made some exhibition passes as there weren't enough waverunners to make up a class.  During Sunday's elimination runs "One Xtreme Ride" had a starter switch fail at the line and had to be towed in.  Had it just started and made it past the start line it would have won because the boat in the other lane redlighted.  "Dick Tater" won it's first round and then blew a blower belt in the finals after Brutus had hole shot the other boat and was well ahead at half course.  So Brutus and "Dick Tater" wound up with a 2nd Place trophy.  The T Shirt sales went well so all in all a pretty good weekend.  Check out the pictures at:

Drag Boat Races, Poplar Bluff 2006