Jimmy Shane surges to the front at HAPO Columbia Cup

It’s going to take something special to knock the King off his throne.

So far no one has come up with anything to dethrone driver Jimmy Shane and the U-1 Miss HomeStreet Bank.

Shane led the U-1 to two heat victories Saturday at the HAPO Columbia Cup, heading into the final day with a field-best 870 points.

Shane finished third in Friday qualifying, but no one could overtake him when it came to actual racing.

“I wouldn’t say it was a perfect day, but we executed with great results,” Shane said. “We set ourselves up with that great race against Jean Theoret.”

That was Heat 2A, in which Shane battled Theoret in the U-16 Oh Boy! Oberto deck-to-deck for 2 1/2 laps.

Shane cut across the middle of the course with about 2 minutes and 30 seconds before the race’s start.

Jeff Bernard, in the U-7 Graham Trucking, followed Shane. But Bernard failed to keep above the 80 mph minimum speed in the pre-race period and got a warning from H1 Unlimited officials.

Bernard then got a second warning, and that disqualified him. But he stayed in the race in Lane 1.

That left Shane in Lane 2, and Theoret on his hip in Lane 3.

While Theoret seemed to have more straightaway speed, Shane had the inside lane and less water to cover. But it almost proved disastrous.

“The wind was definitely a factor today,” Shane said. “I started using a lot of canard on the backstretch on Lap 2. The boat almost got away from me. But we used a very small gear ratio, and that helped me stay down.”

Theoret couldn’t get past him. And Shane had faster speeds on all three laps, including a best of 150.157 mph on the final lap.

The two drivers went into the first turn on the final lap neck and neck. But Theoret hit a hole of rough water, lost some speed and settled for second.

“We gauged what we wanted today,” Theoret said. “This isn’t the final yet. I think we can beat Jimmy on the outside. We’re really happy with our day. The Lord is good. Our goal is still to qualify for the final.”

At 54, Theoret is one of the oldest drivers in the fleet. He has just started to get his race legs under him.

“For me, this is my first race this season,” said Theoret, who’s No. 2 on the weekend with 800 points. “A lot of these guys raced in Madison (Ind.) earlier this month. I’m still rusty.”

J. Michael Kelly is anything but rusty.

Kelly also had a good day driving the U-5 Graham Trucking, picking up a first place and a second.

“It wasn’t a bad day at all,” he said. “You’ve got to be able to get to the final, have no penalties, and have the boat in one piece. At the same time, you have to get as many points as you can.”

That’s because, he says, with just five races in the H1 Unlimited season, there is no room for mistakes.

“Every heat matters,” Kelly said.

Kelly’s win came in 2B, as he grabbed the inside lane and was never threatened.

Andrew Tate, driving the U-9 Gale-Rew Construction presents Les Schwab Tire, felt a shaking and shut his boat down going into the first turn on the first lap as he sat on Kelly’s hip.

“I’ve had similar experience, unfortunately, in a Grand Prix boat,” Tate said. “So I shut it off as quickly as I could coming out of Turn 1.”

It was a rough ending for Tate, who had opened eyes up and down the pits with the second-fastest speed (159.337 mph) in Friday qualifying.

“Unfortunately, that’s boat racing,” Tate said. “I just feel bad for my team, our sponsors and our owners. We expected a better showing this weekend.”

The boat had yet to withdraw from the race, but it’s unlikely to be ready Sunday.

“It’s bad,” one team member said. “We lost a blade on the propeller, and it shook up the boat. The question is did it get into the gearbox?”

Brian Perkins drove the U-21 Darrell Strong presents PayneWest Insurance to second place in 2B.

Theoret outgunned Kelly and Tate in Heat 1A.

Theoret, sitting in Lane 3, hammered the throttle at the start and beat the field to the first turn.

Kelly, in Lane 1, had less water to cover and came out of Turn 2 in the lead. But it didn’t matter, as Theoret had more power and pulled away on the backstretch on the Franklin County side of the course. His final lap was his fastest of the race, hitting 152.622 mph.

Kelly finished second, while Tate grabbed third.

In 1B, it was all Shane.

The defending Tri-Cities champion kept cutting across the course in the pre-race spool, but couldn’t get Lane 1 away from Tom Thompson in the gbr-11 Peters & May.

Yet it didn’t matter, as Shane, in Lane 2, hit the starting lane at full throttle and beat everyone to the first turn.

He was never threatened.

Thompson finished second for 300 points.

Whatever happens Sunday, it will take a huge effort to dethrone Shane, HomeStreet and the Madison team.

Charlie Grooms, the U-1 owners representative and team manager, likes his team’s attitude after a rough Friday.

“We played with some gears in qualifying,” Grooms said. “We put a major gear in the boat to pull it around the course. It didn’t work.

“Everything today (Saturday) was picture-perfect for us. It was a real big confidence booster for our crew.”

That includes Shane.

“We have very high expectations as a team,” Shane said. “We didn’t qualify first last year (in the Tri-Cities), and we didn’t qualify first this year. But we’ve shown we have a great race boat. And that’s when you gain points, is in a race.”

NOTES: H1 officials decided to move up Saturday’s heat races with the expectation of gusty 30 mph winds that never came. Officials also kept heat races at three laps instead of the planned four. H1 chairman Steve David doesn’t expect windy weather for Sunday, so the schedule stays the same. “And we will run four-lap heat races on Sunday, with a five-lap final,” David said ... The first unlimited race Sunday is set for 10:20 a.m. The final is scheduled for 4 p.m.

This story was originally published July 30, 2016 at 6:28 PM with the headline "Jimmy Shane surges to the front at HAPO Columbia Cup."