Episode 189: Bryce Todd, Part 1

We sit down with the GP-14 Armadillo Breeder's Association's new driver Bryce Todd and trace the path from Lake Chelan spectator to E350 racer who wins rookie national high points through consistency and grit. We also dig into what it really costs to keep Region 10 hydroplane racing alive and why Bryce now chases speed, setups, and records more than points. Remember, this is part 1 of a 2 part episode.  Look for part 2 to drop July 21st! Enjoy!

Transcript

Midseason Racing Scene Check

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Rooster Tale Talk, the podcast dedicated to everything about the sport that we all love. I do play racing. I am your host, David Newton, and it's time once again to sit back, relax, and welcome to Rooster Tale Talk. Hello, race fans. Welcome back to the podcast. Today is July 14th, 2026, and this is episode 189. Well, we're we're right in the middle of July. It's a hot season for hydroplane racing across the United States and Canada. We just wrapped up the Valley Field up in Quebec, Canada this last weekend. Some great Grand Prix racing going on up there, as well as the weekend before over in Madison, Indiana, with H1 Unlimited with Grand Prix America Hydroplanes. Just tremendous racing all around, and we've got more racing coming up. And that means people are busy trying to race and prep. So it's hard to get these interviews right now, but I want to thank Bryce Todd for making some time. He's part of a brand new team that just formed this year with owned by J Ly Crone and Denise Garl. And they're going to be racing in the Grand Prix American series, starting out in Tri-Cities in just a few weeks. I know they're thrashing over there at their shop. They just showed some pictures of some paint getting put on the boat, and they've got to put all the electronics, hardware, and gear inside that boat to prep. But we're going to talk to their new driver. He's a young one, and he's only raced for a handful of years and hasn't had experience getting Grand Prix. So it's going to be exciting to see how this team forms and how they mesh together and where they can take their team with this series. But we're talking with Bryce Todd. And for those who don't know Bryce that well, you're going to get to know him in this episode because this episode, part one of my interview with him, will be a two-parter. But today's episode, we're going to go into his background of racing, his love of racing, hydroplanes, and everything in between. And then next episode, we're going to talk about him getting his seat in the Grand Prix Hydroplane and their team's plans for the remainder of the series for this season. So let's jump in and get to know Grand Prix newcomer Bryce Todd.

Meeting Grand Prix Newcomer Bryce

SPEAKER_02 3:04

Bryce, how are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Doing good today, David. Um it's been nice weather out. Got to watch some boat racing. I actually listened to one of your podcasts at work today. So doing pretty good today. How about yourself?

SPEAKER_02 3:18

I'm doing, I'm doing well as well. I'm on summer break, so every I'm enjoying my summertime right now with my son. And uh just uh I'm glad that the the hydro season's finally here.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Yeah, yeah, it's a long wait, it seems like, sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 3:33

Oh yeah, oh yeah. And I appreciate you taking time out of your schedule. I know you got lots going on right now outside of your day job. You've tried to get your team together here for a few weeks to start racing. Yeah. So before we talk about uh the GPs, I want to know more about yourself. How did you get introduced to the sport? What's your background with hydroplane racing?

