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View Full Version : HAPO Columbia Cup, July 25-27, 2014



Serious News
07-24-2014, 12:01 AM
The 2014 HAPO Columbia Cup will mark the 49th time Unlimited Hydroplanes have raced on the Columbia River. This year’s event, like the inaugural in 1966, will most likely have 12 Unlimiteds in attendance. But the modern Unlimited Hydroplane has very little in common with those first boats that churned the waters of the Columbia River. The hydroplanes of 2012 are almost more plane than hydro. They are thirty foot long, 7,000 pound wings that glide over the water with only the bare minimum of the boat making contact with the river. Powered by Turbine engines capable of nearly 3,000hp, the boats can reach straightaway speeds close to 200 miles per hour. Qualifying lap averages in the mid 160mph range are common with the faster boats in the fleet. To put it in simpler terms, at speed, an Unlimited Hydroplane will travel more than the length of a football fields in the space of a second.

The other unique quality of the hydroplane is the wall of water it throws in its wake. Called a roostertail, it trails hundreds of feet behind the boat and represents a unique obstacle to the racers on the course. Getting too close to another boats roostertail can result a boat’s engine getting clogged with water and stalling. That represents the best case scenario. Taking a full blast of another hydroplanes wake can results in thousands of dollars of boat damage.

One thing the 2.5 Mile Columbia Cup course has always been renowned for is speed. Boats tend to post their fastest qualifying times of the year at the Columbia Cup. This course has been the fastest on the circuit for the last three years. If you want to see the fastest race of the year, attend the Columbia Cup. With the increased speed comes increased danger. A nudge of water from a roostertail, an inopportune roller, or a gust of wind and suddenly a hydroplane might be making an unscheduled appearance in the yearly air show. Fortunately, the safety advances in the sport have shielded the drivers from serious injury during these circumstances.

Action starts with with “Fast Lap Friday”. A new addition to the circuit in 2012, this will be a two hour window Friday afternoon where teams can register a time trial speed. Teams will score points based on the speed they post during this period. Points garnered during qualifying will be scored as race points in 2011. So, at the end of the day of racing, a team’s qualifying points could just make the difference between a team making the final heat on the front row, or running as a trailer boat.

Racing starts Saturday, with one set of heats and concludes on Sunday with two more heat sets and a Final Heat. The winner not only takes home the Columbia Cup hardware, but they win the coveted parking spot under Bernie Little’s famous tree for the following year’s race. Come watch the 2014 HAPO Columbia Cup, as 11 other drivers try to take that tree away from 2013 winner Oberto.

Serious News
07-24-2014, 11:25 PM
Columbia Cup could field 13 boats

If all 13 unlimited hydroplanes qualify this weekend for the 49th running of the HAPO Columbia Cup, race officials have contingency plans so that the river won’t be so crowded.

“We’d add a C heat on Saturday afternoon,” said Mike Denslow of the Tri-Cities Water Follies board. “Then it just depends on the fallout. Some boats will have issues where they might not be able to run on Sunday and we wouldn’t have to add a C heat. Adding a C heat on Sunday would be difficult with the schedule, but we could do it if we had to.”

Denslow said he had talked to race director Jon Culver on Tuesday night about this very subject.

“Six is the maximum you can have on the front row,” said Denslow. “If all of them qualified, we would probably have a 5-4-4 setup for the first set of heats.”

That’s if all boats qualified.

There are some questions about that happening.

The 100 Leland team may not be ready to hit the 130 mph minimum.

Kelly Stocklin’s 18 Bucket List Racing boat hasn’t been in the water since 2012.

The 12 Miss DiJulio team has had its problems in recent races.

The 9 Les Schwab Tire — Team Red Dot team has been busy putting the boat back together after driver Jon Zimmerman flipped in it and crashed at the Detroit Gold Cup.

And Scott Raney’s team had motor problems in the 11 Peters & May boat in Detroit.

Still, all 13 boats are expected to hit the water for testing and qualifying Friday.

And compared to the eight boats that were in Detroit a few weeks ago, Lampson Pits will be sitting fat this weekend — especially when you add eight Grand Prix West boats, eight or nine 1-liter boats, and three vintage hydroplanes.

