MARIETTA, OH - Herd Racing's #75 entry in the American Powerboat SuperLeague Regional Championships at Marietta, Ohio suffered engine problems the second half of the weekend as a blown head gasket relegated pilot Dana Tomes to an unofficial 12th place finish on July 11.

The team qualified ninth in single boat qualifying runs and finished ninth in both Saturday heat races to earn a 10th place starting spot in Sunday's Regional Championship final.  The starting positions for SuperLeague finals are determined by averaging each boat's single lap qualifying run and their finishing position in two qualifying races.

"We thought we swamped our motor in the second heat race on Saturday and it stalled on us," Tomes said.  "We got back to the pits and got the engine fired again but we were down a cylinder on Sunday morning when we went out to test."

Tomes said the team thought they found the problem at the end of test session, a broken probe on the top cylinder coil.

"We replaced the coil and went out to start the final, but I could tell before we got to the starting dock that something just wasn't right.  We were turning about 5200 RPMs and we should be turning about 7500," Tomes said of the boat's 60-cubic-inch Evinrude engine.

Crew Chief Jeramey Wentz requested that the #75 start at the rear of the field in hopes that once it got up to speed the engine would clear out and perform better.

"We thought we just had some water still in the system from where we swamped it on Saturday, but we couldn't keep a minimum speed and had to bring the boat back to the trailer.  We just couldn't stay out there running 20 miles per hour slower than the field and get in someone's way," Wentz said.

Once the boat was brought back to the pits, boat builder and former F2 series champion Gary Pugh tore down the engine and found a blown head gasket.

"We think that was the problem, but we'll have to test to make sure before we go to Memphis," Wentz said.

The engine failure resulted in an unofficial 12th place finish in the final.  The official finishing positions will be posted by the league on Monday.

Herd's next event for the Formula 3 boat program is July 30-August 1 at the Canadian-American Championship on the Mississippi River at Memphis, TN.