{"id":18080,"date":"2009-08-03T11:47:59","date_gmt":"2009-08-03T18:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spiken.wpengine.com\/news\/oberto-hydro-favored-to-win-seafair-chevrolet-cup-settles-for-sixth\/"},"modified":"2016-10-22T08:30:29","modified_gmt":"2016-10-22T15:30:29","slug":"oberto-hydro-favored-to-win-seafair-chevrolet-cup-settles-for-sixth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/sports\/oberto-hydro-favored-to-win-seafair-chevrolet-cup-settles-for-sixth\/","title":{"rendered":"Oberto hydro, favored to win Seafair Chevrolet Cup, settles for sixth"},"content":{"rendered":"

He has been riding high all season.<\/p>\n

In front of roughly 100,000 fans during a sun-splashed Seafair<\/a> Sunday afternoon on Lake Washington, however, the high-riding Steve David was brought back down to the earth.<\/p>\n

David, driver of the Kent-sponsored U-1 Oh Boy! Oberto,<\/a> entered the Chevrolet Cup at Seafair<\/a> \u2013 regarded as the biggest event of the weekend \u2013 leading the national points race and among a small handful of favorites to win. David also was coming off a win at last weekend\u2019s Lamb Weston Cup<\/a> in the Tri-Cities.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, however, David was unable to repeat the successful formula. Engine problems struck the Kent-sponsored hydroplane midway through the third lap, leading to an uncharacteristic sixth-place finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday we got stuck between the seagull and the windshield,\u201d David lamented.<\/p>\n

A critical engine piece to the U-1 Oh Boy! Oberto\u2019s cooling system was to blame for the malfunction and was what brought David\u2019s boat to a considerably slower pace than the rest of the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen that goes away, the temperature goes to the moon and you have to back off so you don\u2019t blow up,\u201d said David, who did collect two seconds and one first in three separate heats before Sunday’s finale. \u201cI literally had to drop to 70 miles per hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of the incident, David was in second place, roughly seven boatlengths behind leader Dave Villwock of Auburn.<\/a><\/p>\n

David and Villwock have been going toe-to-toe all season long. In fact, David came into the Sunday spectacular leading the national points race, just ahead of Villwock \u2013 4,640-4,041.<\/p>\n

Villwock, however, put a considerable dent in that lead, winning the Chevrolet Cup by blistering the two-mile oval with an average speed of 137.532 miles per hour. Villwock, driving the U-16 Miss Ellstrom Elam Plus, led all five laps of the championship race. Jimmy King, driving the U-3 Miss Chrysler Jeep, finished in second.<\/p>\n

It was a historic performance for the Auburn hydroplane racer, who passed Bill Muncey as the winningest driver in Seafair unlimited hydroplane history. It was Villwock\u2019s 10th win in the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a great race and we were just unable to stop him,\u201d David said of Villwock.<\/p>\n

After Sunday\u2019s race, David still held the lead in national points, but his gap over Villwock has narrowed considerably \u2013 5,815-5,566. With two races remaining on the season \u2013 Aug. 23 in Evansville, Ind. and Nov. 14 in Doha, Qatar, a small country in the Middle East \u2013 the championship likely will go down to the wire.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had seasons that go down to the final race,\u201d David said. \u201cAnd this year, it really could go down to Qatar.\u201d<\/p>\n

The top 10 drivers in the national points race are expected to compete in Qatar in what will formally by called the Oryx Cup. It\u2019s also the first time the local hydroplane circuit has ventured into the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am excited about the exposure this race will bring the sport internationally,\u201d said David, whose average speed during the championship race was 126.703 miles per hour. \u201cThey are genuine gear heads.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tight-fisted battle between David and Villwock in the national points race should just heighten the event in Qatar. David won the points race three consecutive years from 2005 through 2007.<\/p>\n

Part of the key to Oh Boy! Oberto\u2019s success hasn\u2019t only been David, but also the new state-of-the-art unlimited hydroplane that was built prior to the 2007 season. The boat was designed specifically for the Lake Washington course. The new, lighter design worked flawlessly the first season, when David won Seafair in the upgraded machine. David\u2019s success at Seafair continued last year, when he took second to Villwock.<\/p>\n

The run of success, however, came to a screeching halt this past Sunday when the U-1 Oh Boy! Oberto succumbed to engine troubles.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first time in the boat\u2019s three-year run that it has come across any engine issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s discouraging because it\u2019s the first time in three years we have had any engine troubles with the boat,\u201d David said. \u201cNow it puts a little pressure on us heading into the final two races.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

HOW THEY FINISHED<\/p>\n

FINISH\t\tBOAT\t\t\t\tDRIVER\t\tAVG. SPEED\tPOINTS<\/p>\n

1\t\tU-16 Ellstrom Elam Plus\t\tDave Villwock\t137.532\t\t400<\/p>\n

2\t\tU-3 Grandview on the Lake\tJimmy King\t133.072\t\t300<\/p>\n

3\t\tU-37 Hoss Mortgage Investors\tJ.W. Myers\t130.322\t\t225<\/p>\n

4\t\tU-5 FormulaBoats.com\t\tJeff Bernard\t128.574\t\t169<\/p>\n

5\t\tU-17 USNW Express\t\tKip Brown\t127.29\t\t127<\/p>\n

6\t\tU-1 Oh Boy! Oberto\t\tSteve David\t126.703\t\t95<\/p>\n

7\t\tU-7 Graham Trucking\t\tJ. Michael Kelly121.139\t\t71<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He has been riding high all season. In front of roughly 100,000 fans during a sun-splashed Seafair Sunday afternoon on Lake Washington, however, the high-riding Steve David was brought back down to the earth. David, driver of the Kent-sponsored U-1 Oh Boy! Oberto, entered the Chevrolet Cup at Seafair \u2013 regarded as the biggest event […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":18081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-18080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18080"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18080"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=18080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}