“I think 13 unlimiteds is cool,” Denslow said. “Now we’re dealing with the exact opposite of what Detroit was dealing with. But I know if all 13 boats did 130 in qualifying, I know they’d want to do a C heat.”

Putting the 9 back together

It’s taken crew chief Jeff Campbell and his team six days to put the 9 boat back together after the flip in Detroit.

But Campbell said the team will be ready.

“We’ll be there Thursday,” he said.

Campbell said 10 feet of the boat was missing on the left side.

“The big thing is there is no part that you can just fit back on,” he said. “You have to make everything. But we’ll have it painted by midnight tonight.”

Campbell has been through these fixes before.

“They’re all about the same,” he said. “The only problem here is when I worked with the Miss Budweiser team we had eight guys to put it back together. Here, it’s basically me and my brother.”

Campbell doesn’t believe the fix will affect the boat’s performance.

“The part that came off has been upgraded,” he said. “And we hurt our second motor in the flip. We still have our first and third motors.

“The big problem was travel time, getting the boat back here to Seattle from Detroit. We didn’t get it off the trailer until last Wednesday. So it’s taken us six days. It’s been a long week. We hope not to do it again.”

Boats on display

Race fans can see some of the boats on display from 4-6 p.m. Thursday at the Columbia Center Mall in Kennewick.

Boats expected to be on display include the 1 Graham Trucking with driver J. Michael Kelly; the 17 Our Gang Racing with driver Jeff Bernard; and the 12 Miss DiJulio.

Other drivers expected to participate include 11 Peters & May driver Tom Thompson, 18 Bucket List Racing driver Kelly Stocklin, 21 Lakeridge Paving driver Brian Perkins, 96 Spirit of Qatar driver Kip Brown, and 100 Leland Unlimited driver David Warren.

In addition, the 17 boat will be at the Kennewick Albertson’s from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. that day, as the team takes donations and fans can sign the boat.

Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2014/07/22/3074410/columbia-cup-could-field-13-boats.html#storylink=cpy

Serious News
07-25-2014, 11:23 PM
Local boat among hydros arriving in Tri-Cities for this weekend’s Columbia Cup

Twelve unlimited hydroplanes have arrived to the Tri-Cities for this weekend’s Columbia cup. This is the largest turnout of hydroplanes of the year so far.

The boats are led by defending season champion, Graham Trucking, and the winner the first two races this year, Oberto.

Our local Edmonda hydro, Miss Peters and May, arrived Thursday morning to begin setting up in the pits. OwnerbScott Raney spent the last week and a half repairing the damages done to the engines in the first two races of the year. He and his co-owner wife, Shannon, are quite confident going into this weekend’s racing.

Joining the circuit this weekend is the sports all-time winningest driver, Dave Villwock, who is taking over as driver in the Beacon Plumbing. The brand-new Spirit of Qatar is also making its debut this weekend with new driver Kip Brown. This boat has been under construction for over a year ever since the original Spirit of Qatar was badly damaged in January 2013.

Testing and qualifying begin Friday with the first heat of racing on Saturday. Follow all the action here on My Edmonds News.

– By Harry Gatjens

http://myedmondsnews.com/2014/07/loc...-columbia-cup/

Serious News
07-25-2014, 11:25 PM
Results: HAPO Columbia Cup

Qualifying Results

Number - Sponsor Driver Speed Points
U-6 Oberto Jimmy Shane 163.247 0
U-1 Graham Trucking J. Michael Kelly 161.197 0
U-9 Les Schwab Tires-Team RedDOT Jon Zimmerman 158.537 0
U-37 Cost Less Carpet presents Miss Beacon Plumbing Dave Villwock 153.927 0
U-17 Our Gang Racing Jeff Bernard 153.191 0
U-7 Graham Trucking II Cal Phipps 152.142 0
U-21 Lakeridge Paving Jamie Nilsen 148.652 0
U-11 Peters & May Tom Thompson 148.157
U-22 Ranch & Home presents Payne West Insurance Mike Webster 147.022
U-96 Spirit of Qatar Kip Brown 142.517 0
U-12 Miss DiJulio Greg Hopp 136.105 0

Serious News
07-30-2014, 08:43 AM
Oberto wins HAPO Columbia Cup

There was a 4-foot hole in the front of the boat, on the left sponson.

