After returning from Michigan's Bay City, which is my favorite boat race of the year, I was reminded that there are a thousand ways to lose a boat race and just one way to win.

I decided to run my small boat in the F1 PROP Tour Bay City River Roar because I did not want to give up the speed. The bigger boat was about a half-second slower and I felt I could hang on to the little boat throughout the race. Everything went well on Saturday and I qualified on the pole, but I knew I had to make a few improvements on the setup in order to hold onto the boat for 50 laps.

Tim Seebold was starting second and I thought he was going to be my biggest obstacle. Well I was wrong … my biggest obstacle came from down the dock in the form of one of my best friends, Chris Fairchild. He had some problems in qualifying and started sixth. Within 20 laps he had moved up to second and I had a comfortable lead, but he was starting to cut into it.

Ted (Gryguc), my team owner, told me Chris was closing so I had to start to push. I raised the motor up and started to really push the boat to make sure I could stabilize the lead. For the next four laps I did exactly that, but then one of those thousand ways you can lose happened.

I was going down the backside and the prop blew out bad—next thing I know, I was sideways in the straightaway off the water, the boat came down, darted into the infield and I was just happy that I could save it. Chris passed me and won the race. It was well deserved—he by far had the best setup and did the best job on Sunday.

As much as you want to win, sometimes you really hurt your chances with decisions that you make days before the race. My last three years at Bay City I have a first, a third and now a second, all good results, but maybe next year I will learn and take the handling over the speed. Congratulations Chris, you deserve it!