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Greg Hopp and his trusty
UL-1 Mike's Hard
Lemonade-Happy Go Lucky
bested Michael Flaherty
in the winner take all
Final for the first ever
Quicksilver Regatta
championship at
Silverdale WA. The
Final Heat finish was a
reversal of Heat 1A held
the day before, when
Flaherty was able to
drive around Hopp from
the outside and take the
win. This time, there
would be no driving
around Hopp as his
bright yellow hydroplane
drove off to a two
roostertail length
victory. Hopp's victory
comes one week after his
victory at Seafair in
Seattle. In fact, were
it not for a DMZ
violation at Tri Cities,
Hopp would've won all
three events held over
the past 3 weekends.
Flaherty took second,
but stayed in the hunt
for the National
Championship, which
appears headed for a
showdown in Port Angeles
WA, Sept. 30, Oct 1 & 2
where the Unlimited
Lights title has been
decided the past two
years.
Third place after a very
strong weekend, was
Harold Mills in the
UL-40 Miss Red Dot
Corporation. Mills had
deck to deck battles in
the preliminary heats
with Greg Hopp and
Michael Flaherty, only
to come up just short.
But it was a very
productive weekend in
the points battle for
the Thunder Valley
Racing Team as they
scored 1125 points for
the weekend.
4th place went to Joe
Turner in the Escapeius
Maximus, Pacific Rim
Brewing Co. entry. This
is the same boat that
Ron Doumont brought to
Seattle a week ago from
his home in eastern
British Columbia., to
replace Turner's UL-18
that was damaged when
the trailer came loose
from its tow vehicle.
Turner, Doumont, and a
slew of volunteers from
several Unlimited Light
and Lighter than LIGHTS
teams transferred the
UL-18 engine to
Doumont's hull, and
Turner drove to the
alternate spot for the
Final Heat at Seattle.
In Silverdale, they
finished each heat,
including one heat
driven by Doumont, and
Turner drove to 4th
place overall in a very
popular Final Heat
finish. Afterward,
Turner announced that
the collaboration with
Doumont will continue at
San Diego and Port
Angeles.
In 5th was the brightly
painted and lengthy
named Hyundai of Everett
presents Mz Zip Fizz
Energy Drink Mix. The
brand new boat gets
better with each
outing. For the first
time this season, Driver
Steve Hook and the UL-19
finished every heat,
including their first
win in the "B-Main". It
was a thrilling deck to
deck duel with Harold
Mills that wound up with
Hook winning by 26
feet............the
length of the UL-19.
Sixth place went to
Vince Xaudaro in the
UL-929 Conover
Insurance, who's boat
went out for the warm-up
but went dead in the
water in turn two just
prior to the start.
Xaudaro was one of three
drivers who qualified
for the Final without
running the B-Main, but
unfortunately came away
from the Final with no
points. The "X-Man" and
Kevin Aylesworth's UL-5
Baker Equipment Co. team
are in a battle for 3rd
place in the points.
Aylesworth turned over
the driving duties to
backup driver, and
brother in law, Jon
Church who finished all
3 preliminary heats. In
testing he turned a
personal career best lap
in the UL-5 of 114.9 mph
on the 1 1/4 course.
However, following
Sunday's first heat the
team detected a
component failure in the
rudder bracket so they
withdrew from the B-Main
and Final. Aylesworth
says, they'll be ready
for their home town San
Diego race, September
16-18.
The first ever
Quicksilver event was a
tremendous success.
Excellent crowds,
excellent weather, and
excellent racing action
combined for the series'
best first year
event..............since
Port Angeles WA debuted
to rave reviews in
2003. In fact, none
other than Jerry Hopp,
co-owner of the Mike's
Hard Lemonade and
participant in races of
all sizes and markets
for 3 decades,
proclaimed that
Silverdale gets his vote
for race site of the
year.
John Lynch
"Voice" of the Unlimited
Lights
Greetings from the inaugural Quicksilver Race, in Silverdale, WA. The Unlimited Lights put on quite a show in Heat 1A. The first half of the race was a great match-up with Gregg spurting out to the lead over Michael Flaherty. Then, from the outside, UL 72 was able to pass the UL 1 and finish in first place. Jon Church, in the UL 5 drove to a strong 3rd, followed by Joe Turner in the UL 18. ORDER of FINISH: UL 72 Michael Flaherty: Jensen Motorboat Co presents Miss Boat Electric 400 points UL 1 Greg Hopp: Mike's Hard Lemonade 300 points UL 5 Jon Church: Freedom Racing/ Baker Equipment 225 points UL 18 Joe Turner: Pacific Rim Brewing Company 169 points In the second activity on the water, the 8 Cylinder Mods showed their strength--and noise--as Bob Estes took the lead from Rod Bourke and Rob Hall was right in there. NM 33 Bob Estes: INSTIGATOR...Bang Imaging.com 400 points NM 5 Rod Bourke: Miss Environment/SR Company 300 points NM 74 Rob Hall: Marine Dream Racing presented by Sandpoint Satelite and Sound 225 ponts Third up was the 4 Cylinder Class, well represented here by 8 boats. Charles Xaudaro, S 32 and Kayleigh Perkins, 151 had to leave the course before the start, but 4 strong boats showed te crowd some fine competition. Philip "Buzz" Buzzmeir and Jeff Bernard went deck to deck for over 2 laps, until Jeff pulled away for the win. Joe Guitierrez looked great in third and Ed Novak was fourth. S 6 Jeff Bernard: Pasquinucci Racing presents Miss Breezy 400 points S 23 Buzz Buzzmeir: Miss Buzwiser 300 points S 70 Joe Gutierrez: Miss Dream 225 points S 34 Ed Novak: Ultra Quiet Floors 169 points YS 151 Kayleigh Perkins: Tsunami DNS S 32 Charles Xaudaro: WYNOT DNS Wow! Unlimited Light Heat 1 B was EXCITING11 Harold Mills looked like he jumped the gun, but he atually made a picture perfect start, and the lead. Vince, the "X" Man was catching him in the straights, but Harold kept coming out of the turns ahead. Only in the fourth and final lap did Vince just barely cross the line first. Steve Hook was third. UL 929 Vince Xaudaro 400 points UL 40 Harold Mills 300 points UL 19 Steve Hook 225 points At 3:PM, the Pits were opened to the public and what a nice crowd getting "up close and personal" with the boats and teams. Next there was a delightful exhibition of Vintage Jersey Speed Skiffs. Joe Frauenheim, Mike Hutchinson and Jerel Frauenheim each drove the fun boats to watch. Well, the 8 cylinders had some woes, so Wil Muncey was the only race participant and won 400 points for his Wyatt's Diamond Jewelers presents Elaine's American Maid. UL 2A was a nailbiter as Vince had an absolutely perfect start, but Mike was right there. The two of them changed leads the entire race. UL 929 won in the straights, but UL 72 cornered perfectly and turned the corners on a dime, in lane one. He barely passed Vince at the finish line. Meanwhile Steve Hook and Jon Church mixed it up for third and fourth. (I held my breath for the whole 5 mile, 4 lap race!) In UL 2B Joe Turner had some repairs to make to the bottom of his boat, so UL 1 and UL 40 had a great time racing. The 2 yellow boats looked wonderful, especially in the turns, as those blown motors made the noise, and the roostertails shot to the sky. Just as we go to Press, Kayleigh Perkins YS 151, Tsunami, won her first heat!!! And she beat her brother Brian in the S 6....... Oh, my. John Lynch will do a follow up and we will have points for you tomorrow. Great weather, growing crowd as the day went on...... Patti
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