| by
Tim Pellaton
A trip to Chandler
Arizona, where the World IHBA (International Hot Boat Association) Drag
Boat Finals at Firebird
International Raceway would take place and a trip that would test the
skills of two Speed Barefooters, one Rookie and one Veteran. This trip
was made in an effort to start a speed barefooting career for one person
and end one for another.
 Let’s
start with the new career. Teresa Wallace, who in the past, has
participated in three event barefooting along with Marathon speed Skiing
and circle speed ski racing, is now the New Holder of the Women’s
Barefoot speed record. In a practice run on Thursday, Nov. 16 at
Firebird Raceway, Teresa went out skiing behind the boat she had been
practicing with for the last 3 months and set a new World Barefoot ¼
mile Speed Record of 89mph eclipsing the old mark of 74mph by 15mph. Her
Boat driver, Pete Shutts of Pleasanton California, driving his 1966
shovel nose Sanger Hydro powered by a Chevrolet 540 cubic inch, 1054
horsepower, 125mph boat, drove perfectly for her allowing her to set the
record with ease. That run set the tone for the rest of the weekend.
Teresa was not to ski
again until Saturday in front of almost 20,000 spectators which she has
never done before. Between Thursday and Saturday we realized that the
Sanger boat she had skied behind had developed some handling problems
and we had to go to plan B, find another boat and driver. As a result of
years of attending drag boat races with Scott Pellaton, we used some of
our old relationships and found one of the best Blown Alcohol Flat
drivers in the World. Tony Scarlata of Fairfield, California. Tony was
racing two boats at this event. One was a Blown Alcohol Flat bottom race
boat capable of about 170mph and a circle boat capable of about 130mph.
The slower of the two would be good for us. So, on to Saturday. As some
of the qualifying boats ran through the liquid quarter mile and just
before the Blown Fuel Hydro class, the fastest of all drag boats,
meaning they go through the ¼ mile in about 5 seconds traveling around
235mph, that is where Teresa would fit in her attempt to now break her
own record and try to be the first women barefoot skier to go over
100mph. The time came, the Head race official, Charlie Fegan, would rely
on my opinion of the water conditions as they settle from the last set
of boats that went through the quarter mile before he would green light
the course for Teresa to go through being towed by Tony and his 130mph
circle boat. After about 10 minutes, I gave Charlie the Ok to Green
light the course and let Teresa come through. The starting lights would
start flashing yellow and then go to a solid amber, meaning the boat
driver would fire his engine and go on the green light. Tony started off
just as instructed but started too late in order to trigger the timing
lights. Well here they came into the course, Teresa had just stepped off
her ski and was entering the ¼ mile course. Tony started one of the
smoothest accelerations I had ever seen a boat driver give a barefoot
skier. As they made their way through the ¼ mile gaining more speed and
getting closer to the end, you could hear to boat really start to pick
up speed to what sounded like a 100 mph pass. Teresa never faltered, she
skied like a statue holding her position perfectly as she was trained to
do by Scott Pellaton.
 As
Teresa passes the finish line, we knew it was a good run, she let go of
the handles and safely slid to a very nice butt slide stop. And of
course the announcer gave all the bad news, the clock was not tripped by
the late start they got and there was no speed. But then we got word
from Tony that his GP system had them at 104mph as they passed through
the finish line. Everyone went wild in the stands knowing that Teresa
was then the first woman in the history of the sport to break through
the 100mph mark, even though it was an unofficial speed. Teresa and all
of us were elated. Now, Charlie Fegan wanted her to go back to the
starting line and do it again. This guy was going to hold the most
exciting boat class of the event to run Teresa again. He wanted her to
get that record. It was unbelievable that he would do something like
this. With 20,000 spectators all standing and waiting for the blown fuel
hydros to come out, they all also wanted to see Teresa get that record.
Unfortunately when the boat was back in place and Teresa ready to go,
Tony had trouble firing the engine and we had to scrap the run until
later.
Charlie Fegan was
committed to get her back on the water. He told us to have her ready for
the end of the day. He was going to put her back out there so she could
brake that 100mph mark. Then we ran into another challenge. Tony had to
drive the boat that pulled Teresa in a circle event and ended up
crashing. Fortunately he was not hurt but the boat was sunk in about 15
feet of water and they don’t take the time to pull them out of the water
until the end of the day. They do pull the boat out of harms way but
then leave it in the water. Now what do we do?
