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Greg O’Farrell lives on Lake Washington, and it’s a daily incidence to see him hop on his Jet Ski and head out to the center of the lake and simply gently journey the waves.
“I flip the factor off and thank God I’ve been so lucky,” he stated.
It’s on Lake Washington this weekend that his limitless hydroplane racing staff, Go Quick Flip Left Racing, might be circling the racecourse at Seafair. That wasn’t the case final yr because the O’Farrells, regulars at Seafair for practically 20 years, sat it out.
The explanation why goes again to why O’Farrell contemplates his life as he bobs up and down on the lake.
At this level final yr, O’Farrell, 75, was recovering from a kidney transplant, adjusting to the organ donated by his daughter, Jennifer. It was the most recent in an extended line of well being issues, however as Go Quick Flip Left returns to racing for the primary time since earlier than the pandemic, he appears like a brand new man.
“If my son … would let me, I’d go run a paving crew,” he stated. “That’s how good I really feel.”
O’Farrell ran paving crews for many years along with his enterprise, Auburn-based Lakeridge Paving, which is the household enterprise — together with racing.
Friday, when qualifying begins simply off the Stan Sayres pits, three generations might be at work. Greg and his son Brian are the house owners, and Brian is the crew chief as nicely. His son Gunnar might be making his debut as a vast hydroplane driver.
This weekend is one thing of a reset for Go Quick Flip Left Racing. The O’Farrells debuted a brand new boat late within the 2019 season. It noticed two races. Then there was no Seafair in 2020 and 2021. And we already talked about final yr.
So a brand new boat with a brand new driver and an proprietor with a brand new lease on life will open a brand new period for the staff racing for motorsports’ oldest trophy within the Gold Cup.
Historical past lesson
The U-60 will run as The Beast Unleashed Miss Thriftway this weekend. It’s a nostalgic return to racing for Greg.
The Miss Thriftway holds a particular place in his coronary heart. It’s an enormous motive his household races boats.
As Greg tells it, within the late Nineteen Fifties when he was a child, his father knew Willard Rhodes, who owned the Miss Thriftway staff. They had been invited to the house of Ted Jones, the person who designed the Slo-Mo-Shun IV that gained the Gold Cup and introduced hydroplane racing to Seattle. On the gathering was Invoice Muncey, the person many contemplate the best hydroplane driver of all time. Muncey took Greg for a journey within the Miss Thriftway Too, which began a lifelong love affair with the game.
Brian remembers Seafair being part of each summer time, whether or not it was watching from the seaside or the log growth. He was a type of youngsters towing a wood hydroplane behind his bike.
“It was an enormous deal in our neighborhood,” stated Brian, 55, who grew up in Lakeridge.
It wasn’t till 2005 that the O’Farrells’ participation expanded past spectating. The legendary and late hydroplane proprietor Fred Leland wanted a driveway paved and within the course of Greg ended up sponsoring a hydroplane staff.
It took solely two years go from sponsor to house owners because the O’Farrells purchased a ship from Leland. Lakeridge Paving has been one in all many sponsors for the staff over time. The Navy was an early sponsor as was PayneWest Insurance coverage, which got here from Darrell Sturdy, who additionally went from sponsor to proprietor with the two-boat Sturdy Racing staff. Albert Lee was additionally longtime sponsor.
Miss Thriftway is a hallowed identify in limitless hydroplane circles. It was pushed by Muncey, the beloved showman who was the game’s winningest driver when he died in a race in 1981. It was a standout within the golden age of hydro racing in Seattle.
After the Sho-Mo-Shun boats gained a document 5 consecutive Gold Cups, “the staff that picks up the mantle, if you’ll, is the Miss Thriftway,” stated David Williams, the chief director of the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum in Kent. Williams was one of many first drivers for the O’Farrells.
Veteran driver Brian Perkins drove the majority of the races for the staff. He’s since retired and joined the staff as a coach for Gunnar.
Go Quick Flip Left Racing continues to be looking for its first victory in a winner-take-all closing. The staff does have 10 warmth wins and 9 podium finishes to brag about. It completed second on the Gold Cup in Detroit in 2014.
The staff determined to construct a brand new boat in 2012, working with former Miss Budweiser crewman Dale Van Wierengen. The undertaking superior in begins and stops till 2019 when it debuted on the Columbia Cup within the Tri-Cities.
The boat debuted because the PayneWest and it had an attention-grabbing begin. In a testing session, the escape hatch on the underside of the boat opened and was torn off by the drive of the water.
