Beaver Lake bestows second wins on sponsor teams
Duracell on top again in Division I. Tylenol Rapid Release grabs second consecutive Division II win
Two-thirds of the way through the Wal-Mart FLW Tour’s regular-season schedule in 2007, a pattern is emerging among sponsor teams: the winning ways of Duracell and Tylenol Rapid Release. In the wake of the Wal-Mart Open on northwest Arkansas’ Beaver Lake last month, each team has accrued a second event win and sits atop its divisional leaderboard in this unofficial competition.
Holding the Wal-Mart Open on Beaver Lake is a longstanding tradition on the FLW Tour; what was new this time out was the date, and what a difference a month can make. Instead of the sight-fishing bonanza in which pros typically find themselves fishing at Beaver, the mid-May event was a postspawn riddle this year. But put the world’s greatest bass anglers on a body of water – regardless of the time of year – and some are going to turn question marks into exclamation points.
Punctuating the Wal-Mart Open were Team Duracell, picking up its second win of the season and remaining atop the Division I standings, and Team Tylenol Rapid Release, which parlayed its second consecutive event win into a trip to the top of the Division II leaderboard.
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 June 14-17 at stop No. 5 of the 2007 season: the Potomac River. If you’re not in the nation’s capital 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 the Potomac in late June. Results from Beaver Lake, as well as an explanation of team scoring, are detailed below:
Division I
Duracell had enough juice to outdistance Beaver Lake runner-up Team Gain by 11 points for the win. Team Duracell hasn’t relinquished its grip on the top slot of the Division I standings since the season began and now enjoys a significant points lead ahead of No. 2 Team Bounty, which had been nipping at its heels since the second event of the season. Duracell was able to use the Beaver Lake win to quadruple the points buffer – now at 48 – between itself and Bounty in the overall standings.
Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., provided the power for Duracell, topping all pros at Beaver Lake for his first FLW Tour win. Morgan is currently ranked second in the FLW Tour pro standings while teammate Michael Bennett of Roseville, Calif., holds down the No. 5 position.
Division II
In Division II, Beaver Lake almost seemed like a replay of Lake Norman, with Tylenol Rapid Release again fending off Team Wal-Mart for the win, this time only coming out seven points ahead. Gabe Bolivar of Ramona, Calif., made the play for the winning team with his solid 27th-place finish at Beaver.
After enjoying a five-place boost up the standings last time out, Tylenol Rapid Release climbed another three slots to scale the Division II standings peak. Team PTSI moved up a slot in the standings and now shares second place with Team Suave.
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 FLW Tour’s Wal-Mart Open at Beaver Lake near Rogers, Ark., and results from that event have been tallied:
Division I – Beaver Lake (teams with three or more anglers)
1. Duracell – 147.67
2. Gain – 136.67
3. BFGoodrich Tires – 132.00
4. BP – 130.25
5. Castrol – 128.60
6. Kellogg’s – 116.20
7. Bounty – 111.33
8. Land O’Lakes – 109.33
9. National Guard – 107.67
10. Folgers – 95.00
11. Chevy – 85.00
12. Fujifilm – 70.67
13. A&W – 42.67
Division II – Beaver Lake (teams with fewer than three anglers)
1. Tylenol Rapid Release – 174.00
2. Wal-Mart – 167.00
3. PTSI – 157.00
4. Imodium – 155.00
5. M&M’s – 153.00
6. Suave – 152.00
7. Totino’s – 139.00
8. Tylenol Sinus – 137.00
9. Berkley – 131.50
10. Snickers – 114.50
11. Pedigree – 96.00
12. Wet Ones – 79.00
13. Slim Jim – 67.00
14. Lawry’s – 62.00
15. Spiderwire – 56.00
16. Hamburger Helper – 55.00
17. Banana Boat – 54.00
18. Abu Garcia – 15.00
19. Pepcid – 4.00
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 – 607.00
2. Bounty – 558.67
3. Castrol – 539.20
4. BP – 504.00
5. Kellogg’s – 481.80
6. Gain – 481.67
7. Folgers – 477.66
8. BFGoodrich Tires – 464.00
9. Chevy – 436.60
10. Land O’Lakes – 413.34
11. National Guard – 405.33
12. Fujifilm – 354.51
13. A&W – 291.33
Division II (teams with fewer than three anglers)
1. Tylenol Rapid Release – 628.00
2. PTSI – 617.00
2. Suave – 617.00
4. Imodium – 574.00
5. Totino’s – 560.00
6. Banana Boat – 529.00
7. Tylenol Sinus – 509.00
8. Berkley – 502.00
9. Wal-Mart – 484.00
10. Slim Jim – 481.00
11. Snickers – 471.50
12. M&M’s – 463.50
13. Pedigree – 422.50
14. Lawry’s – 397.00
15. Spiderwire – 331.00
16. Pepcid – 326.00
17. Hamburger Helper – 295.00
18. Wet Ones – 245.00
19. Abu Garcia – 167.00
Other notable performances at Beaver Lake among anglers on sponsored teams not already highlighted in this article include Bounty pro Jacob Powroznik slamming home an incredible fourth-place finish; Glenn Browne reeling in an outstanding seventh-place finish for Berkley; the dual top-10 wallop of BP‘s Ray Scheide (eighth) and Alfred Williams (10th); a super finish from M&M’s pro John Sappington, who ended the event in the 12th position; a strong 16th-place finish from David Dudley for Castrol; Larry Nixon again delivering for Chevy by placing 23rd; and Vic Vatalaro picking up 25th for Gain.