Growing Up Around Lake Chelan

SPEAKER_00 3:55

So, introduction to the sport kind of different than most. Um, my family's not from boat racing or anything. Um, my brothers not involved, they don't even watch it. Um, my dad used to race uh roading course cars, um, like Pacific Raceways and Portland International stuff. Okay. Uh he was a big big rotary guy, but he got out of it because I was the third kid. My mom kind of cut him off on the racing. Um, but we grew up over in Manson, uh Lake Shillan. Oh, yeah. Okay. And so so my dad took me to, you know, the the Shillan races and the Manson races, and uh, we would go to Paterras as a whole family every year. I don't think we ever missed Paterra's.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Then uh and then my my uncle Frank always took me down to Mahogany Merlot because he loved watching the vintage boats, and you know, it kind of stemmed from there, just just loved watching them. And uh, you know, since I was a little kid, always wanted to be one of the drivers, and um, you know, I had to kind of wait till I had my own money and time to do it because my family didn't they would like to go watch it here and there, but um, just growing up in Shillan, there's hydros, and you know, there's even a lot of offshore boats over there, so I just got addicted to boats in general.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Yeah, it's a great community for for boat racing and just boats in general, like you said. Yeah, and it's it's interesting to hear this because a lot of people I talk on the sh on the show have a more of a background following hydr like unlimiteds, right? But uh unlimiteds don't I mean they're there for the mahogany Merlot, but it's not the same as Seafair and Columbia Cup. So it sounds like we had more of an influence on the inboard racing in Manson than anything else.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Oh oh for sure, yeah. I I didn't really get into uh watching unlimited until I was well, whenever I got a phone, probably 14 or 15. Um but from there, yeah, it was just you know that once or twice a year I got to go to an inboard race, and and that's really it.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

Yeah. I'm always curious too. That was anyone that stands out when you're following those inboard races. Did you talk to anyone that was kind of helpful that kind of maybe prodded that interest?

SPEAKER_00 6:10

So when I when I was a little kid, I don't you know remember a ton. Actually, one photo that's gone around and um uh Tiffany and Kip Brown and have laughed about it a few times. Is um I've got photos in the pits with my dad when I was really little of the terrace with um, I believe which would be Jeff Bernard and Kip Brown's five liter in front of me and my dad. And then I have a bunch of photos of me standing in front of Wally Johnson's five-liter. Oh, yeah. Um, when I was a little kid, which was cool because I got to show Wally that photo before his passing. Um, that I was a little kid that was influenced by his boat down at Pateris. And then, you know, he was there supporting either Steve Huff or Justin Weymouth that owned the boat at the time, and I was racing against him with my own boat, and that was that was really cool to see Wally get excited about that.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

Yeah, yeah. So some names that are no longer with us, unfortunately, but some yeah, some big influences there for you.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Oh, they're huge, they were huge in the racing community, you know.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

Yeah. It's it's not easy to start off racing these things. It's not there's not a store you can really go to, and it's it's more expensive than most think. So without you know, a lot of financial support, where where'd you start out?

Finding A Way Into Racing

SPEAKER_02 7:26

When when did you start racing and in what class?

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Well, um I started buying random jet boats and and V drive boats, and uh just it was what I could afford, and uh kind of went into doing almost like what you would consider street racing, just me and my buddies had jet boats and V drive boats, and we'd go down the random lakes and you know have fun, and but I wanted more, you know. I wanted to get into actual racing, and um I bought a I bought a boat from a guy out in a belief the homish. And uh I told him, I was like, Yeah, these are fun, but I really want to get into real racing. And he was like, Oh, well, I have a buddy, he doesn't race, but he's he he's into the vintage inboards, and uh maybe I can contact you with him. Well, that's Sean Kelson, which is now I believe the president of uh vintage and historic. And uh me and Sean over the years have become extremely good friends, and Sean actually was my crew chief and radio guy for all three years that I've raced. He's been my crew chief, radio guy. We've become great friends. I've worked on his boats, and um, but yeah, just that's how I got introduced is some random guy knew a guy and gave me a phone number.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

Yeah, you just gotta get connected to the right person. That's all it takes, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:53

And uh, so I uh I started hanging out with uh Sean, and and then that's down to me meeting a guy in uh competition racing, um, David Lemmon. He runs uh One Leaders. So then I started helping David and and you know it snowballed from there, and now it's pretty much all I do.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

It consumes us all, right? Hydroplane recently consumes us.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

So you so you started out in the one leader class, is that right?

