The Best of Waterfest 2009
With only a small team to cover this enormous show, we've never really managed to cover everything to our satisfaction. In past years, our drag racing coverage has been disappointing, which led us to concentrate on the quarter-mile action from the Show & Go series (et 3/09 and 8/09). However, we were determined to try and capture some of the racing at Waterfest 15.After his appearance in the 8/09 issue, and the promise of a record-breaking 8sec pass, we decided to concentrate on the incredible performance of Marc-André Hubert and his AutoXtrëm Golf. On its previous outings, the car had been remarkably reliable and the team was confident of success.
He started the weekend with a "gentle" 10.0sec quarter mile at 157mph - one of the fastest time's we'd see all weekend. For his second run, Marc went for a hard launch and broke an inner axle flange. He was able to replace it but told us he didn't have enough parts if it happened again.
They shouldn't have worried because on his next launch the throttle body became disconnected. And a similar problem occurred on the next run, as well. However, it turned out to be blown fuse, which blew again on the second qualifying run.
Fortunately, there were only five competitors entered in the 4 Cylinder Power Adder heads-up class, so AutoXtrëm was guaranteed to qualify. But as luck would have it, this would be the weekend everything went wrong. So while he set a time of 10.308sec at 119.88mph to win the first elimination round, he cruised across the line with a broken input shaft on the transmission. We have video of the final run at eurotuner.com
Skip Auclair receiving his...
Skip Auclair receiving his trophy with second place finisher, Dan Rumbauskas
Other trophy winners included Naet Ivan from Edison, NJ who won the 6 Cylinder NA class with a time of 12.861 @105.56, while Skip Auclair from Charlemagne, PQ ran 13.19sec at 125.78mph to take the 6 Cylinder Power Adder title.
With only 12 cars entering the Elimination categories, the real action was taking place in the bracket racing, where competitors dial-in their estimated quarter mile time and the driver closest to his estimate wins, provided he doesn't go over it.
The 60 drivers in these classes were divided according to speed, with Bracket 1 for cars 16.50sec or slower, Bracket 2 for 14.50-16.49sec and Bracket 3 for 14.49 and quicker.
The Bracket 1 final was between brothers Jesse and Wayne Farquhar from Mondon, MA, with Jesse taking the win in his '99 Jetta 2.0.
Unfortunately, there's some confusion over who won Brackets 2 and 3. The show organizers showed Arnel Labrado and Christopher Colarusso, respectively. But the timekeepers had Ben York and Robert Hagans winning. Hopefully they got to the bottom of it before the trophies were handed out.
 Canadian Skip Auclair took...  Canadian Skip Auclair took the 6 Cylinder Power Adder class in his 799whp Mk2 VR6T with a 13.19sec run |  Forge Motorsport brought its...  Forge Motorsport brought its Scirocco 2.0T over from England for the event, seen here challenging VW's Andres Valbuena to a race in his R32 turbo - the VR6 won with a 12.595sec run against 13.871 for the Scirocco |  AP Tuning reportedly brought...  AP Tuning reportedly brought its Corrado out of retirement once AutoXtrëm started breaking records |
 The broken input shaft that...  The broken input shaft that ended AutoXtrëm's run... |  Marc Hubert's AutoXtrëm team...  Marc Hubert's AutoXtrëm team was frustrated by mechanical gremlins all weekend, rarely getting out of first gear but still setting the fastest time of the day |  Todd Pavies won the 4 Cylinder...  Todd Pavies won the 4 Cylinder Power Adder class with an 11.75sec run |
 We're pretty sure this isn't...  We're pretty sure this isn't what VW means by "Clean Diesel" |  Ben Jernigan's '96 Harlequin...  Ben Jernigan's '96 Harlequin Golf 2.0 with GT35R turbo and built ABA making 332whp |  Not finished in time, Unitronic...  Not finished in time, Unitronic is building this Mk3 dragster with a target of 750whp |