And there was less than two hours before the HAPO Columbia Cup final.

But like Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, U-6 Oberto driver Jimmy Shane surveyed the damage and thought “I can fix it!”

Except it was really “We can fix it!”

And so what looked like a bad ending to a good day of racing turned out to be a great comeback for the Oberto team, as Shane eventually drove to victory in the final Sunday on the Columbia River.

The hole in the boat came about in the final preliminary heat of the day — a day that saw a lot of attrition to the Columbia Cup fleet:

J. Michael Kelly and the U-1 Graham Trucking were beached by mid-day when a crack in the back of the boat got worse.

Jeff Bernard and the U-17 Our Gang Racing boat were finished when the boat launched in heat 2B after hitting a roostertail from another boat.

The U-12 Miss DiJulio boat was done before any racing Sunday, as the team lost an engine in testing.

The U-21 Lakeridge Paving was lost in the final when Jamie Nilsen flipped the boat on the first lap after hitting a sideways roller. Nilsen was fine, the boat was destroyed.

And Dave Villwock and the U-37 Cost Less Carpet presents Beacon Plumbing were finished after that heat 3B, in which Villwock lost control of the boat while going deck-to-deck with Shane for the lead.

With Villwock on the inside lane, something in the back of the boat gave out and jerked the boat to right, hitting the Oberto hard and launching it and Shane about 15 feet into the air.

The incident automatically caused H1 Unlimited officials to disqualify Villwock from the heat and penalize the U-37 team 150 points. That loss of points knocked the U-37 out of the final heat lineup.

Shane, the defending national high points champion, made a heroic effort to save the boat from driving onto the Kennewick shoreline and into the crowd. But he shut the boat down.

Shane got out of the cockpit and was mad. He ripped off his radio unit and wouldn’t listen to Villwock trying to talk to him.

But Shane also looked at the damage to the Oberto.

“I made an assessment out on the race course,” said Shane. “From what I could see, it was a big chunk missing. I thought we could fix it. I said ‘Let’s do it.’ ”

Meanwhile, Charlie Grooms, the team manager of the Oberto, called his team together in the truck for a meeting.

“I talked about it being just a concerted, focused effort when the boat got back,” said Grooms. “We have a compartmentalized team. Everybody has a job to do. (Panicking) is not what we do.”

As each person on the team went about their jobs, Grooms went from station to station keeping everyone on task. The team even had an audience, as about 70 people stood outside of the team’s camp spot under Bernie Little’s big oak tree and watched.

“I was just beating on the crew,” said Grooms. “Keeping them on task.”

The Peters & May team even got in on the job, as crew chief Scott Raney could be seen running down Lampson Pits from his camp to the Oberto camp to help fix the hole. Some of Raney’s crew joined in too.

By the time the final arrived, Oberto was patched together with masking tape and various materials.

Shane got some extra time for finishing touches when Nilsen flipped the U-21 on the first lap of the final, delaying the restart 55 minutes.

And when the race was restarted, it wasn’t even close.

“We had good position,” said Shane, who has won two consecutive H1 races. “I knew that we had good position at the start of the race. We had the best position in lane 1 to get to clean water.”

Shane averaged 145.294 mph over the five-lap final, well ahead of the 139.177 mph average of runnerup Jon Zimmerman and the U-9 Les Schwab Tires-Team RedDOT.

“We knew Jimmy Shane had the faster boat,” said Zimmerman. “We were very worried about his sponson coming apart on the inside lane. In fact (U-9 crew chief) Jeff Campbell told me if we would have went inside he probably would have broke up and hit us. So we stayed outside.”

Kip Brown, driving the brand new U-96 Spirit of Qatar, finished third; Cal Phipps in the U-7 Graham Trucking II was fourth; and Tom Thompson in the gbr-11 Peters & May was fifth.

Mike Webster, driving the U-22 Ranch & Home presents Payne West Insurance, did not finish the final.

Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2014/07/27/3080687/water-follies-opening-ceremonies.html#storylink=cpy

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