Paul "Slick" Fontenot, owner of Slick Racing based in Lake Tahoe, won the Top Eliminator Class in the 30th annual International Hot Boat Association Nitro Nationals over the Memorial Day weekend.
Fontenot, a Kailua-Kona, Hawaii resident, is the driver of Slick Racing's drag boat "I'm Back Hot-n-Bothered."
The boat, a Deaver Pickle Fork Hydro, with a 474-cubic-inch alcohol-injected big block Chevy motor, consistently runs at 135 mph.
The Nitro Nationals was the second IHBA race on the circuit of eight races in Division I.
Slick Racing took fifth at the first race of the year and moved up to second in the national point standings with the win at Red Bluff last weekend.
Fontenot, the only drag boat racer in Hawaii, has been racing drag boats off and on since 1988. In 1991, he went to the Bonneville Salt Flats (Utah) with a B/Gas Lakester car as the driver and set the world record at 254.856 mph that stood for seven years. In 1993, Fontenot drove the same car at the El Mirage Dry Lakes, Calif., and set the A/Gas Lakester land speed record at 223.323 mph that also stood for seven years.
Slick Racing is planning to go to more Division I IHBA races this year with help from its sponsors, JRB Machine, Minden; White Sands Construction, Waikoloa, Hawaii; Percival Construction, Stateline; Hatch Electric, South Lake Tahoe; Carson Valley Transmissions, Gardnerville; Slick Harley Rentals, Big Island, Hawaii; and Auto Parts Depot, Gardnerville.
