A flip, fire and impressive racing at Gold Cup 1st day in Tri-Cities

Earlier this week, Andrew Tate said what it takes to win a Gold Cup race.

Basically, it’s compile as many points as you can to get into the final, so you have a chance to win.

“You can’t win the Gold Cup on Friday or Saturday. But you can definitely lose it,” said Tate, the driver of the U-91 Goodman Real Estate.

No one definitely lost the Apollo APBA Gold Cup on Saturday on the Columbia River.

All seven unlimited hydroplanes went out on the river, twice each, and pretty much came back to Lampson Pits unscathed.

Tate grabbed two second-place finishes during the day to keep his lead in the H1 Unlimited national high points championship race.

“We’re going to try to dial this boat in,” said Tate. “This weekend, it’s about the Gold Cup, not points.”

Still, points help.

Ask Corey Peabody, who drives the U-9 Miss Beacon Plumbing.

Peabody drove his boat to two heat victories on Saturday for 800 points.

“You can’t win a Gold Cup on Saturday,” said Peabody. “But you still need points to get into the final.”

Peabody won Heat 1A, fending off Tate for the last few laps for the victory.

What Peabody did on the day’s final heat, 2A, was nothing short of impressive.

First, he had to re-light his ignition when the boat died during the pre-race milling period. Next, after getting the U-9 up and running, Peabody moved up quickly to rejoin the other boats for the start.

But Peabody got squeezed out of his Lane 3, as Dave Villwock in the U-27 Miss Apollo came out of lane 2 towards him. Meanwhile, Jamie Nilsen in the U-11 FLAV-R-PAC was in Lane 4.

“Dave got a bearing out penalty,” said Peabody. “And my mirrors didn’t work. I’m thinking ‘They don’t know I’m coming up there.’”

Once Peabody took over during the race, he had no idea what the others were doing.

“I’m radioing in ‘Where’s Jamie? Where’s Jamie?’” Peabody said. “You just got to be a little smarter out there on Sunday. A heat win is always nice, but you still have got to get into the final.”

Peabody has won three of the last four races on this course. And the one he didn’t win, he wasn’t racing after flipping his boat the race before.

The change in the Tri-Cities course, he said, hasn’t been a problem.

Race officials tightened the west-end turn with a shorter radius, and made the straightaways a little longer — all to avoid a shallow portion of the course on the Pasco side of the river.

“That turn is fine,” Peabody said. “I don’t have any complaints. The harder part is with this Gold Cup format, every heat is four laps. So each heat race is like a final anywhere else.”

Meanwhile, Peabody’s teammate, U-8 Miss Beacon Electric driver J. Michael Kelly, bounced back after a lackluster first heat to win 2B.

Kelly said he had a mechanical issue with the U-8 in 1A.

So he limped around the course to get the 169 fourth-place points.

“I just didn’t want to hurt the boat,” he said.

Things got fixed for 2B, where he nailed the start, then spent the rest of the race holding off a hard-charging Tate.

“It was good,” said Kelly. “I mean, we’re still trying to sort things out. But I was just trying to be smooth around the turns.”

I wasn’t easy, as the late afternoon race, about 5:10, made it hard to see to the west.

“It was pretty rough out there,” said Kelly. “It was hard to pick out the buoys. In the sun, they all looked black.”

Tate himself said he was trying to guess a bit.

“It was tough to see,” said Tate. “The glare was terrible, especially when it’s late in the day. It’s hard to see the color buoys.”

Nilsen had the day’s other heat victory in the U-11 in 1B.

Gunnar O’Farrell, driving the U-21 Spirit of America, gave Nilsen a lot to handle. But Nilsen eventually pulled away on the second lap.

“It’s a long weekend,” said Nilsen. “We just gotta get as many points as we can. Our point of emphasis for the weekend was in getting that first first win. And it paid off.”

The U-11 team also picked up a second-place finish in its other heat.

The top five teams in points after the last preliminary heat on Sunday qualify for the Gold Cup final. The No. 6 team becomes the alternate.

Saturday results

Heat 1A

1. U-9 Beacon Plumbing, Corey Peabody, 400 points

2. U-91 Goodman Real Estate, Andrew Tate, 300

3. U-27 Miss Apollo, Dave Villwock, 225

4. U-8 Beacon Electric, J. Michael Kelly, 169

Heat 1B

1. U-11 Miss FLAV-R-PAC, Jamie Nilsen, 400

2. U-21 Spirit of America, Gunnar O’Farrell, 300

3. U-12 Graham Trucking, Jeff Bernard, 225

Heat 2A

1. U-9, Peabody, 400, 880 points for the weekend

2. U-11, Nilsen, 300, 750

3. U-12, Bernard, 225, 510

4. U-27, Villwock, 169 (penalty, bearing out), 464

Heat 2B

1. U-8, Kelly, 400, 629

2. U-91, Tate, 300, 700

3. U-21, O’Farrell, 225, 555

Sunday’s schedule

Heat 3A (10:20 a.m.)

U-8, U-9, U-11, U-91

Heat 3B (10:45 a.m.)

U-12, U-21, U-27

Heat 4A TBA, 2:20 p.m.

Heat 4B TBA, 2:50 p.m.

Apollo Gold Cup final, 5:15 p.m.

Points standings

Here are the unofficial points standings for the H1 Unlimited to this point, through Saturday’s racing:

1. U-91, Tate, 1,925 points

2. U-9, Peabody, 1,840

3. U-8, Kelly, 1,759

4. U-11, Nilsen, 1,675

5. U-27, Villwock, 1,119

6. U-21, O’Farrell, 555

7. U-12, Bernard, 480

In other racing action Saturday:

• Hydrplane driver Jacob Mauldin manged to safely climb out of the cockpit of his burning 2.5 Litre hydroplane race boat after it caught fire in the final turn of the last lap of the rerun of Heat 3 Saturday on the Columbia River. He was able to safely move to a rescue sled that quickly responded.
• The driver of a Team Fury racing hydroplane was rescued after flipping during a Saturday morning heat on the Columbia River. The Water Follies media guide says Jason Aslakson is the driver of the S-77 Team Fury Racing 2.5 Liter Stock hydroplane. The other boat stopped nearby the overturned hydroplane when race officials halted the race for safety crews to respond.