Paul "Slick" Fontenot, a Douglas County resident, and owner of Slick Racing, a drag boat race team, based in Lake Tahoe, won the International Hot Boat Association's 2008 season opener in the Top Eliminator class this past weekend in Phoenix.
The IHBA held its 25th annual Lakefest race at Firebird International Raceway, a national event, where Slick went into the race as the defending 2007 Top Eliminator World Champion. The competition consisted of several former champions and top competitors in the Division 1 class of the IHBA.
The Top Eliminator Class is a nine- second 1/4 mile bracket, where boats need to qualify between 9.000 and 9.999 seconds in a 1/4 mile run. Slick qualified No. 1 in his injected alcohol hydro, "I'm Back - Hot~n~Bothered" No. 669, with a 9.013 time and was also the fastest boat in the class at 132 miles per hour.
After all the qualifying and racing throughout the weekend, the defending world championship team finished first and is now No. 1 in the points standings. The team also includes Ron Muetzenberg, James Porch and Nancy Lillywhite.
The team's sponsors include Nevada's Percival Construction, Hatch Electric of California, Carson Valley Transmission, Nevada's Summit Plumbing, New World Painting of California, Nevada's Auto Parts Depot and Nevada's A Sign Shop.
The next event, the 32nd annual Nitro Nationals in Red Bluff, Calif., will be held Memorial Day weekend.