Warren’s first finish wins 5-Liter final; Mauldin wins Grand Prix

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 on Sunday. But after a series of disqualifications, penalties and boat troubles, Warren’s GP-19 Sahara Pizza was the only hull left standing.

“We had a brand new motor this weekend, we were so excited about racing here, and our brand new motor popped the very first heat out,” said Warren, who won his first Tri-City 5-Liter final in his 11th attempt. “We put out backup motor in and found a couple more problems with that, so the guys were just thrashing all weekend.”

Series frontrunner 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 with Ed Preston at the helm that took the lead, though Preston ended up with a one-minute penalty for hitting the start line early. Warren said he had something to do with the hasty start.

“At the start I went flying up to the line, and what that tells the other drivers is ‘Oh, I better go because he’s going,’ ” Warren said. “So they all took off and jumped and I didn’t, and I looked over at my clock and thought they jumped.”

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.

“It sucks,” Hopp said. “It sucks really bad.”

So with one boat dying in the water, one with a one-minute penalty and one disqualified, that left Warren with 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, and as a result took fifth in the overall standings with 100 points. Greg Hopp won the weekend with 295 points, due in large part to him sweeping the two Saturday heats.

5-Liter: After missing the first two heats of the weekend, Jim Mauldin won the last four heats of the Washington National Guard presents 5-Liter Hydroplane Regatta, including the winner-take-all final Sunday.

Mauldin, driving the E-31 Mauldin Well Service, had to battle with Kurt Myers in the E-26 in the final for three highly competitive laps. Mauldin pushed his hull so hard that he came completely out of the water on the first turn of the final lap after hitting a roller, barely managing to keep the boat from flipping.

“I wasn’t sure if I was going to or not,” Mauldin said. “So I was backing off the throttle, and it finally came back down. By then (Myers) is past me a little bit, so I’m trying to get back on it and catch back up. But it was just a good deck-to-deck battle, that was a fun boat race.”

Rochelle Hill, driver of the E-46 Miss Galaxy, didn’t start any of the five preliminary heats for the weekend but was able to get her hull on the water for the final after driving to her home in Burlington and back Saturday night to pick up a new motor. She spent all of Sunday morning getting the part installed, but her boat lost power before she was able to finish the first lap of the final.

“It was 1:30 (Saturday) afternoon and I was talking to a couple of my competitors, and they said, ‘Stop talking to me, get out of here and go get that motor,’ ” Hill said. “That’s what I love about this sport: Everybody’s here to help each other. Fierce competitors out on the water, but when it comes to the pits we’re a big family.”

Despite winning all four heats he raced on the weekend, Mauldin couldn’t move past second in the overall standings behind Bill Strain in the E-87 Problem Child’s Nasty New Heifer, who finished third in the final and had five top-three finishes in the 5-Liter heats.

Wally Johnston, driver of the E-98 Agitator for Sale, was expected to be Mauldin’s closest competition in the final, but never got his boat off the dock for the heat. It was the only race he didn’t start, and two heat victories put him in third overall.

This story was originally published July 31, 2016 at 7:17 PM with the headline "Warren’s first finish wins 5-Liter final; Mauldin wins Grand Prix."