Each summer we have a discussion about Unlimited Hydroplane racing and we have our friend of the show Brent Hall, driver of the 440 for the 2023 H1 Unlimited season. Brent joined Bucket List Racing to attain his H1 Unlimited driver’s license, a goal that Brent has been chasing since he became a rookie in 2007. He will be testing the boat at the Tri-Cities test session in June and will compete at the HAPO Columbia Cup in Tri-Cities and the Homestreet Bank Cup race in Seattle. Over the past 16 years, Brent has raced 1 liter, 2.5 stock, 5 liter, National Modified, Unlimited Light and F500 boats.

Brent’s wife Elsa now supports two racers as their son, Brent Jr. who turned 12 in November, is entering into his third season of junior hydroplane racing and showing some amazing promise behind the wheel as well.

Our other guests in this episode is boat sponsor Jay Boitano of Boitano Homes and tail sponsor Keith Bemasoni from Gutters by Keith. We discuss boat racing, home building and gutters all in this fast episode of Around the House.

To Find out more about H1 Unlimited racing: https://www.h1unlimited.com/

To Find out more about Bucket List Racing: https://www.h1unlimited.com/u-440-bucket-list-racing/

To Find out more about Brent Hall: https://www.facebook.com/brenthallracing/

To Find out more about Boitano Homes: https://boitanohomes.com/

To Find out more about Gutters by Keith: https://guttersbykeith.com/

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Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.

Mentioned in this episode:

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[00:00:07] Brent Hall: , brother. Oh, sure. And this is, you know, our sponsors are family members and so really happy to introduce Jay Boitano. He runs Boitano Homes and he's been a long sponsor of, uh, boat racing for since 2013. And then, uh, yeah, 10 years. Yep. Yep. 10 years. There he is. Uh, and then Keith, uh, runs gutters by Keith and he's new to our sponsorship team.

[00:00:39] Eric Goranson: goes. Well, it has already been a crazy racing season and, uh, you know, Brent, you've, uh, you've had struggles along the way, like every, I think every team's had struggles this year already.

[00:01:05] Eric Goranson: Welcome to The Round the House Show. This is where we help you get the most outta your home through information and education. Thanks for joining us today, by the way.

[00:01:33] Eric Goranson: If you wanna save money, go to root quencher.com. We've got a special episode because you know, in my area, limited Hydroplane racings coming back to the Pacific Northwest. And even though this is a national sport, why not have Brent Holland, his team back on today? Brent, welcome to Around the House, my friend.

[00:01:56] Eric Goranson: Absolutely. And then. There isn't [00:02:00] racing without sponsors and those are the guys that keep you out on the water every single week. You wanna make the introduction since they're your team brother?

[00:02:17] Brent Hall: He runs Boitano Homes. Mm-hmm. And he's been a long. Sponsor of, uh, boat racing for since 2013. And then, uh, yeah, 10 years. Yep. Nice. Yep. 10 years. There he is. Uh, and then Keith, uh, runs gutters by Keith and he's new to our sponsorship team. He's one of our Fanta sponsors and really excited to have board, and I have a good feeling that he'll be with us another 10 too.

[00:02:42] Eric Goranson: There you go. There you go. Well, it has already been a crazy racing season, and, uh, you know, Brent, you've, uh, you've had struggles along the way, like every, I think every team's had struggles this year already. Yeah.

[00:03:07] Brent Hall: And boy we're seeing it. The guys are duking it out and you know, we've had a little bit of carnage from some of the last two races, but boy we sure are gearing up for Seafair and obviously Tri-Cities is next. So we're, we're gonna bring a great.

[00:03:25] Eric Goranson: You know, it's, it seems like there's, uh, you know, we're, we're seeing a bunch of boats out there, which always makes it competitive for everybody else. But I wanna, I wanna talk about, you know, we've talked to you and we'll get more into your racing stuff before. Yeah. But let's talk about sponsors here and how you know, Jay Keith, how everybody else got involved here in racing.

