After brutal week for hydroplanes, 1 pulls off perfect weekend to claim the Columbia Cup

Let’s call it a perfect performance in an imperfect situation.

“That’s a great way to describe it,” said U-1 Miss HomeStreet Bank driver Jimmy Shane.

Shane and the Miss Madison team never did anything wrong during the entire weekend of the HAPO Columbia Cup, en route to winning Sunday’s final on the Columbia River.

It was a rough weekend for the H1 Unlimited fleet.

Only six boats were available to start with — in June, everyone expected at least nine boats for this weekend.

Then, after losing the U-3 boat to a broken propeller, the field was whittled down to five boats. That’s changed the racing format from three-boat heats to four-boat heats on a round robin basis.

And then on Saturday, Dave Villwock flipped the U-40 Miss Beacon Plumbing in a heat race. The team had to withdraw, dropping the field to just four.

But Shane and the Madison team never took their eyes off of the prize.

Shane was the top qualifier on Friday.

He won his only heat race on Saturday, then won three more preliminary heat races on Sunday, before dominating the final late afternoon Sunday.

The victory made up for his four-year drought on the Columbia — in some years he entered the final dominant, only to make a mistake in the final.

“I wanted that,” Shane told U-1 crew chief Mike Hanson after the race.

Then Shane turned back to the interview.

“I wanted that one for the team, and I wanted it for HomeStreet Bank,” said Shane.

He got it for everyone.

Final race

Like he had most of the weekend, Shane started the U-1 from the outside in the final, sitting in Lane 3.

He hit the starting line at almost full speed, and he beat everyone to the first turn — getting in and out well ahead of the rest of the field.

Meanwhile, driver Jeff Bernard in the U-91 Miss Goodman Real Estate had the inside lane.

But for the second time this weekend, Bernard arrived at the starting line too soon, crossing it and causing him to have to run an extra lap.

Perhaps there was a bit of team racing going on. Both the U-1 and the U-91 boats are owned by the City of Madison, Ind.

Bernard never let off of the throttle, keeping J. Michael Kelly in the U-9 Lynx Healthcare presents Miss Tri-Cities involved enough that he couldn’t really concentrate on Shane as much.

“It was really tight in there with Jeff jumping the gun,” said Kelly. “I just couldn’t keep my momentum going.”

U-1 Team Manager Charlie Grooms gave Shane some quick pre-race advice.

“We told him before the race, ‘Don’t make mistakes. Don’t beat yourself,’” said Grooms. “The plan all along was to beat everyone from the outside. In the final, we wanted to eventually get inside and hope the other boats couldn’t get past him.”

Shane had his own plans.

“Honestly, I was trying to get J. Michael off of his marks,” said Shane. “That, and I wanted to stay out of the rough water, and to do that, I needed to be out front.”

Kelly said the HomeStreet and Shane have just been too good lately.

“I just need them to kind of mess up,” said Kelly. “I mean, I was creeping up on Jimmy for a while. But it wasn’t enough. I needed to keep Jimmy on the outside if I had a chance to win.”

Didn’t matter. Shane was too good this weekend.

From that point on, on that first turn of the first lap, Shane had the victory well in hand.

Miss Joker’s Casino

Jamie Nilsen, driving the U-11 Miss Joker’s Casino, finished third in the final. It was the third consecutive race this season that the U-11 had placed third.

“We just survived,” said U-11 co-owner Scott Raney. “Obviously we were not fast all weekend. We were about 10 mph shy of what we usually do. We’re very fortunate that nothing is broken in the boat. We’ll go home (to Cle Elum) this week and try to get faster.”

Not sure it would have mattered.

It seemed pretty clear that this was the best the U-1 has looked for an entire weekend for quite some time.

Judging by the fact Shane hadn’t won in the Tri-Cities in the previous four years, Shane still was a little leery with the final approaching.

“Typically, teams save their best stuff for the final,” Shane said.

The HomeStreet team used their best stuff from the start.

“We did not change a gearbox or a motor all weekend,” said Shane.

Well, that’s not technically correct.

Hanson said when the boat first went into the water on Friday morning during testing, it had a fresh motor in the boat.

It wasn’t working well enough for the team’s taste.

“So we brought out good old engine No. 3 that my brother had built a few years ago,” Hanson said. “And then things worked. So Larry, we did it!”

Hanson added that the boat and equipment have pretty much been lights out all year.

“It’s been that way since we came here in June for Spring Training,” said Hanson. “We put in three different motors, and four different propellers, a couple a different gearboxes when we were her in June. We drove 25 laps here and every one of them were at least 164 mph.”

There were other factors to consider this weekend, added Hanson.

He was concerned about his crew and the intense heat all weekend.

“A couple guys went down just in the Thursday setup,” said Hanson. “We wanted to make sure everyone stayed hydrated.”