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Well, I wasn't driving for Dave, I was just uh a crew guy, okay, working on the boats and you know, late late nights and building motors. And um what actually happened is I Sean and Dave were talking to me one day and they kind of what class do you want to get into? What do you want to drive? What do you want to own? And I'm an I'm an engine guy, I've been building the engines since I was a little kid, and uh, so I knew I was gonna build my own motors, and I was like, well, I want to find something with what I like to build. Well, that ended up being an E350 or you know, the small block Chevy class.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

And uh I happened to tell them, I was like, I really like this class. And Sean was like, Well, that's not a great class to start in, but if that's what you want, because I'm a bigger guy too, so the one liters and two fives kind of looked a little small to me.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

And um just happened to be as we were talking about that, and we came up with that conclusion, a gentleman by the name of Kurt Myers was pulling into the pits with um his E350, and he happened to have another one for sale. And I think I bought it like two or three weeks later.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

And then that's where the start with the E350s happened, and that's pretty much the class I've been in ever since then.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

Okay, okay. It's a great class. Uh, it's a race, I think it's a popular one. Yeah.

unknown 10:47

Yeah.

First E350 Heat Reality Check

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Well, what was it like getting in there the first time driving the 350? Because, like you said, it wasn't like a really beginner class. It was kind of thrown in there.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

No, no, it's it's it's not really a beginner's class in in most people's opinion. I thought that I did decent uh for my first year. Um, but we you know we can get there later. But first time was actually one of my funniest stories I have. I didn't get any testing time at all. We uh we put this thing together and we tried to go to taps and had some issues with oil and tore everything apart. And by the time I finally got the boat together, it was the first race of the year, Lake Lawrence in in Yelm. And uh not a lot of E350 showed up. Uh it was only me and Justin Weymouth, which um now owns Wally's Hold Boat, which is um record holding boat, with the driver um Jeff Bernard in it.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

So that's a pretty well-known name.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

So it was it was me and a boat that needed quite a bit of updates, overweight, um, and you know, first time in the motor, had some used props. I didn't really know what I was doing yet. And then I had um was going with Jeff Bernard in one of Justin Weymouth's boats. I can't remember which boat it was, I believe it was the 20 at the time. Um, and uh we go out there and get on plane, and I'm using the radios, communicating, trying to figure out how everything works. And uh we we make the start. I I thought I was doing really good in the boat and going fast, and then and then Jeff Bernard lapped me at about four times my speed. And that's kind of when I was like, Oh, I I've got a lot to learn. Yeah, um, but the whole weekend and and and honestly, the whole season from them, Jeff and uh Kip, Gunnar, O. Farrell, Dave Lamb, Sean, all those guys are kind of what you always hear. The most helpful, most big racing family. Everyone just wants you to succeed and be happy. They were all there to give advice, even competitors.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

Yeah, fantastic. Yeah, I love hearing that too. Yeah, like I hear that word family thrown around so often with boat racing. Uh, because people want like people want more to come around and succeed and and share those moments, which is just fantastic to hear from from you. Oh, yeah. So, where'd you take it from there? How how did you kind of like build your confidence level and what's where'd you go from there?