[00:03:48] Jay Boitano: Well, uh, this is Jay Ano. Um, I grew up in Seattle, which has always been a hotbed for hydros. Mm-hmm. And when I grew up, my next door neighbor were the stone, [00:04:00] uh, Milo and Glen Stone. They owned this Exide Oh, wow. Back in, back in the sixties. Yeah. So when I.

[00:04:39] Jay Boitano: His, uh, little hydros that he raced know, hall and Brent got us in touch with first, first team that we, and then we pretty done every year since then. And, uh, last year we, we hit, hit lottery. We got done with racing and.[00:05:00]

[00:05:14] Jay Boitano: we're really excited about sponsoring Brent being out there. That'll be cool. So we can't wait for that to happen. An exciting year.

[00:05:23] Eric Goranson: I, I see some, uh, Looks like probably decent weather. I don't want to jinx it, but things are looking good and uh, you know, fingers crossed. But I think we're looking good and I think that just means great racing cuz you know, there's such history between tri-cities and, and Seattle as far as boat racing. I mean, it's just one of the, you know, one of the originals as I say.

[00:05:44] Jay Boitano: Yes, it's, and it's a gold cup this year. Make it even more important, more excited. Ah,

[00:05:57] Keith Bernasconi: Oh, well, well when I was a kid, uh, I grew [00:06:00] up in Skyway in the seventies and uh, uh, you know, we used to be able to hear the hydros from where we live.

[00:06:32] Keith Bernasconi: And the hydroplane would. You know, so, uh, but you know, it was always a lot of fun. And, uh, I know my grandma was, uh, uh, good friends with chip pan hour's, mom, and she'd go down there and, uh, I remember sitting on the water, you know, sitting with her and stuff. And, uh, you know, it's just really cool. And, uh, you know, of course Jay Boy Tano is awesome, and, uh, he's involved.

[00:07:01] Eric Goranson: That's awesome. That's awesome. And then Jay, you're still out there. I mean, we had to drag you off a job site today cuz you're out there making your clients happy, but uh, you're still building great homes out there, man. Well, well,

[00:07:17] Jay Boitano: And, uh, doing some spec homes and little custom, mostly spec homes. Yeah. Nice, nice. Yeah. And Pete, all our, for the last, I dunno how 30 years, five, 30

[00:07:31] Jay Boitano: Yeah. His father and I are best friends. And we've been friends for 40 years too, so it's

[00:07:41] Eric Goranson: No kidding. That's what family's about right there.

[00:07:44] Jay Boitano: Exactly. And Brent Hall, he.

[00:07:56] Eric Goranson: so, yeah, absolutely. Uh, so Brent, let's talk [00:08:00] about you for a minute. We've been talking to the boys here about, uh, building homes and gutters for a second, but let's talk racing for a second. Man. You, uh, it was fun to see you down at the test and tune getting out there and trying to get out there and, Of course, it's just like racing things don't always work out as, as they're planned.

[00:08:26] Brent Hall: Yeah. So we've talked about this a little bit, but hear it from a different angle. I mean, I. I, I love boat racing and have since 2007, but that wasn't how I started.

[00:09:01] Brent Hall: And then the driver that I was attached to, Harold Mills retired that next year and I was like, man, Okay. Uh, I had some great ideas about how we can market the sport. Um, but he retired. So I thought, well, in 2007 I'll boat out. Made it around the course. And, uh, you know, the rest is history. But one of the things that I'm really focused on is how do we get our names out there, um, as drivers.

[00:09:48] Brent Hall: They do. And so, you know, beautiful homes, these are homes that, uh, belong on the street of dreams and probably have been there before. So I think it's important for us to tell those stories and then, you know, you link [00:10:00] that to racing and, yeah, racing. Um, like you said, you know, there are some or pushing, uh, the little boat four 40 fast.

[00:10:35] Brent Hall: And so that includes drivers, that includes crew, that includes owners, that includes everybody. And so I'd imagine it's a little bit like the way Jim worked together. You know, you just, you got a project to work on, you wanna make sure you put your best foot forward. That's what we're gonna do. But regardless of the challenges without, uh, loading concrete, he was getting ready to this call.

