This hydroplane set a Columbia Cup qualifying speed record despite soaring temperatures

Back in June, the U-1 Miss HomeStreet Bank race team put together a number of different gear-to-propeller race combinations during spring training in the Tri-Cities on the Columbia River.

The idea was to prepare the best equipment to compete in the upcoming APBA Gold Cup race in Alabama, which was set for late June.

But great race teams are always preparing for other things too — such as the HAPO Columbia Cup, which is running this weekend.

Such was the case, as U-1 driver Jimmy Shane dominated Friday’s qualifying session.

Despite the heat, Shane drove the U-1 to a qualifying speed at 164.039 mph.

According to Columbia Cup race director Aaron Stephens, Shane set a qualifying record for a 2.5-mile course, for restricted fuel at 4.2 gallons per minute.

“Everything just worked right today,” said U-1 team manager Charlie Grooms. “It was something we tested here back in June. Let’s just say we were pleasantly surprised (with the qualifying record).”

Shane at first said he wasn’t surprised when he set the qualifying record.

But when pressed, he said “Maybe a little bit today. The weather (heat with a high of 110 degrees) wasn’t going to be the best for these boats. But we just went into it wanting to be the top qualifier.”

While every one of the six unlimiteds will race this weekend, qualifying anymore is about compiling points for the season long national high points race.

But some teams, like the U-40 Miss Beacon Plumbing, wanted to see how the boat did after a serious crash three weeks ago.

Dave Villwock drove the U-40 to a second-place finish Friday, with a qualifying speed of 161.783 mph.

Villwock said it now becomes a marathon to get to late Sunday afternoon’s final.

“We’ve got to get to that final,” he said.

Placing third in qualifying was the U-9 Lynx Healthcare presents Miss Tri-Cities and driver J. Michael Kelly, with a speed of 159.371 mph.

Kelly is hoping that despite the three-boat preliminary heat races possibly not making the river as choppy, it will be the opposite.

“I prefer the water to be rough,” he said. “And I like how we have the boat set up right now. I wouldn’t touch a thing. We basically have our race setup right now.”

Driver Jeff Bernard, piloting the Miss Madison team’s other boat, the U-91 Goodman Real Estate, placed fourth in qualifying at 158.015 mph.

That time impressed Grooms.

“We’ve seen a ton of improvement in Jeff from over a year ago in Guntersville,” said Grooms

Jimmy King drove the U-3 Grigg’s presents Miss Ace Hardware to a fifth-place finish in qualifying with a speed of 157.455 mph.

The U-11 Miss Joker’s Casino was drydocked all day Friday, thanks to some broken motor mounts.

“We think it happened in Madison (three weeks ago),” said Scott Raney, who along with his wife, Shannon, owns the boat. “It bit us today. There’s no way we can get on the water (Friday). There’s no way we can have an engine in the boat.”

But Raney said his team would be ready to compete starting Saturday with two preliminary heat races.

▪ Saturday’s first heat races will be held at 1:55 p.m. and 2:20 p.m.

In Heat 1A at 1:55 p.m., the three boats will be the U-3, U-9 and U-11.

Heat 1B will consist of U-1, U-40 and U-91.

▪ Saturday’s entire, yet tentative, schedule:

8 a.m. — Park opens; Inboard testing

8:50 a.m. — E-350 hydroplane Heat 3

9 a.m. — H1 Unlimited hydroplane testing

11 a.m. — HAPO Over the River Air Show

12 p.m. — Atomic Screenprint all driver autograph session

1:30 p.m. — IBEW Local 112/National Electrical Contractors Association Vintage Heat 1

1:55 p.m. — Parr Lumber H1 Unlimited hydroplanes Heat 1A

2:20 p.m. — Parr Lumber H1 Unlimited hydroplanes Heat 1B

2:45 p.m. — Grand Prix hydroplanes Heat 1

3:10 p.m. — E-350 hydroplanes Heat 4

3:35 p.m. — IBEW Local 112/National Electrical Contractors Association Vintage Heat 2

4 p.m. — Grand Prix hydroplanes Heat 2

4:25 p.m. — Connell Oil H1 Unlimited hydroplane Heat 2A

4:50 p.m. — Connell Oil H1 Unlimited hydroplane Heat 2B

Notes

▪ The hot weather is going to factor into this weekend’s race.

“To me, the biggest thing is that the team is drinking and hydrating,” said U-11 co-owner Scott Raney.

It will affect the drivers too.

“Once you stop running the race, you feel exhausted because of the heat,” said the U-9’s Kelly. “The heat also robs the boat of power.”

▪ U-3 team owner Ed Cooper and his team will head into the preliminary heats without their top engine.

“We hurt that engine this morning, by burning a piston,” said Cooper on Friday afternoon. “That was the same engine we ran nine times in a row here last year.”

That engine was called CH, because the person who had it before Cooper sat it in a corner of his shop and used to every day to hang their coat.

But it had become one of the Cooper team’s best engines.

The U-3 team brought four engines to this race.

“We’ve now moved from Plan A to Plan B,” said Cooper.

▪ Because Corey Peabody won the 2021 Columbia Cup, driving the U-9, that meant the Strong Racing team earned the right to park under Bernie’s Tree — the large tree that provides a tremendous amount of shade at the east end of the pits that the late Miss Budweiser owner Bernie Little had rights to.

When Little died in 2003, the shady spot was awarded to the race champion from the previous year.

Peabody is not racing this weekend after he flipped the U-9 in Madison three weeks ago. The boat was damaged too much to be fixed this season, but will be prepared for the 2023 season.

To keep a bid for the national high points team title, Strong Racing re-designated the U-8 Miss Tri-Cities into the U-9 for the remainder of this season. Kelly is the driver.

“We have way better morale because of the shade of that tree,” said Kelly. “And that helps me, because the crew members are not complaining as much if they have to make changes to the boat.”

▪ That log that Dave Villwock ran into on the Ohio River at the Madison Regatta three weeks ago tested the U-40 team.

The damage was costly — in both money and labor.

“The Ohio River was the cleanest it’s ever been too,” said team owner Kelly Stocklin. “But we hit something in Madison every year. It cost us $12,000 for an engine, $15,000 for a propeller, $8,000 for a long propeller shaft, and $4,500 for a short shaft for a propeller.”

It also cost the team a lot of labor.

As soon as the damage was assessed, the team dropped out of the race, packed everything up, and hauled its hind end back to Seattle.

“It was at least a couple of hundred man hours,” admitted Stocklin. “It was the full-timers — (crew chief) Taylor (Evans), Mike (Stocklin), Dave and me — working six days a week for two weeks. That’s about 60 hours times four.”

The five part-time crew members were asked to work three days a week for two weeks.

“We could’ve fixed it if we had one week before the race,” Stocklin said. “But we couldn’t have done it as nicely as we did.”

While the log was submerged, Villwock has seen some funny things in the Ohio River course over his long career.

“I’ve seen a refrigerator, and a cow,” he said.