 We
all started scrambling to find another boat. After about two hours we
found one of Tony’s competitors that said he would pull Teresa and try
to get her to the 100mph mark. As the day went on the program got
farther and farther behind. We did not think we would get back on the
water with Teresa. But low and behold to, Charlie was. In an effort to
give the crowd the show they came to see, meaning the Blown Fuel hydro
class, he scrapped some classes from running on Saturday and gave them
all a chance to run Sunday morning. This gave us a window of opportunity
to run Teresa just before the sun went down. The Top Fuel Hydros ran and
got everyone’s adrenalin going. It was now Teresa’s turn. With everyone
in place and the water perfectly calm and a new boat and driver, Teresa
started her pass like the others. The boat being driven by Dave Rankin
started accelerating as smoothly as Tony had driven, we couldn’t believe
we got two drivers in a row to drive so well. As they approached the
finish line we could see that Teresa was as solid as the other two runs
and she makes it through the lights and slides safely again to a stop.
Now we all have our eyes glued to the time board on the other side of
the lake. Simultaneously the Board and announcer shared with us that
Teresa had just broken her own record of 89mph and tripped the timing
lights at 96mph, 7mph faster. Everyone including the fans were ecstatic
and making a lot of noise. As Teresa was brought back to the photo pad
where she would get interviewed about her new record, I couldn’t but
help recall this same feeling when my brother Scott broke his own record
back in 1989 and would now go out in the morning and attempt to go over
110mph at the ripe age of 50 years old. The celebration continued
through the night at dinner with her very proud dad and brother and the
rest of our support group.
 And
now for the career that would be ending. Scott Pellaton has been the
fastest skier in the World on his feet since the mid 80’s. He crushed
his own record of 123mph in 1989 by going 135.74mph at the same site,
Firebird International Raceway. He would now attempt to go 110mph on the
weekend. Scott, all through the late 70’s and all of the 80’s made more
speed runs on his feet than probably all the rest of the barefoot speed
skiers combined, back in the day. His last official run after the 135.74
record, was breaking the tandem barefoot record with his good friend and
buddy, Mike Temby in 1990 when they went out and skied together behind
the same boat at the same time and tripped the timing lights at 99.66
mph.
Since then, Scott has
simply spent the last 17 years aging, staying in great shape and working
his business until he realized he was turning 50 years old. For whatever
reason athletes at different ages start to feel their athletic mortality
and sometimes want to get just one more adrenalin rush with something
that they were the best at over anyone else in the World. Well, Scott
decided he wanted to go out at the age of 50 and break the first record
he broke back in the 80’s and break that record again showing the world
that even at 50 years young, he is still the fastest skier on his feet,
in the world. The 110mph record at the time in the 80’s was owned by Lee
Kirk out of Long Beach, California. Scott felt that with the proper
training and the drive to train another young female athlete (Teresa),
that he could, without too much trouble brake the 110mph barrier again.
 As
with Teresa, they both had practice runs scheduled on Thursday, so the
media could get some pictures for the weekend news channels. Teresa
would run in the morning and Scott would run in the afternoon. When
Scotts time came up, all things were put into place, the course was set
with absolutely smooth water. The boat was ready and here they came.
Scott stepped off his ski and readied himself for the 110 plus mph
acceleration. The boat looked good, Scott looked totally in control and
then the unexpected occurred. The Sanger boat pulling Scott, driven by
Pete Shutts got out of control and Pete had no other choice but to shut
in down just as the boat was coming into the timing light. This action
put Scott on his butt. Being the seasoned veteran of these kinds of
circumstances, he stayed sitting and sliding and released the handles
and slid to a safe stop with his parachutes aiding in the slowing down
process.
Naturally
disappointed, Scott, Charlie and the rest of our crew wanted to find out
what was wrong with the boat. As Scotts run was late in the day on
Thursday we went to one of our very good Friends and Top Fuel Hydro
owner and Driver, Greg Tedesco. We asked Greg if he would take the
Sanger out on the water and make a run to see if he could figure out
what the problem was. Greg, with a broken arm and all agreed to help us
out. Charlie got Greg on the water. As Greg got the boat to that 90mph
speed very close to the end of the course, the boat did the same thing
and got out of control causing Greg to get out of the throttle and
safely slow the boat down. When Greg got back, he said to get the boat
to his pit and he would put his most valuable pit crew to work on the
boat to see if they could fix the problem. We got the services of one of
the best boat and engine specialist in the Industry. A guy by the name
of Dago. When I was doing barefoot speed runs back in the 70’s, I
remembered the name Dago. He was one of the most known race boat and
engine specialists back in those days and here he was working on the
crew of one of the Top Fuel Hydros in the World. I guess he still has
his stuff.
