Friday, Jul. 27, 2007

David smitten with new ride

By Jody Moore, hydro.commentator

It would be a fair statement to say that Steve David is in love. After making the best with what they had - one of the oldest boats on the sport, with several problems that weren't easy to fix - the Miss Madison team managed to be contenders for the national boat championship, while David drove his way to the driver's championship.

Over the off season, the decision was made to build a brand new Miss Madison, and give sponsor Oh Boy! Oberto reason to cheer. So crew chief Mike Hanson and designer Dale Van Wierengen started laying up a brand new boat, similar in design to the Miss E-Lam and the Formulaboats.com's former Miss Budweiser hulls. It's safe to say David is satisfied with the results.

"It handles so well. It's just a pleasure to drive," David gushed. "It just makes going faster so much easier for us."

David wheeled the new Oberto to a qualifying run of 160.599 mph, probably the team's best showing on a course that classically hasn't favored the older boat's design. Again, David beams when he talks about the new boat's capabilities.

"Actually, so far, just about every course is suited well with this boat.," he said. "It's an awesome boat. Dale and Rick had an excellent concept. Mike Hanson and the rest of the team just put this thing together and got the weight and balance exactly where they needed to be."

David predicts that his boat is heading the right direction - up - and that a win is probably coming soon. This following a second place performance in the Gold Cup two weekends ago.

"I think we're just gong to continue as we have all year to get faster every time we go out," he said.

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