For the U-1 team, everything turned out perfect by Sunday.

“We have a superior driver with superior equipment,” added Grooms. “You just saw what Jimmy did.”

Weekend race stats

HEAT 1 — 1, J. Michael Kelly, U-9 Lynx Healthcare presents Miss Tri-Cities, 400 points, 146.525 avg. speed; 2, Dave Villwock, U-40 Miss Beacon Plumbing, 300, 142.472; Jeff Bernard, U-91 Miss Goodman Real Estate, DSQ; Jamie Nilsen, U-11 Miss Joker’s Casino, DSQ.

HEAT 2 — 1, Jimmy Shane, U-1 Miss HomeStreet, 400, 154.105; 2, Kelly, U-9, 300, 151.356; 3, Nilsen, U-11, 225, 131.197; Villwock, U-40, DSQ.

HEAT 3 — 1, Shane, U-1, 400 points, 151.888 avg. speed; 2, Bernard, U-91, 300, 150.697; 3, Nilsen, U-11, 225, 137.144; Villwock, U-40, W/D.

HEAT 4 — 1, Shane, U-1, 400, 150.540; 2, Kelly, U-9, 300, 147.261; Nilsen, U-11, DSQ; Bernard, U-91, DNS.

HEAT 5 — 1, Shane, U-1, 400, 153.327; 2, Kelly, U-9, 300, 152.155; 3, Bernard, U-91, 225, 150.934.

FINAL HEAT — 1, Shane, U-1, 400, 148.408; 2, Kelly, U-9, 300, 146.056; 3, Nilsen, U-11, 225, 129.633; 4, Bernard, U-91, 169, 118.727.

ACCUMULATED POINTS — Jimmy Shane, Miss HomeStreet, 2100; J. Michael Kelly, Lynx Healthcare presents Miss Tri-Cities, 1670; Jeff Bernard, Miss Goodman Real Estate, 754; Jamie Nilsen, Miss Joker’s Casino, 675; Dave Villwock, Miss Beacon Plumbing, 380; Jimmy King, Griggs presents Miss Ace Hardware, 0.

NATIONAL STANDINGS (DRIVERS) — 1, Jimmy Shane, San Antonio, Texas, 5400 points; 2, J. Michael Kelly, Bonney Lake, Wash., 3728; 3, Jeff Bernard, Kent, Wash., 3483; 4, Corey Peabody, Kent, Wash., 3049; 5, Jamie Nilsen, Gig Harbor, Wash., 2619; 6, Dave Villwock, Monroe, Wash., 1749; 7, Jimmy King, Memphis, Mich., 875.

NATIONAL STANDINGS (BOATS) — 1, Miss HomeStreet, Madison, Ind., 5400 points; 2, Lynx Healthcare presents Miss Tri-Cities, Auburn, Wash., 4719; 3, Miss Goodman Real Estate, Madison, Ind., 3483; 4, Miss Joker’s Casino, Cle Elum, Wash., 2619; 5, Miss Tri-Cities, Auburn, Wash., 2058; 6, Miss Beacon Plumbing, Snohomish, Wash., 1749; 7, Griggs presents Miss Ace Hardware, Evansville, Ind., 875.

Grand Prix final

Seattle’s Austin Eacret finished up a great weekend when he held off Greg Hopp to win the final.

Eacret, driving the GP-12 Ice Harbor and Local 598 presents Schellhase Racing, earned the inside lane in the final due to his weekend-long performance of two first-place finishes in preliminary heats, and one second-place finish.

But the veteran Hopp, in the GP-15 Overturf Volkswagen/KIA presents Happy Go Lucky, hit the starting line perfectly from Lane 3 and was the first of the four boats to hit the first turn.

But Eacret cornered his boat perfectly, pulled away, and was never threatened.

“Why do you think we call him Awesome Austin,” said a happy team owner Bob Schellhase.

Eacret, 32, is getting better as the season goes on. He placed third in Guntersville in June, and finished second in Madison, Ind., three weeks ago.

“This has been a phenomenal journey,” said Eacret. “All of the equipment is holding together now. I’m from Seattle, and from the time I was a kid I’ve come to the Tri-Cities to watch the races here. This is a dream come true.”

5-litre final

Michael Jarvis took the lead on the second lap of the final and drove his E-6 to the victory in the E350 championship.

The Oregon City resident started the race out behind Burlington’s Rochelle Hill, who had nailed the start.

But Hill, who had computer issues all weekend long in her boat, lost power on the second lap.

That enabled Jarvis to take the lead.

“I had the lead, then the dang thing shut off on me again,” said Hill.

Hill was able to get back up under power to finish the race.

For Jarvis, it was his first time winning a race at the Water Follies.

“This is a great venue,” Jarvis said. “I love it here.”

Jeff Morrow is former sports editor for the Tri-City Herald.