Dago worked for about
three hours on the bottom of the boat grinding and cutting some fins
that were on the bottom that needed some attention. The boat was ready
but Greg could not go out and drive again because his broken arm was
hurting from the last test drive. So Greg did the next best thing and
that was to get another great driver to test the boat and that was how
we got to meet and know Tony Scarlata. Tony took the boat, went out,
made a pass and to no avail, came back with the same opinion that Greg
had. Put the boat on the trailer before someone gets wet. That was good
enough for us. Tony then offered up his circle boat to pull both Teresa
and Scott.
 Well
Saturday came and we have already discussed what went on with Teresa.
When we left the Firebird raceway on Saturday, Tony had confirmed that
he would borrow a 120mph flat bottom that should get Scott to 110mph and
Charlie would put Scott and Tony on the water as soon as he could on
Sunday morning. As Sunday rolled around, we got to the race site around
8am for some radio and TV interviews and started the ball rolling with
Charlie. Charlie was excited that we would be able to get Scott on the
water. He gave us a time and we started to get everything ready. The
time was here, Tony had the boat at the launch ramp, Scott was at the
end of the lake getting ready and they would go right after the River
Racer class of boats. As usual, when the last River Racer went, Scott
and Tony were ready.
Charlie again would
rely of me standing at the finish line observing the water settling. As
it finally got glass smooth, I gave Charlie the ok. The lights started
flashing for Tony and they would quickly be coming down the course. I
could see the boat coming from the end of the lake. Tony was getting
Scott up to step off speed and then the acceleration would start. As
they crossed under the holding rope for the other boats, Tony started to
accelerate as smoothly as he did for Teresa but just a little faster. As
they approached half track mark you could hear the increased roar of the
boat engine really starting to pick up speed, faster and faster. Scott
looked solid and in total control as if he had been doing this for the
last 17 years and then they passed through the timing lights. The time
came up on the board and Scott at the age of 50 years young, with the
help of his Driver Tony Scarlata had come only 1 mile per hour from
reaching their goal of 110mph. Scott went through the lights at 109mph.
Not bad driving. Any time you can ask a guy to get you to a certain race
speed without a speedometer and he gets you within 1mph, it just doesn’t
get any better. Scott was very happy with his run, the crowd was happy
with his run and we, his support crew were very pleased with all the we
accomplished on this weekend. Scott came to the photographers pad and
talked about how he felt he could have gone another 10mph. That’s how
good he felt about his run.
So, we start one speed barefooting career and looks like we ended
another.
As I conclude this
amazing weekend, I would like to thank everyone that helped make this
trip possible. Pete and Kathy Shutts for bringing their Sanger Hydro all
the way from California to Arizona and getting a piece of a World
Record, Mike Ehlert, Scotts observer and long time friend helped Scott
and Teresa get their equipment on, a tough place to be because you can’t
see anything from that end of the lake. Thanks Mike. Teresa’s brother
Robert helped with some of the filming, John Hill, a team member of
Barefoot Central’s Racing Cup Series team did a lot of videoing, and of
course all the Firebird Raceway people that helped make the whole 4 days
go as smoothly as they could. Chuck Gleason of Eagle Sports for
sponsoring both Teresa and Scott with custom matching speed barefoot
suits. Anna Hacket, marketing, Rick and Gary the announcers,
Johnny Love and his partner for the help on the water and at the holding
rope, both rescue crews for their support picking Scott and Teresa up
out of the water and Charlie Fegan – President of IHBA (International
Hot Boat Association), you rolled out not the red carpet Charlie but you
rolled out the Purple carpet, pure Royal treatment. You are amazing. And
last, the drivers and their boats. The Loose Cannon crew along with
their owners-Driver Greg and Lora Tedesco, Tony Scarlata, Dave Renkin
and his team. A huge Thank You to All.
|
If you'd
like to see 23 min video of Scott and Teresa's Quest for
Speed |
|
VIDEO -
CLICK HERE
- VIDEO |
Sincerely,
Tim Pellaton, Scott Pellaton, and NEW Women's World Barefoot Speed
Record Holder - Teresa Wallace
|