SPEAKER_00 13:33

So

Seat Time And Rookie Confidence

SPEAKER_00 13:34

I believe my confidence level was built on my first year because I wanted as much experience as I could get in in in the first year, yeah. And so I believe I went to eight or nine Region 10 races. There seemed to be a lot of races that year in our region. Yeah, um, so I went to every race I could in the region, and then um we go to Manson, and in my mind and everyone else's mind, you know, that was the last race of the year in Region 10. So I figured this weekend, pull the motor out, work on the boat, put it away for the winter. Um, you know, I learned a lot that year, just seat time. That's all that you you hear that from everyone more seat time. And uh I was thinking it was Sunday at Manson. I was like, Well, the season's over. I had a lot of fun, I can't wait for next year. And Jeff Bernard comes up to me and goes, Well, you can win high points on your rookie year in this class. And I said, And I said, What do you what do you mean? And he goes, Because I I didn't know really, I wasn't following points or anything, I was just trying to get sea time. Yeah, and Jeff goes, You're the only boat that's gone to every race, start and finished every heat, except for one. I had one one issue, um, and it only took me on one heat. And he goes, you know, I wasn't the fastest, and um, but I was consecutive and I went to every race, and and Jeff was like, Yeah, if you go to Florida and you start and finish, like if you start and finish two heats, you know, because the only guy on my tail at that time was Corey Peabody, apparently. Okay, and he just had the he just got the bad influence five leader that year, and he was way faster, but he didn't he missed out on the first few races of the year. And he's like, But if you go to Florida and start and finish two heats, even if Corey's there, uh he can't he can't get ahead of you. And I was like, Oh, I don't really care about points, you know. I really care about, you know, uh, I'm always attracted to records and all this stuff, and that's where we've stemmed from now, is that's what we're really trying for. But at that time, I had no idea about points or anything. I knew they were a thing, but I didn't look, yeah. And so then I started looking, and I'm like, shoot, I could win national high points my rookie year. I'm in a good spot, yeah. And it went from like, uh, I can't really afford it. Like, that's a lot of money to go to Florida and back and hotels and airfare, and I'd have to pay someone to drive the truck. And um, the guy I got started with, David Lemmon, was like, What if I what if I help you?

The Florida Trip For High Points

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Like, I want to see this happen for you. What can I do to help? And I'm like, I don't know, David. I can't just take your money to do this. Yeah, and he's like, Well, let me make you a deal, let me pay for the gas and airfare, and you know, we'll maybe we'll split some other things. And he goes, Let's put my one liter on the roof of your truck on a construction rack, yeah, and we tow your boat on till, and then we both go to Florida, and I'm like, You're crazy. And we ended up doing it, and so yeah, there was a lot of pictures out that year because Jeff, uh Jeff and Corey actually ended up doing the same thing. They put Jeff's two five on Corey's roof, and Corey towed his five leaders. So kind of cool to see two or four West Coast teams hook up and and go all the way to Florida with boats on the roofs of their truck.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

But it was it was a really good time. I ended up winning high points uh rookie season in 23 and and um just learning so much from so many people, and you know, and and I built a lot of car motors before, and that season was the year of me pulling my motor out every single weekend to change something because even though I built so many motors, I learned that hydroplane motors are completely different, yeah. And so I had had to pull it out every weekend to change something until I started figuring out what the boat actually wanted. Well, and so going into the years after, um, the boat got a lot faster, and with me being more confident in the boat, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:05

Right, yeah. I mean, it's a lot a lot to learn, right? I mean, you're still learning. I think you never stop learning with a sport. What else?

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Oh, god, even Dave Vilwalk says, you know, even up to his retirement, he said he still learned stuff. You know, it's it's incredible. It's you know, we don't have we can't rent a track and go run 500 laps like uh NASCAR guys do, right? Um, so it's it's really hard, and especially, you know, our tracks aren't the same, they change every not even every weekend, they change every lap. Yeah, and so you're you're learning constantly, no matter what.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's so unique in so many aspects. Um just wild to think about that. But well, what did that mean though? Rookie year just started out and you won the national high points.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

It was um kind of surreal, you know. I uh I actually I couldn't get time off work to even go to the awards banquet. Oh no, Dave Dave and Sean were going, yeah. And um didn't didn't really comprehend it all until Dave came to my house one day with a big plaque and paperwork and a you know and a high points ring, and I was like, and then and then you know you look you look it up on the website and it's your name, and it's like, wow, actually I did that, which is it's pretty cool to think about. And it's you know, and uh in the West Coast, I wouldn't say as much now, um, because we have been struggling with some race sites up here, but especially 2023 and before the West Coast or Region 10 in general was we're kind of blessed with our race sites. You know, we had nine or ten race sites within a four-hour drive, right?

