The Super Stock Racing Association race teams made their fourth stop of 2008 at San Diego for the Bayfair event. Six SS race teams were part of what might just be the biggest boat race in the US and maybe the world as well. The Mission Bay venue featured all different sorts of boat racing classes that raced on a number of different parts of the bay. Along with the six SS race teams there were two K boats on the premises and five Crackerbox teams as the sprint boats once again raced in front of a huge Ski Beach crowd. A few of the teams took advantage of the Friday testing as Dave Rankin made laps in his SS80 Wild Child machine, Tony Scarlata drove the Jeff Brochheuser owned SS68 Loud n Proud entry, and Jim Lawrence broke out his SS56 Ultra Vixen for what I believe was his first race in 2008. The course is somewhat different than most others on the SSRA circuit as the drivers had to negotiate what looked like a dog leg turn just off the Ski Beach shoreline as they would take the start flag. Then they would very quickly get on the down pedal heading into a one pin turn but the course would then take them up the backstretch to the second turn that was almost like a half turn. Maybe the best way to describe the course would be an oval with a dog leg turn. And I could be mistaken but it looked like they might have changed the course for the Sunday race action. 

The SS race action would consist of two heats on both Saturday and Sunday with each of the six race teams lined up in each heat. Along with the 80, 68, and 56 race teams the race action also saw the SS8 team of Mike Darner make trek to San Diego. Skip Tuttle and his SS711 Kryptonite team were also on the Mission Bay premises as was the SS15 entry of Denny Bertone. Father Dan Bertone was handling the driving of the SS15 machine as it was reported that he hurt the motor in his SS29 machine at Long Beach earlier in the year. Ty Newton would make his second start behind the wheel of the SS80 machine and how about this team. Not only do they have best of the best equipment and a great team but they have a super deep talent pool of drivers as well. Between Dave Bryant, Gordy Jennings, Ty Newton, and team owner Dave Rankin this team is going to be tough to beat no matter who is behind the wheel.  

In the first heat on Saturday morning the teams lined up with the 8 machine getting the inside lane, Jim in lane two, Tony in lane three, Ty in lane four, Skip in lane five, and Dan was in the outside lane. Just before the teams prepared to make their turns Ty hit a rough patch of water and the 80 machine got some air but it was Ty who was out front as the boats were just a few feet apart from each other moving through the opening turn. Ty and Skip were the first two machines pointed straight up the backstretch as Jim and Tony were almost on top of each other as Jim came very close to making contact with the rear of the 68 machine. And apparently Mike had a collision with someone in the turn because he was very slow heading up the backstretch. As the five machines raced up the straightaway Ty had the lead and Tony and Skip were pretty even with each other. In the far turn however Skip made up some of the distance and pulled side by side with Ty as they came out of the turn. At this point Tony was within a couple boat lengths of the two. Skip continued to push hard on the outside lane and he and Ty drag raced through the dog leg turn and were side by side coming out of turn one as Tony was in third, Jim in fourth, and Dan was in fifth. As the group began lap two Ty began to distance himself from Skip and at the completion of the lap he had a commanding lead with Skip holding onto second and Jim trying to pressure Tony for the third spot. Ty would go on to record the heat win with Skip in second. Jim made a strong effort to get Tony on the inside for the third spot but Tony wasn’t having any of it as he finished in third. Jim would cross the finish line in the fourth spot and Dan would end up in fifth. The teams were in the water and ready to begin their final on Saturday afternoon when there was some kind of issue with the course that was not to their liking and each of the teams put their machines back on the trailer for the rest of the day.  

The race teams were back on the water on Sunday just before noon for their second heat of the weekend. The lane draw for this heat had Skip in the inside lane, Tony in lane two, Mike in three, Jim in lane four, Ty in lane five, and Dan was on the outside. The six racers mashed the gas and were off at the drop of the flag. By the time the group came out of turn one and raced up to turn two there was pretty much a three way tie for the lead between Ty, Tony, and Skip. Skip was on the inside and had less course to travel and he had a slight lead as they headed toward the dog leg turn. Tony was pushing hard in between Skip and Ty and Ty fell behind slightly as they raced toward the first turn. At this point Mike was in fourth, Jim in fifth, and Dan rounded out the field. Ty rocketed out of the first turn and headed up the back stretch with a bunch of momentum as it continued to be a three boat race for the lead. Skip hugged the buoy in the far turn and Tony swung a little wide which also put Ty wide in the 80 machine and this allowed Skip to open up a couple boat length lead on the two. Skip would maintain his lead through turn one but once again Ty was better through the turn and was side by side with the 711 machine heading up the backstretch as Tony fell back in the 68 entry. Ty and Skip battled through the dog leg and first turn with Skip taking a very narrow turn and Ty going real wide and while it looked like Skip was in the lead the 80 machine with Ty at the controls would make up ground in the turn. One big bobble is all it took as Skip got a little out of shape coming out of turn one and had his Kryptonite machine make a quick left and he had to get off the gas and away went Ty in the 80 machine. This race was reminiscent of the battle between Dave Bryant in the 80 machine and Jeff Brochheuser in the 68 machine last year where Jeff was leading most of the heat and in that very same turn and almost same spot on the race course had a small bobble and Bryant streaked by for the win. Skip gave it everything he had and from my vantage point it looked like he caught up heading towards the finish line but I could not really tell who took the checkered flag. It also looked like Tony and Mike were pretty close at the finish as Jim placed fifth.  

The line up for the second heat on Sunday showed Tony in lane one, Mike in lane two, Skip in lane three, Jim in lane four, Ty in five, and Dan in lane six. As the pack came out of the first turn it looked like Tony had some kind of problem as he was slow exiting as Ty led Skip and Mike followed in third place. Coming out of turn two Jim was in fourth and Tony was not too far behind in fifth as Dan was just behind those two. Ty would stretch his lead to 5 + boat lengths as did the rest of the field and at the checkered flag the finishing order showed the 80 machine in first followed by the 711, 8, 56, 68, and the 15 machine.  

Jim Lawrence was a no show for the Sunday final as Ty would get the inside lane. Mike, Tony, Skip, and Dan would line up on the outside in lanes two through five respectively. Ty once again grabbed the lead coming out of turn one as Tony was in second and Skip not too far back in third. With Ty enjoying a nice lead Tony and Skip had a battle for second brewing on lap two as the pair made their way up the backstretch and into turn two. Tony had the shorter distance with the inside lane but it was Skip who had more speed coming out of the turn on the outside. Skip would get around Tony and finish second as Ty once again shoed the 80 machine to an awesome weekend of Super Stock race action.