For the Reporter
It wasn’t the championship final, but the preliminary heats provided more than enough action on the first day of H1 Unlimited Hydroplane Series racing Saturday in the Albert Lee Cup at Seafair.
The day on Lake Washington saw a tight battle with Covington’s Jimmy Shane outlasting Cal Phipps in one heat. It continued with Jimmy King capturing his first heat win since the 2009 Seafair race, and Bonney Lake’s J. Michael Kelly delivering a came-from-behind win over the top qualifier, Jean Theoret.
Racing resumes Sunday, with the championship heat scheduled to start at 4:45 p.m. (KIRO 7).
While Shane in the U-1 Oberto began the day with a good battle, outlasting Phipps in the U-27 Dalton Industries hydroplane, the next two preliminary heats created the big stories.
First, King and in his U-3 Allison piston-powered Homestreet Bank hydro outraced the turbine engine-powered fleet. Then, after the heat, King raced to his computer to watch his son, Robbie, win his 2500 Formula category heat in an inboard regatta at Quebec, Canada.
“It is a good day for the King family,” King said. “We did everything we wanted to do to win our heat, and Robbie just won his second heat of racing. We had all sorts of issues last week in Tri-Cities (for the HAPO APBA Gold Cup), and I just feel good for Ed (Cooper), our owner. They did a lot of work on this boat and it shows.”
For Kelly and the U-5 Graham Trucking boat, the battle in heat 1C was the toughest of the day and déjà vu from last week’s Gold Cup duel. As it was in that Gold Cup heat, Kelly had the inside lane with Theoret in lane two. This time, Theoret in the U-96 Ellstrom Elam Plus took the lead from lane two on the start, and Kelly chased him down.
It was on lap two in turn one when the Theoret and his hydro bounced through the turn, scrubbing off some speed. Kelly had a better boat setup for the rough water and moved to the lead. After that, it was a deck-to-deck battle to the checkered flag.
The U-5 boat could only turn in the sixth-fastest qualifying time on Friday with a 145.285 mph average, while Theoret knocked it out of the park, leading everyone with a speed of 150.583. But a new engine in the U-5 and the inside lane created the deck-to-deck battle.
“That was quite a race,” Kelly said. “We were disappointed with our speed yesterday in qualifying, so we put a new engine in the boat and the results were pretty good. To race like we did and beat Jean tells us we have the boat we need to be in the fight.”
The first H1 Unlimited Hydroplane heat will start at 11:20 a.m. today.
The unlimiteds are scheduled to have six boats in each of the preliminary heats. The championship final will have six boats and one trailer boat.
For ticket and schedule information go to www.seafair.com.
ALBERT LEE CUP AT SEAFAIR
Saturday preliminary results
HEAT 1A
1-Jimmy Shane, Oberto, 142.390
2-Cal Phipps, Dalton Industries, 140.668
3-Tom Thompson, Peters & May, 126.551
4-Kevin Eacret Leland Unlimited Miss CARSTAR, 125.644
HEAT 1B
1-Jimmy King Home Street Bank, 138.309
2-Scott Liddycoat, Les Schwab /Red Dot, 134.362
3-Jesse Robertson, Graham Trucking II, 130.734
4-Brian Perkins, Albert Lee Appliance, 94.1833
HEAT 1C
1-J. Michael Kelly. Graham Trucking I 142.435
2-Jean Theoret, Ellstrom Elam Plus, 141.000
3-Mike Webster, Boitano Homes
4-Patrick Sankuer, Miss DiJulio
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