SPEAKER_02 21:00

Right.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

You know, but if you were in Seattle,

Region 10 Sites And Rising Costs

SPEAKER_00 21:02

your farthest race was four hours, four and a half hours. Yeah, and you could hit nine races a year. Some of these guys in the East Coast, I have so much respect for. I had them doing two-day drives just to go race. And I mean, we got that with the Florida situation, that's about as far as you can drive, right? But it's just incredible to think they're doing that every week and to go race, and we don't have to do it at all. And so when you're up in region 10 and all these races are going on, it's I'm not gonna say easier, but it's a lot cheaper to go after high points because you're not traveling so much miles. I mean, it's still a lot of work to be consistent and fast, but the uh less effort you have to put into uh spending money and travel time and time off work to get high points up up here is is was pretty incredible.

SPEAKER_02 21:57

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we we're blessed with that. What's the schedule down to now? I I know there's been some sites that aren't are on the schedule anymore.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

Yeah, I mean we've we've had some issues. Uh Yelm hasn't been around for a few years, um, two two years to be exact. Soap Soap Lake, which is crazy fast water. I never got the opportunity to run in Soap Lake. Um, it hasn't been around. There were some issues with the park. Oh uh Oak Harbor has been having issues the last few years, hasn't been around. And then this year it came down to I don't think this year was really a race site problem. I actually believe it stems more from everything costs a billion dollars now. Yeah, it's so and I think and I think the club has come to a little struggle with that with uh the cost of cranes. I can't I can't even begin to explain how much the cranes went up in cost. I mean, I think they not even tried. Tripled, maybe even more than that in cost.

SPEAKER_02 23:04

Jeez.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

And uh, and then of course there's the cost of the fuel. And uh you know, so you gotta you gotta have guys that want to go to eight races a year to put on eight races a year, but when you're paying six dollars a diesel in your hauler, yeah, you know, a lot of guys can't afford to do that. And so I believe this year was down to about five. Um, but then all these fires and and storms up in Shillan caused a big uh thing of logs coming down the river, and so they even had to they had to cancel the first race of the year about a week before the race. Yeah, and then now now they're even second guessing if Manson still you know up lake is even gonna happen at the end of the year, um just because the amount of logs and stuff, it's just a safety thing. The town loves the boats. Um I was up I was up in Manson just last week, and there's stickers of boats on restaurant windows and stuff, but it's just um it's a safety thing, and hopefully, if they can't put it on because of that, maybe we can uh resource back to another uh race site, I believe is the hope.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Um so then we at least still have another race.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

Yeah, I hope so too. Yeah, I've seen some pictures of the like of the logs in the lake there, and it's uh yeah, it's pretty gnarly the amount of logs in the lake.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

It's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

Yeah. Well, getting back to your your racing career, I know it's been a short time so far, but what's been your biggest accomplishment so

Chasing Records After Setbacks

SPEAKER_02 24:38

far?

SPEAKER_00 24:40

I would I would say my biggest accomplishment is probably high points on my rookie year. I mean my rookie year it didn't seem like much, but now I look back at it, I'm like, that's a pretty good big deal, and especially that class, um, to come out and race against guys um as high up as they are, and and and guys with a bunch of money and stuff because uh I don't have that feature. Um it's it's pretty cool to say I did that. Um I don't believe I'm gonna go after high points anytime soon again. I'm more stemmed on trying to see how fast we can make the boat. Um, I really love the idea of records. Um, I think records are really cool. It's always been something I want to pursue, not only in um boat racing. I just thought I always thought records were cool and everything. I pay attention to all these new top fuel records they're setting. And uh and I did I hung out a lot with um Steve Huff. Okay, and uh and he was he was really big in records too, land speed record, dirt track, you know, dirt bike records, stuff like that. Um and so that was why me and Steve got along great because we we all had we had the same mindset um of setting a record, you're doing something no one's ever done before. Yeah, um, which is really cool. Am I close to setting one? I I don't think so at the moment. Uh we had the boat really fast at Black Lake last year, okay. Um, and it was just gonna keep getting faster, except uh after Black Lake, I ended up running into a an a medical issue, and uh I ended up in the hospital from the week after Black Lake all the way until after the whole season was over. I was just three months straight. Oh my god, and so the boat stuff kind of took a big halt, yeah. And um, you know, and then we got out, and then this season um we decided to the my boats my 350 boat is uh quite a bit overweight, and uh it needed quite a bit of updates, um, you know, adjustable parts and um getting rid of some weight. My boat used to be a two-wing, um, from Jones senior built my boat in the in the 90s, okay, and um it got filled in later in life, and so it's just it's just heavy because it's been filled in, and so it kind of turned into um a big demolition on the boat, decks off, belly pan out, transom out, and then um, so this year we're we're pretty far behind.

