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.
The IHBA held it's 25th annual Lakefest race at Firebird International Raceway, a national event, in Phoenix.
Fontenot 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 9-second, quarter-mile bracket, where boats need to qualify between a 9.000- and a 9.999-second quarter-mile run.
Fontenot qualified No. 1 in his injected alcohol hydro, "I'm Back - Hot~n~Bothered", No. 669, with a 9.013 pass and was also the fastest boat in the class at 132 mph.
After all the qualifying and racing throughout the weekend, the defending world championship team, who include Ron Muetzenberg, James Porch and Nancy Lillywhite, left Phoenix with the first-place trophy.
The team, with help from its sponsors, Percival Construction; Hatch Electric; Carson Valley Transmissions; Summit Plumbing Co.; New World Painting; Auto Parts Depot and A Sign Shop, is gearing up for the next race, the 32nd annual Nitro Nationals in Red Bluff, Calif., over the Memorial Day weekend.