[00:11:01] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And that's where I think the, the racing and the house building thing comes together because, you know, there's so many similarities in that because, you know, it is a team sport and if you've got weak members on the team, it hurts the whole team.

[00:11:42] Brent Hall: Yeah. You know, and that, that is a great example. Trying to figure out. We do. Um, you know, and I, I remember, uh, Adam, who's our turbine builder, and he was trying to figure out are there any parts that cross over from one boat to another? There weren't. So, you know, we, we [00:12:00] did have to sit out, but all the wiring's been replaced and so we're ready.

[00:12:29] Brent Hall: And I think my job just dropped. I did not expect them to wanna take the boat all the way across country at laps in. Not like you just dropped this in Lake was or run. Yep. So do it at the same race. And we were able to get eight of our last, uh, eight, and we need seven more. So we, we have a little bit more to get, but we're, we're on our

[00:12:50] Eric Goranson: Yeah, absolutely. And then of course your teammate has a, a pretty amazing blow over that. Uh, blew up on TMZ that, uh, made [00:13:00] it so everybody had to get back and get back to building it look like.

[00:13:14] Brent Hall: Now we got enough. Yeah. You know, so Justin's fine. You know, really glad that he's okay. Uh, I think the reason it blew up was because he landed perfect 360. Um, now I will say a perfect 360 when the boat pounds it caused of damage. Yeah. So team has been going through and replacing stringers that they, you know, um, kind of pulled everything apart, you know, uh, Madison loaned us through Yep.

[00:14:22] Eric Goranson: yeah, that's a fast boat.

[00:14:38] Jay Boitano: Um, I dunno, it's a lot different expensive

[00:15:10] Jay Boitano: So, yep. My name's on it. I want people to respect that and I gotta, you know, live up that reputation too. So.

[00:15:30] Eric Goranson: But, uh, you've always had that name of, of uh, you know, just a solid quality home builder up there and, you know, considerably different than some of the other guys that come in that are the national brands that come in and are just, uh, throwing stuff up left and right and maybe isn't as concerned about all the details that go into it.

[00:16:06] Eric Goranson: yeah. It's amazing these days too, and I just wanna say, you know, homes like yours out there where you've really got those.

[00:16:28] Eric Goranson: You gotta build a completely different home, right?

[00:16:40] Jay Boitano: it's us out a little bit. Yeah, yeah. Love. You know, I just love it, you know? Yeah. Bringing guys together, like coaching a football team, bring guys together, you pat some on the back, you yell at you, you put it all together and win game. [00:17:00]

[00:17:10] Eric Goranson: And that carries through the whole process. It's, you know, the whole project cuz you're having to, to, to deal with it. So it's, it's same thing when something happens on any other team out there. One person makes a mistake and everybody else has to, to carry the load to help fix it and get it across the finish line.

[00:17:49] Brent Hall: Yeah, it's a, it's a, pick them, you know, you, you really, it, it's, uh, You, you could draw straws to figure out who's gonna win. I think we've got some boats at corner [00:18:00] better. Um, Dustin has that now the record in Gunville for the, the Fastest Lap. And I think I remember them saying he's one of the top five people that have a lap over 170 miles an hour.

[00:18:33] Brent Hall: And Jay's gonna tease me cuz he'll be like, well, what about Brent Hall? And so Brent Hall is getting qualified and that's, that's a big part of it.

[00:18:50] Brent Hall: some luck. Yep, that's right. Luck. I'm

[00:18:54] Eric Goranson: Know

[00:19:17] Brent Hall: And then, you know, when he jumped, jumped to ano, it was like, Well, you know, there's a lot of, uh, competition out there. Homes, street's, looking really fast. Who took home the Seafair Cup And so funny story, Jay, uh, he said, go pick up the, the check and it's in my office. And of course it's right under the Seafair Trophy.

[00:19:44] Jay Boitano: Nice. We have, we have a lot of fun with this. We just love it. It's a good time of year. That's right.

[00:20:00] Eric Goranson: And so you can't sit there and go, well, I got the smaller boat. Yeah, you do. But you know something, even the piston boats can win, which means you're faster than they are, my friend.

