Top dogs: Bounty, Tylenol Rapid Release
Bounty, Tylenol Rapid Release sponsor-team champs in ‘07; Castrol, Slim Jim close out season with Detroit River wins
With sponsors supporting more teams than ever before – comprising some of the hottest bass anglers in the world – 2007 was nothing short of a battle royal for pros wearing the colors on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour. Emerging victorious from the melee to capture the Division I and Division II crowns were teams Bounty and Tylenol Rapid Release, respectively.
Though technically an unofficial contest, competition among sponsored teams reached a fevered pitch by season’s end. Some teams could consistently be spotted at or near the top of the overall leaderboard (check Team Duracell, which only was unseated from the top of Division I after event No. 5) while others yo-yoed with make-or-break performances (observe Team Tylenol Sinus, which picked up a Division II win early in the season only to finish in the lower half of the standings). And regardless of affiliation, it was clear that sponsored pros in general came to play, most notably evidenced by the Potomac River tourney in June, at which six of the top 10 finalists were team members.
But while the season as a whole, from beginning to end, provided exciting competitions among sponsor teams, it was the Lake Norman event in late April that provided the pivotal moment for the eventual champions. It was there that both Team Bounty and Team Tylenol Rapid Release laid claim to their first divisional wins of the year and became firmly entrenched in the upper reaches of the standings.
Tylenol Rapid followed up Lake Norman with another win at the next event, Beaver Lake, at which point the team topped the Division II standings, where it remained for the rest of the season. Bounty picked up its second win at the Potomac – stop No. 5 of the tour’s six regular-season events – effectively staging a coup that dislodged Duracell from the top of the Division I heap (Duracell was the only other sponsor team to win two events this year).
Every member of Team Bounty contributed significantly to the team’s Division I championship win: Ken Wick of Star, Idaho, got things rolling at Lake Travis – stop No. 1 – by finishing in 24th place and then grabbed his first top-10, as well as lots of points for the group, with a fourth-place finish at the Potomac – stop No. 5; Jacob Powroznik of Prince George, Va., also kicked in a fourth-place finish at Beaver Lake – stop No. 4 – and followed it up with 20th place at the Potomac; and Craig Powers of Rockwood, Tenn., topped a strong team showing at Lake Norman – stop No. 3 – with an 18th-place performance.
For Division II champ Tylenol Rapid Release, it was all Gabe Bolivar of Ramona, Calif., also the 2006 Gain Rookie of the Year. Bolivar hit his stride at Lake Norman with a ninth-place finish and finished out the season with great performances at the Potomac, 13th, and stop No. 6 at the Detroit River, 23rd.
Though unofficial team competition has ended for 2007, don’t forget that many of these fine sponsored pros qualified for the Forrest Wood Cup and will compete in the biggest event in bass fishing Aug. 2-5 on Arkansas’ Lake Ouachita. Keep up with their progress through full coverage at FLWOutdoors.com and join us again for sponsor-team action in 2008 (coverage of sponsor teams at the Detroit River as well as standings and an explanation of scoring are detailed below).
Division I
A late-season push from Team Castrol at the Detroit River translated into its first event win of the season and secured it runner-up status in the final Division I standings for the year. Castrol outpaced Team Kellogg’s by 10 points for the win.
Consistency was key to Castrol‘s win, but Carl Svebek III of Siloam Springs, Ark., was the star of the show, earning a great 12th-place finish, his strongest of the season on the FLW Tour. Without commendable finishes across the board for Castrol, it would have been difficult to beat Kellogg’s, which was led by an incredible eighth-place finish from two-time Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year Clark Wendlandt of Leander, Texas.
Division II
Team Slim Jim edged out overall Division II champion Tylenol Rapid Release for the win on the Detroit River, with only five points separating them. The win also boosted Slim Jim four places in the year-end standings to a final position of fourth.
Michael Murphy of Gilbert, S.C., fishing in his rookie year on tour for Slim Jim, picked up his best FLW Tour finish of the year – 18th – to anchor the win.
Explanation of team scoring
Sponsor teams were divided into two divisions: Division I, comprising teams of three or more professional anglers, and Division II, comprising teams of fewer than three pros. Competition among sponsor teams competing on the FLW Tour is unofficial, though scores are based on the actual, official finishes earned by pros on sponsored teams.
Points in the 2007 sponsor-team race were earned during the FLW Tour’s six qualifying events and monitored throughout the season. Standings are based on the average number of points earned by a team’s anglers as assigned in the FLW Tour’s Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year competition.
Final 2007 standings
Final overall standings for sponsor teams competing on the 2007 FLW Tour have been tallied:
Division I (teams with three or more anglers)
1. Bounty – 839.67
2. Castrol – 802.00
3. Duracell – 761.00
4. BP – 749.88
5. Kellogg’s – 735.00
6. Folgers – 694.00
7. BFGoodrich Tires – 675.00
8. Gain – 651.00
9. National Guard – 627.33
10. Chevy – 614.00
11. A&W – 568.67
12. Land O’Lakes – 549.00
13. Fujifilm – 524.17
Division II (teams with fewer than three anglers)
1. Tylenol Rapid Release – 994.00
2. Suave – 967.00
3. PTSI – 827.00
4. Slim Jim – 807.00
5. Banana Boat – 801.00
6. Imodium – 729.00
7. Berkley – 724.00
8. Snickers – 700.00
9. M&M’s – 690.50
10. Wal-Mart – 652.00
11. Totino’s – 644.00
12. Pedigree – 634.00
13. Lawry’s – 631.00
14. Tylenol Sinus – 624.00
15. Pepcid – 609.00
16. Spiderwire – 596.00
17. Hamburger Helper – 475.00
18. Wet Ones – 407.00
19. Abu Garcia – 221.00
Detroit River results
Sponsor teams competed in the most recent FLW Tour event at the Detroit River/Lake Erie near Detroit, and results from that event have been tallied:
Division I (teams with three or more anglers)
1. Castrol – 154.40
2. Kellogg’s – 144.20
3. National Guard – 141.17
4. A&W – 134.33
5. BP – 118.62
6. Folgers – 118.00
7. Bounty – 109.33
8. BFGoodrich Tires – 106.67
9. Gain – 85.67
10. Fujifilm – 73.33
11. Duracell – 50.00
12. Chevy – 43.00
13. Land O’Lakes – 37.00
Division II (teams with fewer than three anglers)
1. Slim Jim – 183.00
2. Tylenol Rapid Release – 178.00
3. Suave – 175.00
4. Pepcid – 164.00
5. Banana Boat – 154.00
6. Pedigree – 143.00
7. M&M’s – 115.00
8. Wet Ones – 114.00
9. PTSI – 109.00
10. Tylenol Sinus – 100.00
11. Hamburger Helper – 88.00
12. Snickers – 78.50
13. Berkley – 72.50
14. Spiderwire – 67.00
15. Lawry’s – 61.00
16. Totino’s – 43.00
17. Imodium – 39.00
18. Abu Garcia – 37.00
19. Wal-Mart – 17.00
Other notable finishes among pros on sponsor teams at the Detroit River, who placed in the top 25 and have yet to be mentioned, include the following: BFGoodrich Tires pro Kevin Long was superhot with a second-place finish; A&W‘s Schad Schenck reeled in an outstanding fifth-place finish; National Guard pros Clifford Pirch and Tim Klinger flexed their angling muscles with 10th- and 15th-place finishes, respectively; and pros David Walker and Shinichi Fukae brought home the bacon for BP with 13th- and 19th-place finishes, respectively.