HydroDrag racing coming to Palourde this weekend

HydroDrag racing will be held in Morgan City Saturday and Sunday as the Morgan City Mudbug Nationals, Round No. 2 of the Greenhulk.net U.S. HydroDrag Nationals, will be held at Lake Palourde.
Racing will begin Saturday at noon with the Blowsion Flatwater Freestyle Qualifying, followed by the All HydroDrag Classes Qualifying to Top 4 in each class from 1 to 5 p.m.
Racing will be held in Stock, Normally Asgirated, Spec and Superstock classes in the double-elimination tournament in what event promoter Mike Young said is essentially drag racing on the waterway.
While the stock class is the watercraft that is purchased at a local dealership, he said the unlimited is where “pretty much anything goes with the exception of alcohol and nitro methane used as fuel.”
Young expects speeds between 70 miles per hour to around 100 miles per hour, depending on the class, with the unlimited being the faster of the boats.
“It goes up around five to seven (miles) per hour in each class,” Young said.
On Sunday, racing will begin at 10:30 a.m. with the Waterfrontoo/IJSBA Slalom Competition, the Blowsion Flatwater Freestyle Competition at noon and the All HydroDrag Finals at 1 p.m. The Sea Doo Speed Alley Competition will be held at 2:30 p.m.
An awards ceremony will take place at the conclusion of the races, beginning at 4:30 p.m.
Parking for the races will be $5 and food and drinks will be sold.
Young said that they can be more flexible with these watercraft than bigger powerboats and will race if there is a “little bit” of chop in the water.
“We’re going to be a lot more flexible than the big boat people. … If it’s really choppy out there, yeah, I’ll slow things down but I’ll still have some on-water entertainment. We will have something going on at all times for everybody.”
Young expects several racers from Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, one from Iowa and many new riders from the local area, certainly because PWCperformance.com, a Morgan City company, is a sponsor.
GreenHulk.net also is a sponsor of this weekend’s event as well as the Cajun Coast Visitors and Convention Bureau. Sportsman Cycle and Marine in Morgan City provided the safety boats for the event, while the St. Mary and St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office are working with the event.
Young said that the idea is if the event this weekend is successful, that it could make a return.
While he said some racers will not attend due to apprehension about the new course, Young said that is normal for new race sites.
“Basically I’ve made this a double points round where riders must come to this one if they want (a shot at) a championship ring, so attendance may be down at this one, but it’s only because people take a wait-and-see approach on this,” he said.
This weekend’s event is the second of four stops on a national championship tour in which racers earn points while competing for a national championship.
Racers already have been to Orlando, Fla. and will be going to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and finally, Tavares, Fla.