David Warren finishes first heat of weekend, wins Grand Prix final

David Warren picked a great time to finish his first heat of the weekend.

Every other driver in the field could have won the Plumbers and Steamfitters UA Local 598 & Signatory Contractors Grand Prix Hydroplane Thunder Cup final, but after a series of disqualifications, penalties and boat troubles, Warren’s GP-19 Sahara Pizza was the only hull left standing.

Greg Hopp in the GP-12 Miss Local 598 - Plumbers and Steamfitters led the first lap and looked like he would cruise to an easy win, until he lost power coming out of Turn 2 on the second lap.

Then it was the GP-20 Blown Income Racing of Ed Preston who took the lead, though he ended up with a one-minute penalty for hitting the start line early.

It wouldn’t matter, as Preston was quickly overtaken by Jerry Hopp in the GP-15 Happy Go Lucky presents The Pub, and the “world’s fastest grandpa” ended up taking the checkered flag in the winner-take-all final. The only problem was that Hopp never saw the checkered flag, and got disqualified for taking an extra lap while he thought the race was still going.

So with one boat dying in the water, one with a one-minute penalty and one disqualified, that left Warren in the GP-19 Sahara Pizza as the only boat on the water to finish the heat with a legal run.

Warren either didn’t start or didn’t finish any of the three preliminary heats on Saturday and Sunday.

This story was originally published July 31, 2016 at 3:48 PM with the headline "David Warren finishes first heat of weekend, wins Grand Prix final."