Sponsor teams smell the coffee
Folgers pours Division I wake-up, Tylenol Sinus grabs Division II win by a nose after Loudoun-Tellico
With so many new fisheries on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour schedule, uncharted waters could serve to even the playing field among the world’s best bass pros in 2007. That rule applied to stop No. 2 on the schedule, Fort Loudoun-Tellico lakes, where two sponsor teams navigated their way into the winner’s circle for the first time.
Before the tour’s visit to Loudoun-Tellico, pundits were quickly lining up to bet on heavy-hitting local pros to rule the day in Tennessee. But an unexpected warm front turned the Tennessee River system of lakes and its reliable springtime patterns into a giant question mark for the local sticks fishing the event. Though some Tennesseans held their own, the change-up from Mother Nature was enough to keep competition interesting across the entire field.
In sponsor-team competition, nobody benefited more from the wacky weather than Team Folgers in Division I and Team Tylenol Sinus in Division II. Despite strong showings as new sponsor teams in 2006, Folgers and Tylenol Sinus (formerly Tylenol Severe Allergy) never managed to grab the top slot in their respective divisions at any single tournament. All that changed at Loudoun-Tellico, where Folgers and Tylenol Sinus proved their mettle with wins that aided their positioning in the overall points standings as well.
Like in years past, sponsor teams are divided into two divisions: Division I, comprising teams of three or more professional anglers, and Division II, comprising teams of fewer than three pros. Keep tabs on your favorite teams’ progress as they compete April 26-29 at the third stop of the 2007 season: Lake Norman, the third new tournament destination in a row for the FLW Tour. If you’re not in North Carolina to see the bass-fishing action unfold in person, you can keep an eye on the anglers via FLWOutdoors.com’s live weigh-in application, FLW Live.
Look for results from Lake Norman in early May. Results from Fort Loudoun-Tellico, as well as an explanation of team scoring, are detailed below:
Division I
Folgers edged out event runner-up Team Land O’Lakes by a mere five points at Loudoun-Tellico, but was able to parlay the 145-point win into a five-place rocket ride up the standings leaderboard.
2006 Angler of the Year Anthony Gagliardi of Prosperity, S.C., led the charge for Folgers with a strong 16th-place finish. It took a full team effort, however, for Folgers to fend off Land O’Lakes, whose Keith Williams of Conway, Ark., brandished an amazing third-place finish to end the sponsor-team battle of Fort Loudoun-Tellico lakes.
Folgers now sits 30 points behind overall Division I leader Team Duracell and only 10 points out of second place, currently occupied by Team Gain, in the year-to-date standings. Duracell’s Michael Bennett of Roseville, Calif., helped keep his team on top by notching a solid 20th-place finish.
Division II
Tylenol Sinus leveraged a nice 24th-place finish from Spokane, Washington’s Sean Minderman to keep sponsor newcomer Team Totino’s from picking up a win at Loudoun-Tellico. The 177-point win moved Tylenol Sinus up the standings two places into eighth, but Totino’s runner-up finish made it a Division II heat seeker in the standings, contributing to a four-place jump to 10th.
Team Suave took over the top slot in the standings, but will only carry a four-point lead over second-place Team Banana Boat into the next event of the season. Not far behind is Team Slim Jim, which was able to climb two rungs up the leaderboard to third place. With only 27 points separating first from fifth place in the overall standings, a reshuffling of the upper deck is a distinct possibility after the FLW Tour visits Lake Norman next week.
Explanation of team scoring
Points in the 2007 sponsor-team race will be 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 tour’s Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year competition.
Sponsor teams competed in the most recent FLW Tour tournament at Fort Loudoun-Tellico lakes near Knoxville, Tenn., and results from that event have been tallied:
Division I – Fort Loudoun-Tellico (teams with three or more anglers)
1. Folgers – 145.33
2. Land O’Lakes – 139.67
3. Duracell – 138.00
4. Bounty – 131.00
5. Kellogg’s – 130.40
6. National Guard – 124.50
7. Castrol – 114.00
8. BP – 109.50
9. A&W – 95.00
10. BFGoodrich Tires – 94.67
11. Chevy – 85.00
12. Gain – 82.00
13. Fujifilm – 78.67
Division II – Fort Loudoun-Tellico (teams with fewer than three anglers)
1. Tylenol Sinus – 177.00
2. Totino’s – 172.00
3. Slim Jim – 162.00
4. Imodium – 161.00
5. Pepcid – 158.00
6. Suave – 155.00
7. Snickers – 148.50
8. Hamburger Helper – 142.00
9. Banana Boat – 140.00
10. Spiderwire – 137.00
11. Berkley – 132.5
12. Pedigree – 127.50
13. PTSI – 109.00
14. M&M’s – 102.50
15. Tylenol Rapid Release- 101.00
16. Abu Garcia – 81.00
17. Wal-Mart – 68.00
18. Wet Ones – 60.00
19. Lawry’s – 47.00
Overall standings
Current overall standings for sponsor teams competing on the 2007 FLW Tour have been tallied:
Division I (teams with three or more anglers)
1. Duracell – 302.33
2. Bounty – 279.67
3. Folgers – 269.66
4. Castrol – 265.80
5. Kellogg’s – 260.20
6. BP – 253.50
7. Gain – 239.00
8. BFGoodrich Tires – 223.67
9. National Guard – 214.83
10. Chevy – 209.20
11. Land O’Lakes – 198.34
12. Fujifilm – 183.84
13. A&W – 179.33
Division II (teams with fewer than three anglers)
1. Suave – 334.00
2. Banana Boat – 330.00
3. Slim Jim – 327.00
4. Imodium – 313.00
5. Berkley – 307.00
6. PTSI – 305.00
7. Pepcid – 299.00
8. Tylenol Sinus – 274.00
9. Tylenol Rapid Release – 262.00
10. Totino’s – 247.00
11. Snickers – 241.50
12. Pedigree – 212.00
13. Hamburger Helper – 199.00
14. Spiderwire – 192.00
15. Lawry’s – 178.00
16. M&M’s – 168.00
17. Wal-Mart – 141.00
18. Wet Ones – 136.00
19. Abu Garcia – 126.00
Other notable performances at Fort Loudoun-Tellico lakes among anglers on sponsored teams not already highlighted in this article include a tough team showing from Kellogg’s, with Dave Lefebre earning a stellar second-place finish, his second top-10 of the season, and Sam Newby notching a solid 19th-place finish; Derek Jones grabbing an outstanding fourth-place finish for National Guard; BP’s phenom Shinichi Fukae and Tracy Adams registering fifth- and 22nd-place finishes, respectively; M&M’s John Sappington netting a sweet eighth-place finish; the one-two punch of Castrol’s Darrel Robertson, also earning his second top-10 of the season with a ninth-place finish, and David Dudley, who barely missed the cut in 11th; Chris Baumgardner earning an enviable 15th-place finish for Snickers; and Chevy’s Luke Clausen, who earned a respectable 23rd-place finish.