[00:20:22] Brent Hall: Yeah. So it. Accelerates faster than the bigger boat. It's, the challenge is, is, uh, the weight, it's about 4,000 pounds, and the other ones are 6,500. So, going into the corners, I have to be really grateful. But at the same time, like you said, hey, anything can happen. And, uh, it's exciting stuff. I'm really, uh, beyond grateful to be in, uh, nine seats in Tri-Cities.

[00:21:05] Jay Boitano: Um, I've got,

[00:21:18] Brent Hall: Yeah, I was gonna say, I just

[00:21:19] Jay Boitano: say too, I'm excited that Keith's on with us too. He's gonna have a lot of fun down there. That's what it's all about. He's gonna come down for days. Have a lot of fun. Keith.

[00:21:36] Eric Goranson: Look at your homes. Oh, word of

[00:21:41] Eric Goranson: All right. There's your house builder here for you guys out there. And Jay, I'll let you get going, man. You gotta get to your, uh, clients and, uh, duty calls. Thank you. So you go ahead and jump on that, and we're just gonna continue on at the party, my friend.

[00:21:57] Brent Hall: See you later, Jay. Yeah. We have what's [00:22:00] called a Fanta. You're aware, um, you know, you're part of the community, you wanna help the boat, uh, go have a few sponsors on there. So we've got like Les Schwab and uh, Keith is his name will be right above that.

[00:22:31] Brent Hall: Yeah, yeah. Well,

[00:22:33] Keith Bernasconi: it's real exciting to be, uh, involved, especially with J Boy Tano. I mean, he's, uh, first Class Act and his, his house that he built are, uh, you know, just amazing, you know, and the quality, you know, everything's. Uh, and so I'm blessed to be able to be involved with him and, and, uh, you know, he, uh, was doing the, uh, uh, the boitano, uh, hydroplane race sponsorship.

[00:23:06] Eric Goranson: Yeah, that is great. So what are you seeing out there in the world of gutters these days? Man, it seems like it's super competitive out there and uh, of course sounds like you're tackling the east side of the Seattle metropolitan area.

[00:23:44] Keith Bernasconi: And, uh, we're just still doing, still doing the gutter thing.

[00:24:01] Keith Bernasconi: yeah, there, there was a lot of changes.

[00:24:24] Keith Bernasconi: But now, uh, Uh, it's way different. You got people, uh, uh, sending you emails, you got people texting you pictures of jobs. You got people leaving messages on your, uh, cell phone. You got people leaving messages on your landline. Uh, people try contacting you on Facebook. I mean, you know, so, so it's, it's a, it's a different, uh, it's really a different world from what it was, uh,

[00:24:52] Eric Goranson: Yeah. You know? Yeah. And it seems like with new construction homes too, that they've changed some building code as well and made it so, uh, that gutter system [00:25:00] is much more involved into a drainage system than just dropping it off at the foundation that they did 30 years ago. Yeah.

[00:25:13] Keith Bernasconi: Yeah. Yeah. And then a lot of those houses, you know, when it rains, you know, there's a lot of. Valleys and corners and you know, it's really important to control that water. Yeah. So,

[00:25:35] Eric Goranson: I mean, I can, every 15 minutes there's somebody else on the TV saying that they got the best gutter guards out. What's your opinion on that stuff?

[00:25:45] Eric Goranson: products out there. Yep.

[00:26:05] Keith Bernasconi: Um, when reality, there's really no such thing as a hundred percent never clean your gutter or unless you have like a four 12 comp and, uh, you know, there's fish maple leaves cuz every scenario's different. You have a different trees. Yep. Different types of pine needles, different pitches of roof. Some are valley, some are hips.

[00:26:49] Keith Bernasconi: And I'm always honest with our customers and. Tell 'em if certain houses, and I'll explain to 'em and show 'em where they're gonna have to keep 'em cleaned out and where they're still gonna have issues. [00:27:00]

[00:27:15] Eric Goranson: Right? Yeah. So, yep. Well done. Well done. And you know, that's one of those things too that, uh, you know, I love that because you're right, there's so many companies on there, and you're right, there's a hundred of 'em out there that, oh, you'll never do it again. There's no such thing that you can't ever clean again.

