Spectacular flip and scary collision narrow the hydroplane race field in Tri-Cities

The HAPO Columbia Cup has become a race of attrition after just the second day.

Already starting with a low number of six unlimited hydroplanes, the fleet was pared to four after Saturday’s events.

It started with the U-3 Grigg’s presents Miss Ace Hardware, driven by Jimmy King, breaking a propeller blade during a morning testing session. The resulting shakeup of the boat caused a large hole in the back of the deck.

“The propeller blade went through the left rear wing,” said U-3 owner Ed Cooper. “We have evidence that the boat hit a piece of driftwood in the river.”

That, said Cooper, helped set things in motion, and once again, the U-3 team from Evansville, Ind., had been snakebit by the Columbia River.

“We’ve had two years where things have gone really bad here,” said Cooper. “This year and 2019.”

Cooper had no choice but to withdraw from the race.

That brought the field down to five unlimited racers. And that forced race director Aaron Stephens’ hand.

“It was a very strange day,” said Stephens, whose officiating crew wanted to keep the Gold Cup package it had bought from H1 Unlimited.

That package consists of eight preliminary heats over two days before a Sunday afternoon final.

That also meant three-boat preliminary heat races, and that’s without any teams dropping out.

“We need to have a show for our race fans,” said Stephens. “We can’t have two-boat heat races. So it turned into a round robin.”

After Stephens’ group had a discussion with the H1 Unlimited group, it was decided that the remaining boats would have a round-robin format — four boats in a heat race, with one boat sitting out; five total heat races for the weekend before the final. Each boat sits out one preliminary heat race.

That was all fine and dandy, as J. Michael Kelly drove the U-9 Lynx Healthcare presents Miss Tri-Cities to victory in the first competitive heat of the day.

Dave Villwock, in the U-40 Miss Beacon Plumbing, placed second in the heat.

The other two boats — the U-11 Miss Joker’s Casino (with driver Jamie Nilsen), and the U-91 Goodman Real Estate (with driver Jeff Bernard) — were disqualified for driving under 80 mph during the pre-race buildup.

However, during the day’s second heat race, things went awry again.

It looked to be a great lineup, with Jimmy Shane in the U-1 Miss HomeStreet Bank facing off against Kelly, Nilsen and Villwock.

As the race started, Shane got a great start in lane 3 and was heading into the first turn in the lead near the blue bridge end of the course.

Kelly was a bit behind on the inside lane, while Villwock was coming hard and fast on the outside lane.

But as Villwock entered the turn, his boat lifted up into the air and flipped, landing right side up.

Kelly was too far inside, with Shane in the middle blocking his view, to see anything.

But Shane saw Villwock.

“I was turning and couldn’t see Dave,” said Shane. “But then I saw him in my mirror. Dave’s boat sponsons were facing straight down. So I knew he was on his way over.”

The race was immediately stopped, and Villwock wasted no time in popping open the capsule and getting on the boat to take a look at the damage.

Villwock himself was checked out, and released, by medical personnel.

But the boat was not raceable for the rest of the weekend.

“The damage is not that bad,” said Villwock. “The canard is out. I thought it was the prop.”

But Villwock admitted he made a wrong move.

“It looks like I hit the wrong pedal,” he said. “Instead of bringing the trailing part of the boat down, I brought the trailing edge up. First time in my career I’ve ever done that.”

He said the team will be ready for next weekend’s Seafair race in Seattle.

“One way or another, we’ll have it ready,” said Villwock.

So the U-40 team — after spending two weeks repairing the boat after an accident in Madison — will have a week in the team shop to get the boat ready.

Meanwhile, the race was re-run later in the day, without Villwock. Shane finished first, while Kelly was second, and Nilsen third.

The schedule was again revised by Stephens and his team.

“We’ll have three boats in each preliminary,”said Stephens. “And then we’ll have a four-boat final.”

There will be three scheduled preliminary heats on Sunday — at 10:40 a.m., 1:20 p.m., and 2:30 p.m. — with the final set for 4 p.m.

“It’s a shame we’re another boat down, losing the 40,” said Kelly. “And that’s after losing the 3 this morning.”

The goal, said Shane, is to give the Tri-Cities race fans a good show.

“But we also need to save the fleet,” said Shane.

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