Water Follies weekend kicks off with intense Columbia Cup qualifier, drivers in top form
With just four races this year on the H1 Unlimited circuit, every point a team can earn becomes so important in the quest for a national high-points championship.
On Friday — with two races remaining in the season — qualifying in the Columbia Cup became a chess match.
Corey Peabody and Jeff Campbell stood in their U-9 Beacon Plumbing camp, discussing whether they should go out on the course a second time in the qualifying ladder.
Peabody, the U-9’s driver as well as the team manager for Strong Racing, wanted to make sure they needed to. They had the top speed after the first of the two qualifying ladder rounds.
Campbell, the crew chief for both the U-9 and the U-8 Beacon Electric, wanted to make sure that one of those two boats would be top qualifier.
It meant the difference between 100 and 80 points. So they took a wait-and-see approach.
It didn’t take long to decide.
Over the day’s final 30 minutes of qualification time, the top qualifier leader changed two times.
It started with Dylan Runne ripping off a lap of 161.646 mph in the U-1 Miss HomeStreet Bank. That gave him the lead, temporarily.
Dustin Echols stepped into the U-40 Flav-R-Pac and gave it a valiant effort with a speed of 161.284 mph, just short of Runne.
It’s been an impressive run for Echols and the U-40 team. The team’s speed has just vaulted from last season.
“It’s Dustin’s driving and what the team has done to the boat,” said Sharon Stocklin, who along with her husband Kelly Stocklin owns the boat. “And we have to give some credit to Dave Villwock, who did a great job setting this boat up last year.”
That left it to Peabody, who hammered down with a lap of 162.191 mph for that coveted top qualifying speed and the 100 points that goes with it.
“If we didn’t need to go out, we weren’t going to,” said Peabody, who won the Columbia Cup two years ago. “But if somebody ups our speed, we have to go out.”
What makes this field so interesting is that from top to bottom of the eight boats qualified, the difference in miles-per-hour speed from first to eighth is just 6.856 mph.
Only the 2001 Columbia Cup, with its difference at 4.825 mph from first to eighth, was tighter.
And we also have a new national high points leader.
So suddenly, going into Saturday’s event, which will have just two preliminary heat races for the unlimiteds (4 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.), Kelly in the U-8 has taken over the national high points lead with 2,374 points.
Nilsen in the U-11 drops from first to second, with 2,345 points.
Peabody, with his 100 points, closed in on those two and has 1,880 points. That’s still a ways away with just two races remaining in the season.
Here are the top qualifiers from Friday:
1. U-9 Beacon Plumbing, Corey Peabody, 162.191 mph, 100 points
2. U-1 Miss HomeStreet Bank, Dylan Runne, 161.646 mph, 80 points
3. U-40 Flav-R-Pac, Dustin Echols, 161.284 mph, 70 points
4. U-8 Beacon Electric, J. Michael Kelly, 158.974 mph, 60 points
5. U-91Goodman Real Estate, Andrew Tate, 157.284 mph, 50 points
6. U-3 Griggs presents Ace Hardware, Jimmy King, 156.304 mph, 40 points
7. U-11 Legend Yacht Transport, Jamie Nilsen, 156.220 mph, 30 points
8. U-12 Graham Trucking, Bobby King, 155.355 mph, 30 points
DNQ, 440 Boitano Homes, Brent Hall
Qualifying is one thing. Racing with at least four boats on the water is another thing.
“The key,” said Echols, “is staying out of trouble. The fastest boat doesn’t always win. We’ll have to watch out for the team boats (the U-8 and U-9; the U-1 and U-91), and we have to stay out of trouble.”
Peabody was coy about the U-9 team’s plan for Saturday.
“We might run this box (gearbox) tomorrow,” said Peabody. “We’ll figure it out tonight after we look at the data.”
▪ Hall got the 440 Boitano Homes boat out on the water in testing and qualifying.
But the cockpit got way too hot in the second lap of his qualifying attempt and he had to shut the boat down.
Kelly Stocklin wasn’t sure what he was going to do with the boat and its mechanical problems.
Hall was trying to qualify as an H1 Unlimited driver, giving him the chance to become the first African American to race in a competitive unlimited heat.
▪ Charlie Grooms, the Miss Madison team manager who oversees the U-1 Miss HomeStreet Bank and the U-91 Goodman Real Estate, is used to his teams being at or near the top of the standings.
”I still think we have a ways to go,” said Grooms. “Our guys (Dylan Runne and Andrew Tate) need to get more seat time. Our level of expectations are higher.”
Grooms is preaching patience to everyone.
“I don’t think we’ve pushed the envelope,” Grooms said. “We don’t push things the way we like to run. We’ve been blessed to have guys like Steve David and Jimmy Shane drive for us.”
Grooms said it took David a bit to find his stride.
“And Jimmy Shane is a completely different story,” said Grooms, meaning he was ready to go from the start.
Runne has just two races under his belt in the U-1.
“And actually we’re only into the beginning of the second race (in the U-91) for Andrew,” Grooms added.
Tate’s boat, after suffering a flip in the season opener in Alabama, wasn’t race-ready for the Madison race.
Grooms is confident in what he’s got right now.
“I know we’ve got two good guys,” said Grooms. “We just have to hold them together in the patience department. We went into this season preaching patience on the drivers side.”
▪ On Thursday, the H1 Unlimited board of directors approved a clarification on the below 80 mph rule during the milling period before a race.
The clarification means that race officials can determine that going under 80 mph for more than 5 seconds — which was a penalty before Thursday — may not be a penalty if the move does not result in a competitive advantage.
“The purpose of the rule clarification is to avoid the unnecessary disqualification of boats that violate the 80-mph rule but don’t achieve an advantage by doing so,” said Tim Austin, H1 board chairman. “For example, a boat that violates the 80-mph rule but starts in an outside lane, should not be disqualified.”
▪ Bobby King easily got his laps in to qualify as a driver for the U-12 Graham Trucking.
Because of that, he’ll be racing competitively in the Columbia Cup for the first time on Saturday — and he may go up against his father, Jimmy King.
Jimmy King drives the U-3 Griggs presents Miss Ace Hardware.
Jeff Morrow is former sports editor for the Tri-City Herald.