[00:27:37] Keith Bernasconi: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. There's, uh, You know, like I say, it, it prolongs the maintenance, but you, you, over a period of time, you still have some issues, you know, to take care of. It's not, you know, like I say, every situation's a little different, but it does prolong.

[00:27:59] Eric Goranson: that's good. [00:28:00] That's good. So, man, I can't wait to see, uh, your logo on the side of Brent's. Uh, Brent's Hydroplane there. That's gonna be good to see, man. Are you excited to see that, uh, out there in the water?

[00:28:17] Keith Bernasconi: That's

[00:28:31] Eric Goranson: And uh, you know, this is one thing too, guys, and uh, we have a lot of listeners across the country and in the podcast it goes internationally. You know, a lot of this stuff gets live streamed as well over on the H one site and stuff. So if you wanna. Experience this and you're like, Hey man, I'm in Florida.

[00:29:06] Eric Goranson: Yeah.

[00:29:26] Brent Hall: Yeah. So we're really excited about that. And then we also working with a company called Speed Sport One, and they're gonna do like, okay. Back in the day, espn, where they would kind of patch it the race weekend and put it in a 30 minute session, they're gonna do that. And then they also wanna bring a little more of that reality, like the behind the scenes of what happens with these different boat race teams and everything that went on, you know, behind the scenes when a boat blows over, you know, family's worried.

[00:30:15] Brent Hall: I have my own as a Brent Hall racing, but. Boy, could you imagine if, uh, bill Muncy had a, a Facebook page? Oh, man. I, I think, can you imagine Yeah. On that? Checking him out, seeing what he has to say. And, you know, we really have a new opportunity to push content out that people wanna experience and enjoy. And, you know, sometimes I'm, I help out with moderating the page and we interact directly with fans and.

[00:30:51] Eric Goranson: You know, Brent, you bring up an excellent point, and I gotta bring this up for Keith as well, but. This is the most accessible sport from [00:31:00] the fan perspective in professional sports because you guys are out there, you're hitting the crowds.

[00:31:41] Eric Goranson: And it was awesome. And, uh, once you get the bug, it doesn't go

[00:32:00] Brent Hall: So I would just say if you're interested, great experience. Definitely stop by bucket list racing, but any of the teams really will want you to engage with us, want you to understand about the sport. Happy to explain how things work. And you know, when we were in gunners will, um, we really made some magic moments and that was one of my goals, was how do we make magic moments to the fans, whether it's getting kids to sit in the boat.

[00:32:44] Brent Hall: So I just love that we're able to engage with that way. Kids are reading with a program called Racing to Read and uh, kids are reading to get free tickets to Seafair. So that's a another great thing that we're doing within the sport. [00:33:00]

[00:33:17] Eric Goranson: But it's just something you can take the whole family to and just make it a great event because, uh, tell you what, those kids absolutely love watching racing with that. And, uh, I think it's, I've never, I've seen races from, you know, NASCAR to indie to everything else. It, there is nothing like a kid watching the boats.

[00:33:39] Brent Hall: Yeah, I, I couldn't agree more. Now when, when you come by, Hero cards that the driver find. There's a, a new page that has a cutout every hydro place. So if you wanna make those into the little, That you either put up on your shelf or you can even make 'em bigger and, and tow behind your bike like Keith did.[00:34:00]

[00:34:05] Eric Goranson: that. That is great. And that's, that's what I think is great with the sport that's taken off right now, it's really seeming to get, you know, the, the sport has gone through a lot of different changes over the years, you know, and.

[00:34:39] Eric Goranson: And I think right now that, um, for people to go out and check right now, it's a much tighter sport because you didn't have two boats that were extremely well funded and that could throw money at everything. And now you've got much more parody within the sport, which to me makes for

[00:34:55] Brent Hall: Yeah. So, no, I think people are in for a real treat. Uh, See some [00:35:00] competitive racing to, um, fall in love with the drivers and, you know, pick your favorite, you know, and there's ones that you love to love and ones that you might love to hate. And that's all right. Watch us. You know? So I think that's, that's what it's all about.

