SEATTLE -- It has almost become routine at Seafair -- first-day qualifying is the show-off-the-horsepower, glide-and-ride unlimited hydroplane testing session of the Chevrolet Cup.
That is usually because Friday, when the crew chiefs fire up the boats for a mid-morning spin around the Ted Jones Racing Course, the water is calm, allowing for fast times.
Not so for the start of the 58th Seafair on Friday.
High winds made for troublesome conditions on Lake Washington -- so much so that the boats were running their traditional late-Sunday, race-day setup.
Finally, for a short time, everything calmed down, giving the big-time teams a chance to flex some muscle. And the sport's best driver -- eight-time Seafair champion Dave Villwock, of Auburn -- climbed to the top of the qualifying ladder with a fast lap of 153.002 mph in the U-1 Miss Elam Plus.
Jeff Bernard has accomplished something in 2008 that Villwock has not -- winning a race. The Kent racer also cracked the 150 mph barrier in the late afternoon, going 151.521 mph in the U-5 FormulaBoats.com to grab the No. 2 spot.
Defending Seafair champion Steve David, who leads the points race this season, was third at 148.975 mph in the U-6 Oh Boy! Oberto. He won last weekend's Columbia Cup in the Tri-Cities. Morning-session leader David Bryant, in the U-10 Hoss Mortgage Investors, slipped to fourth at 148.576 mph.
Final qualifying is set for 11:15 a.m. today, followed by heat-racing action at 2:45 p.m.
Villwock acknowledged he's had issues dealing with Lake Washington when it gets choppy, which has a way of evening the playing field between the fast boats and the second-tier boats.
That is why he looked at the treacherous conditions Friday as a bonus opportunity to experiment, a chance to see how the U-1 team can changes its rough-water fortunes.
"We made some aerodynamic changes to the boat, and then we wanted to wait until the end of the session, and let the winds come to us, maybe," Villwock said. "Plus, we knew where everybody else timed in at."
And on the second lap, he motored in at 153.022. He shut down the boat after that.
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Liddycoat was declared the winner by officials after they reviewed film of the start and saw that drivers Steve David, Dave Villwock and J Michael Kelly had crossed the start line early. Those drivers were given a 1-minute penalty and Liddycoat got his first career victory on the H1 Unlimited tour.
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