1999 Chrysler - Jeep APBA Gold Cup at Detroit
Detroit River, Detroit, Michigan, July 11, 1999

Sunday's Unlimited Light Final and Automotive Gold Cup
In the Unlimited Light final, it was deck-to-deck racing the entire way.  In the end, it was Bo Schide in the UL-16 beating the UL-10 with Charley Wiggins.

In the final...

1. UL-16 Alamo
   Bo Schide
2. UL-10 Earl’s Performance Products
   Charley Wiggins
3. UL-110 Miss CompAir
   Randy Haas
4. UL-72 Pocket Mechanic
   Phil Bononcini
5. UL-38 BASF *
   Dave Bender

*assessed 2 one-minute penalties

In the automotive Gold Cup...

*assessed one-minute penalty

SATURDAY:
Unlimited Light Heat 2:

In the unlimited lights, only two boats finished after all the boats that wanted to run were combined into one heat.  Randy Haas, who was racing down the front straight toward the finish, flew his propeller in the wrong direction.  As Haas was going down river, his propeller decided to go back up river and sheared off the shaft.

UL Heat 2:
1st:  Bo Schide, UL-16 (Alamo)
2nd: Charlie Wiggins, UL-10 (Earl's Performance Products)
DNF: UL-72 (Pocket Mechanic)
DNF: UL-141 (Authorized Cellular)
DNF: UL-110 (Miss Compair)

In the pits for tomorrow is a new boat to this weekend, but not a new boat to the fans.  The old High Pressure, now numbered UL-102, will attempt to make the field tomorrow with a rookie driver at the helm.  The boat is associated with McGregor Manufacturing, a local Detroit business. UL-23 actually broke an engine in warm-up to heat 1.  The team worked to get a new engine in place to make the field in heat 2, but simply ran out of time.  They did hear from the sponsor who was pleased with the day.  You see the UL-23 (Miss Bad Frog Beer) was stuck in the middle of the course throughout the UL heat 1 and through the Unlimited heats that followed.
The sponsor was pleased to see the advertisement on the water all that time.  As has been said in the past, there is no bad press.

We mentioned earlier that UL-38 went out, returned to the pits then made its way back out to race.  In tracking down the details we learned that there are some very shallow portions of the course.  The UL-38 went out and got its prop curled up in weeds in the water.  It made its way back to the pits to untangle then returned to race. 

Now that's dedication!

Here are the draws for UL heats 2A and 2B"

UL Heat 2A: Ul-10, UL-15, UL-38, UL-110
UL Heat 2B: UL-16, UL-23, UL-72, UL-141

UL Heat 1A:
Unlimited light action saw one boat go to to the pits only to return to the course shortly thereafter.  Also, the first lap looked to be a close race, but UL-141 had been penalized 1 minute for cutting the course in the wrong area. And if that wasn't enough for a bad day, UL-141 ran through the roostertail of UL-10 and then took out a straightaway buoy.

1st: Charlie Wiggins, UL-10 (Earl's Performance Products)
2nd: UL-38 (BASF)
DNF: UL-141 (Authorized Cellular)
DNF: UL-15 (Happy Go Lucky)
 

UL Heat 1B:
Cal Phipps had the best seat in the house for heat 1B, but it wasn't the seat he wanted.  UL-23 (Bad Frog Beer) went down before the start and drifted down the front straight.  He had boats going on either side of him for the entire race.

1st: Bo Schide, UL-16 (Alamo)
2nd: UL-110 (Miss Compair)
3rd: UL-72 (Pocket Mechanic)
DNS: UL-23

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Copyright © 2003 Unlimited Light Hydroplane Racing Association
Republished in an edited form from Hydros.  Used with permission.