SPEAKER_02 27:37

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, sorry to sorry to hear about the medical issues and and all that, but I'm glad you made it through. And it's it's one thing to get high points, like you said, but I think the route you're going, you're you're learning more by doing that, right? Because you're really focused on the setups and and all that.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

Yeah, it's great to race a lot and change stuff just to see what happens.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

Well, I want to ask this question, and it's I I know I'm gonna have a different answer because you've got kind of a different background with this, but who who was your favorite hydroplane and driver growing up? Do you have one?

SPEAKER_00 28:14

You know, when I was uh watching inboards as a kid, um, I didn't know who

Favorite Drivers And A Wild Flip

SPEAKER_00 28:19

they were at the time, but I always liked Wally's boat. I'm guessing it was either Wally or his kid driving the boat back then. Yeah, and then um my dad still to this day loves the vintage boats. My dad loved watching the vintage inboard buccaneer. Oh, yeah. So we always really watched out for those two. Um, when it came later on, the unlimited, I was a I always liked watching Steve David. And then um, and then that kind of stemmed into I was a I was a big fan of Andrew Tate um once I got older and Tate got into um Mike Jones's boat, uh U9, I believe, in 2016. Uh I watched the whole 2016 series really close, as close as I could. And uh wasn't just a huge fan of Tate, loved the way he drove a boat, and and uh you know he's he's always hanging it out loose, and I always thought it was really cool to watch.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

Oh, yeah, yeah. He's he's one of those guys that he he uh has no fear and he hangs it on the edge all the time.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Yeah, well, and then speaking about Andrew having no fear, uh my rookie season in Florida. Um, when we went down to Florida was my first time meeting Andrew. I met him I met him before the race on Saturday, introduced myself. We ended up drinking our morning coffee together on my boat and talked for a little bit, and it was it was pretty cool to finally meet him. And then um I realized I was actually in a heat with him. He was driving the Penzoil 350, the yellow 350. Okay, and I was like, Oh, this is cool. I get to race with Andrew, and then I believe it was the first lap. Andrew blew the boat over right in front of me, and I was like, Oh, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

So you you haven't gotten to race with him then yet, technically.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

Uh a lap, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

A lap.

SPEAKER_00 30:15

I believe, I believe one lap.

SPEAKER_02 30:17

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

He was he was way out front of me, so I was just watching him drive away.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

Oh, that's funny. Well, I I think as you continue, you're gonna get some more experience to do that. Yeah. Well, knuckleheads, once again, that's all the time we have for this week. Make sure you come back next week as we're joined once again with Bryce

Part Two Preview And Where To Follow

SPEAKER_02 30:40

Todd for part two of his interview, as we'll talk more about him jumping into the Grand Prix ranks as he as he joins the Grand Prix American Racing Series with a newly formed team, the GP14 Armadilla Breeders Association. In the meantime, don't forget to check us out online. We're on social media, Instagram, Facebook, as well as our website at RichartellTalk.com. Don't forget to check out the Richotel Talk Plus subscription, as you get early access to all episodes, you get some other fun things along the way, and you can check out our website for more details on that. But that's all we have for today. So until next time, I hope to see you at the race.