Grand Prix West Hydroplane Association

 1/29/10 

The Grand Prix West Hydroplane Association is proud to announce that the Western Divisionals for the Grand Prix class will be held at Tastin and Racin June 12th and 13th 2010. This will be the second race in 2010 for GPW and should be an exciting event. The Grand Prix are sponsored by Westport-Grayland Chamber of Commerce.

1/16/10

Hopp Racing Presents........ 

I thought it might be fun to look at a couple of photos from 10/17-18/09 Morgan City that we took. We had 5 GP’s there. The race was blown off but all of the GP’s ran their qualifying heat and put some times on the board. Our boat was powered by APBA GP engine option #1 and the other 4 were powered by APBA GP engine option #2. Both engine options are 468ci and make about 1300HP.

AS you can see from the speeds of the first for boats they were all pretty close. Only 2 seconds a lap difference from the top speed to the 4^th fastest. The water was pretty rough. It was fun to see the big boats out there making some awesome noise though.

Jerry

GP-15    113.476           Greg Hopp Fastest lap ever at Morgan City 1 ¼ mile course

GP-77    110.132           Bert Henderson

GP-93    108.277           Marty Wolfe

GP-777  107.142            Patrick Haworth

GP-10      96.983           Mike Weber

1/10/10 

News release; 2010 off-season with GP19.

On the cool-down lap of the final heat in the 2009 Chelan race, a valve stem broke, destroying a cylinder head, engine block, and several other parts. So we have a new block at Ed's Automotive for machine work and a complete re-build, we expect to be prepared for action again in 2010.

All hardware has been removed from boat, will be sandblasted soon, and sent out to be mag-inspected and re-plated. A new canard operating system is being installed; some minor hull repairs and paint touch ups are about all we have in progress for this winter.

Cliff LaPoint, who came on with us last summer, is now a regular member of our crew, and Cody Holmes is joining us as a crew member this season. Both are dedicated hydroplane racers, and are real assets to the team.

The sponsorship search continues and although we have some good prospects, no-one is signed yet. We hope to release good news very soon.

Tom Eckenberg, owner

GP-19

We need your pictures! Please send good pictures of GPs To president@gpwracing.com

 1/04/10

 GP-17 has a new look for 2010, starting out the new season Shockwave Racing will be sporting a new paint scheme.  Take a look at www.gp-17.com to watch the progress.

12/21/09

Latest update on Larry Garcia's GP-99 project. Larry's boat has been moved inside of Hopp Racing's shop at Harvey Airfield in Snohomish Washington. Hopp Racing Team is helping Larry, Dave and crew get Larry's boat ready for the 2010 season. The first group of pictures were taken in July when his boat first arrived at "The  Shop" Since then Larry purchased a Jones capsule and Greg and the boys are helping him fit it. Getting real close to glue time. Looks cool. The hull is a reconditioned hull Larry bought from Ken Brodie

12/18/09

The Roostertail Racing Team is proud to announce a new alliance with Gordy Gillmer. Roostertail Racing has recently acquired the new unfinished hull from the Gillmer family. Watch for updates on the progress of the completion of this new state of the art racing craft. This new boat will continue to run the team's number of GP329. This new boat will have a new 468c.i. blown motor built by Marty Haack at Block Head Machine. we expect to be a top contender in the coming season. The team is already hard at work to complete the boat for the season opener for GPW at Moses Lake April 25th & 25th 2010

Check our web site at Roostertailracing.com  for continuos updates and progress.

Mike Langford Crew Chief GP329h

 ttttcgvjhgvjhvuhvjhvujhvujhjj

11/28/2009 

The Test of the blown-gasoline-carbureted motor went off better than expected.  On a very cool day with little wind, Hopp Racing Team tested the gasoline motor out in their GP-15 Region 10 Hi-Point championship hull.  The boat was run 3 times and accelerated very well and hit a top speed of 140 mph (225 km/h).  The course used was the small inboard course that is used at the Chelan inboard races, approximately a 1 mile oval.

Greg said that the boat is as fast as any of the UL boats, naturally aspired or blown.  It just “Got with the program”.  A very good entry level set-up for the teams wanting to join the top boats in the country and run a supercharged motor.  He thinks the gas blower motor was quite a bit louder than the methanol motor. Everyone on the beach agreed.

The boat engine, Big Walley, was built under APBA Grand Prix engine option #1.  A 468ci engine 9 to 1 compression, a 6-71 supercharger running at 112% of crank shaft speed, twin carbs running 114 Trick racing gas.  We estimate the power at about 1,000 HP+.  The engine “started like a Chevy” said Greg.  Pump the throttle twice and hit the starter.  A lot easier to start than the blown alcohol motor.  It ran like a dream, pulled and got plenty of power on the top end.

Any teams wanting more information on the set-up and tune spec’s we used in the boat computer run read outs, contact Jerry Hopp,  Hopp Racing owner.  He will be more than happy to share the information with you. 

360-568-7079 or finspray@msn.com

http://mysite.verizon.net/Jerryhopp/index.html

BLOWER BOATS RULE!!!