[00:35:27] Eric Goranson: Yeah, no question. I mean, it's funny you say love to hate. I had that same thing because I was a, I was a, either a Budweiser or a Squire shop kid in the seventies, eighties and nineties.

[00:35:55] Brent Hall: be. Yeah, and I think, you know, it's, it's who you latch onto [00:36:00] and you'll see, like when you look at the Facebook page, the passion that the fans have for their different boat teams or, or the, the teams that they're competitive against.

[00:36:18] Eric Goranson: Well, I will say that was, uh, that was one of the things that I think that that helped, even though, you know, Dustin had a wild ride. I'm so happy he didn't have a hurt back outta that.

[00:36:43] Brent Hall: right. Yeah, so, uh, from the shore there were so many different angles of it.

[00:37:09] Brent Hall: And so I would just encourage it. Go check that out. Um, but there's so many different videos out on our one page or bucket list race. And, you know, and, and I'm gonna kind of circle back to why we didn't do this. And so, boy, one, the, the camaraderie that the team has, I'm gonna speak specifically to bucket list racing.

[00:37:49] Brent Hall: But man, we have fun and we laugh. We tease each other a lot. Uh, you know, I think that while, but you know, some of that behind the scenes, I think we're gonna capture some [00:38:00] of that and share that out. Just so you know, we're, we're a bunch of characters, definitely ones to follow.

[00:38:09] Eric Goranson: I don't wanna speak any bad about all the teams are that way. Yeah. So I wanna make sure I'm really clear with that. But, uh, your team, uh, you guys are going through the struggles of trying to, you know, again, you'll, you'll spend, you know, four weeks in a shop and it's running perfectly. As soon as you, you, you.

[00:38:46] Eric Goranson: And, uh, that says

[00:39:07] Brent Hall: But they were so matter of fact of Hey, that's what happened. Let's move forward. I was like, wow, Taylor, you that, that's a cool guy. So Taylor, and I'll just. Speak a couple names. Taylor, uh, Evans crew, chief Overall Crew Chief. Mm-hmm. Mike Lier is the crew chief for, uh, the, the four 40. And just the way they lead, you know, um, very thoughtful, but direct too, you know, we got stuff to do.

[00:39:46] Eric Goranson: question. No question. We've only got a few minutes left here, so I don't wanna take up too much of your time.

[00:40:09] Keith Bernasconi: yeah. Uh, call our landline, uh, (360) 802-0355. Uh, and my wife, Nancy, a lot of times answers the phone.

[00:40:34] Eric Goranson: and yeah. And Keith as a Yep. Gutters by keith.com. There we go. And, and Keith, I gotta say as a fan, and this is going out to J too cuz I'm sure he'll hear this as well, this sport cannot be happening without people like you stepping up to support these teams.

[00:41:14] Eric Goranson: But you have the vision to go, Hey, I'm gonna support this and, uh, I'm gonna bring this to the community. And hats off to you guys for, uh, for doing what's right in my eyes and, uh, supporting this great, great sport.

[00:41:29] Keith Bernasconi: thank you very much. Excited to, uh, enjoy the hydros. Oh yeah. Yep, absolutely. Yep. And if anybody ever needs gutters, gutters by keith.com.

[00:41:49] Brent Hall: to find you? Yeah, sure. So you can find us. Um, Facebook, Brent Hall Racing. Uh, also, Team page is bucket racing and then our overarching um, organization [00:42:00] is H one Unlimited.

[00:42:11] Eric Goranson: Keith, thanks for coming on. Brent Hall, Brent Hall Racing and bucket list racing. Yeah, brother, thanks for coming on today, my friend.

[00:42:21] Eric Goranson: means. Uh, no problem, man, and I'll see you, see you here coming up at Columbia Cup. Looking forward to catching you up with you there. Yeah, I so you got it. All right. I'm Eric G, and you've been listening too Around the House!