09/06/09 - Kankakee, IL - 2009 OPC NationalsThis was a big weekend for the Tunnel Vision Racing Team. With almost all of our drivers and crew being from the area, this was truely a hometown race. Daniel Guimond our active military man, and Alyssa Petroni of our pit crew - would also be racing.
Tunnel Vision Racing - TVR line up for the weekend would look like this:
Mark Jakob, Clifton, IL
sst-120/Formula 2 class
Sponsored by The Homestead and Papa Johns Pizza.
Tammy Wolf Jakob, Clifton, IL
sst-60/Formula 3 class
Sponsored by The Hard Rock Cafe and Lee's Inn.
Sammy Miller, Kankakee, IL
sst-60/Formula 3 class
Sponsored by The Lone Star Steakhouse.
Dan Bunting, Columbus, OH
sst-60/Formula 3 class
Sponsored by Monster Energy, The Hard Rock Cafe and The Hampton Inn.
Daniel Guimond, Kankakee, IL
sst-60/Formua 3 class and sst-45/Formula 4 Light class
Sponsored by The US Army.
Alyssa Petroni, Kankakee, IL
Sport C class
Sponsored by Superior Silkscreen & Embroidery.
Friday
Electrical fires and bent props started off the weekend for Dan Bunting and Daniel Guimond.
Saturday
By morning everything was fixed and we were all ready to race. Tammy Wolf-Jakob would
score 1st place in a qualifing round and Daniel Guimond blew up his formula 3 motor. Teammate Sammy Miller loaned Daniel Guimond his back up motor to compete in the Finals on Sunday.
Sunday
The day started with Formula 2 qualifing. Mark Jakob won the first qualifing heat. But, on the first lap of the second qualifing heat, Mark lost his dreams of the National title after blowing over in his boat. The boat was damaged beyond repair for the weekend.
The Fomula 3 final race was the one to watch for the day. Tammy Wolf-Jakob and Sammy Miller were in the front of the pack when Sammy Miller barrel-rolled in turn 4. Tammy was doing a great job in 3rd place, when she had mechincal issues and had to pull out of the race. Daniel Guimond brought the team the best finish of the day with 5th place and Dan Bunting finished in 10th.
Monday
With a borrowed boat and his powerhead and gearcase, Mark Jakob was back in the race. He kept his qualifing position of 7th place on the dock. Mark finished in 6th place for this event. With this finish, Mark will most likely be the 2009 APR SuperLeague Formula 2 Series Champion.
Alyssa Petroni finished in 2nd place for the Sport C World Championship.
08/16/09 - Aurora, IN
Aurora is the longest running venue for the American Powerboat Racing series at 11 continous years. 14 Formula 3 boats and 13 Formula 2 boats entered the event. The Tunnel Vision Racing Team showed up with all intentions of dominating this event. This is how the weekend panned out...
During Formula 3 time trials the 4th and 5th fastest boats on the water were Tammy Wolf-Jakob in 4th and Dan Bunting in 5th. During the line up on the dock Brent Dillard had some trouble and Tammy and Dan moved up to 3rd and 4th on the dock. As the other boats were lining up, Dan's Sycamore Inn sponsored boat caught fire and had smoke rolling out from under the motor cover. Dan was towed in and left Tammy to led the first qualifing heat race in first place for 9 1/2 laps before being passed. In the second heat race, Dan would come back out and start at the end of the dock for a penalty that he received for hitting a bouy in an earlier testing session. Starting line up for Sunday's race would look like this: Sammy in 5th, Tammy in 6th and Dan in 8th positions. Formula 2 time trials would put our Mark Jakob 2nd on the starting dock.
Sundays event would bring great excitement. Starting the Formula 3 race Tammy's boat would not make it to the line up. The race started and heading into the 2nd lap of the 20 lap final, The Monster Energy Boat went over and barrel-rolled between turns 1 and 2 and came to rest upside down. Dan Bunting was rescued and taken to shore. This gave the
Tunnel Vision Racing Crew time to get Tammy Wolf-Jakobs boat back on the water with being only 1 lap down. She would not be able to keep it running for the start and the race continued without her. With Dan and Tammy out of the final race it was up to teammate Sammy Miller to bring home the win. After a very exciting race Sammy Miller brought the team a 3rd place podium finish.
In Formula 2...Mark Jakob and Terry Rinker would battle it out during the entire 30 lap race. Mark had a 1/2 lap lead when fellow racer Howie Nichols stopped the race after his boat completely disappeared under the water. The crowd was amazed with how a Formula 2 Tunnel Boat turned into a Submarine at 125 m.p.h. This would cause a restart that kept Mark and Terry Rinker side by side until the finish of the race. Mark Jakob pulled off another win and this time against Terry Rinker, the 4-time Champ Boat Tour Series Champion.
Congratulation to our Papa John's Pizza sponsored Mark Jakob for his 1st place finish and to our Bob Evans Resturants sponsored Sammy Miller for his 3rd place finish. See you in Kankakee, IL for the Nationals.
08/01/09 - Memphis, TN
Our team showed up to race on the Mighty Mississippi River and it rained all day Saturday and the heat races were cancelled and racing would continue with the final race on Sunday. We started with the Formula 3 boats. With the strong current, the series decided to have a pace boat start instead of our regular dock start. This would be a new way to start that some of the drivers were not familiar with. Our team lined up in this order: Tammy Wolf-Jakob in 4th position, Sammy Miller in 5th position and Dan Bunting in 9th position. After it was all said and done Tammy was 5th, Sammy was 7th and Dan was 8th. Racing would continue with the Formula 2 boats. The APR points leader and teammate Mark Jakob would start in the 2nd position and after leaving the race course early he would leave with a 14th place finish. Mark had enough points from previous wins to keep the APR points lead.