Thirlby Racing’s Eric Vanover, Jason Sailer win titles on Friday in DePue

DEPUE — Eric Vanover has been racing boats for 48 years.

For the last five years, he’s been racing in the pro category.

At age 60, Vanover earned his first national championship when he captured the crown in the 700 Hydro on Friday at the Lake DePue Pro/Mod/Junior National Championships.

“It feels great,” Vanover said. “It’s my first one in the pro category. I’ve had a lot of help, but it feels very, very good.”

Vanover’s teammate with Thirlby Racing, Jason Sailer, also brought home some hardware as he won the 500 Runabout for the third consecutive season.

“There’s nothing better,” Sailer said. “With the Thirlby Automotive Team, every time I get in the boat it’s wicked fast and all I have to do is find a good start and just hang on basically. It’s always fun to drive.”

Vanover overcame some adversity to win his title.

He was unable to finish the first heat due to engine issues but came back to win the final two heats to win the event.

“We destroyed  a lower unit on the motor and we had to switch to a different one so we could go out for the second and third heats,” Vanover said.

Vanover came back strong for the final two heats with wins in both.

“I just found my number out there,” said Vanover, who has three more races this weekend with two capsule classes and a modified outboard. “I tried to stay on the outside away from all the guys who want the inside and just get a good, clean, decent start.”

Sailer said he had some good fortune during his heats.

“I didn’t have the greatest start but got lucky with somebody having jumped the gun so I was able to work my way through the field a little and get into that second spot behind the guy who was out from the jump, so that helped,” Sailer said. “The second heat we were running second and the same guy was out front running great and had some motor issues and broke down. The last heat we just needed to finish basically.”

Sailer will race in the 700 Runabout on Saturday and the 1100 Runabout on Sunday.

“I’m hoping everything goes well in those,” Sailer said.

While Sailer and Vanover still have races on the schedule, Mike Akerstrom finished a successful week of racing Friday with a win in the 850 MR, which is one of the new classes in DePue this year.

“It feels really good to win a title,” said Akerstrom, who earlier in the week won the 750 MR. “My father and I have been working on this for a lot of years and it’s been a lot of effort from a lot of people coming together. We’re really thrilled to win two titles.”

Akerstrom said he managed to stay consistent in the 850 despite several restarts in the event.

“(The restarts) don’t affect my approach much,” Akerstrom said. “I’ve been honing my craft for a lot of years now. I’ve seemed to have found a couple of things that work.

“I think the main thing was being consistent on the start. I had a really tight strategy with a couple of waypoints to get to the start and it worked out really well. When we hit zero, I was pretty much right there every time so I’m pretty satisfied.”

While Akerstrom won titles in two events that are new to DePue this summer, he’s raced on Lake DePue in the past.

“I’ve been here before and run some pro stuff and it’s always a great time to come to DePue,” Akerstrom said. “There’s really nothing else like this in the United States.”

Other winners Friday were Mike Hauenstein in the 200 MH, Logan Sweeney in the 350 MR, Carson Kelly in the K Pro Hyrdo, Brian Palmquist in the 125 Hydro and Jonathan Nilsen in the C Service Hyrdo.

Thursday winners were Kelly in the K Pro Runabout, Braxton Miller in the 350 MH, Brody Wyant in JH, Michael Smith in 200 MR, Mike Werner in 125 Runabout, Duke Johnson in C Racing Hydro and John Peeters in OSY-400 Hydro.

Racing resumes at 10 a.m. Saturday.