Components from different groups wouldn’t match fairly proper. Divers got here up empty-handed once they looked for it. Clearly, a ship can’t race with a gap in its hull, and the weekend was shaping to be a disappointment.
However hydroplane racing is a household unto itself.
Veteran boat racer Mark Evans had an outdated boat from the Ellstrom staff, which ran final because the 96 Spirit of Qatar, sitting in his store on Lake Chelan. His brother Mitch Evans was on the race and obtained in contact along with his brother, who had an worker drive it to the race.
Perkins did the fiberglass work to get the hatch on the boat — quarter-hour earlier than Warmth 1A.
It ran the following week at Seafair because the U.99.9 CARSTAR powered Miss Rock KISW. And aside from the annual preseason testing classes within the Tri-Cities, the boat has been sitting in its Maple Valley store.
“It’s solely obtained two weekends of racing on it,” Brian stated.
Scott Raney, co-owner of the U-11 Limitless Racing Group, which has run Legend Yacht Transport this season, noticed the boat in motion on the testing classes.
“It’s no slouch both,” he stated. “They need to be proper there competing for wins.”
‘Really feel like 1,000,000 bucks’
The kidney failure was the final in an extended line of well being issues for Greg.
He’s had main coronary heart surgical procedure. A bout with thyroid most cancers. A ruptured Achilles. He’s had each shoulders rebuilt, the results of a profession proudly owning a paving firm.
“I spent my profession on a shovel,” he stated. “Exhausting labor.”
Years of abusing ibuprofen triggered kidney failure, he stated.
However he’s proud to notice he’s been clear and sober for 40 years. He stated it got here after his spouse, Darlene, threatened to go away. It labored, they usually’ve been married for 56 years. They’ve two youngsters and 4 grandchildren.
With an organization with so many workers, Greg often encounters workers with dependancy issues. He’ll work to get them in remedy and even go to AA conferences with them.
“I take quite a lot of delight in that,” he stated.
Household companies
Lakeridge Paving traces its origin story again to 1968. After a stint within the Coast Guard and after dropping his riveting job at Boeing due to a nasty economic system, Greg borrowed $500 from his mother to purchase a dump truck and began patching potholes in parking tons.
Lakeridge Paving now does $30 million in enterprise annually and has greater than 100 workers, Greg stated.
A number of of these workers have the identify O’Farrell. Brian is the operations supervisor. Gunnar drives truck and his sister Makenna is in dispatch and operations.
It’s comparable setup for the racing staff.
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Greg is the co-owner together with Brian, who can also be the crew chief. Gunnar is the driving force and his sister Makenna is the staff supervisor.
“That’s the most effective half, being round household,” Brian stated.
Gunnar’s girlfriend, Marina Bartels, can also be a part of the crew. They met when she was on the crew in 2019. They each race 2.5-liter modified hydroplanes, and there might be races the place they compete in opposition to one another. To date, boat issues have saved them from going face to face.
“I actually don’t know what to anticipate,” Bartels stated in regards to the potential competitors.
Easing again into issues
Don’t count on the Go Quick Flip Left staff to attempt to make headlines this weekend.
Ask the senior members of the staff in regards to the race, and also you’ll largely hear, “We’re simply trying to have enjoyable.”
Saturday’s first warmth would be the first time Gunnar has been on a racecourse in a vast hydroplane with different boats on the water. He’s achieved the 12 laps over 130 mph that’s required for a brand new driver to qualify. The following step is to be the “trailer” boat (that means within the outdoors lane and some boat lengths behind) for 2 heats.
“I don’t need him to have his foot in it on a regular basis,” Greg stated. “I need him to be taught and take it straightforward. We’re right here to have enjoyable.”
However is that Gunnar’s plan?
“No guarantees,” he stated with a smile.
Gunnar’s boat racing profession began as so many do, constructing J-stock outboard hydroplanes on the museum along with his grandfather and his sister.
“There actually wasn’t every other choices (for him aside from boat racing),” Gunnar, 25, stated.
He’s spent the previous few years driving in smaller courses to get increasingly seat time.
Then it was time to drive the large boat.
“I used to be actually nervous, I’ll let you know that,” he stated. “I deliberate to go sluggish and get used to it. I feel as quickly as I obtained into it, I used to be doing 120 (mph).”
The limitless hydroplane season ends this yr with Seafair. The plan is for the staff to do the West Coast races subsequent yr, and probably construct from there.
Greg stated his spouse all the time asks him if he’s going to retire. He doesn’t suppose he’ll.
“It’s a life sentence,” he stated.
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