Betcha Y'all didn't see that one coming, eh?
Forth 'O July definitely means summer, and
summer means Hydroplanes here in the Pacific Northwest.
Although our highlight 'O summer known as
Seafair when the revered Seafair Pirates invade the shores of Leshi, the Blue
Angels take over the Airspace of Seattle and the roar of Unlimited Hydroplanes
are heard choppin' up the waters of Lake Washington isn't for another month.
Yet the Hydros' have already slung some
Roostertails on the "right side" of Washington, when the series held
its version of Spring Training on the Columbia River this past June.
But Instead of fantasizing over Seafair,
which will be here 'N gone in the blink of an eye, the H1 Unlimited B-I-g'
Boats begin another season of Roostertails this weekend in Madison, Indiana,
with the traditional Governor's Cup race on the banks of the Ohio river. (July
3-5)
As not sure who all's racing, since it seems pretty
hard to get any decent information on this series... Not to mention apparently
having had wholesale changes over the winter, although Madison's own U-1 Oh Boy
Oberto is back to defend its National High Points Championship with Jimmy
Shane, who captured his second consecutive championship last November in Qatar.
There are supposedly twelve Hulls, although
the official H1 Unlimited website claims
there's 15-drivers; as I'm NO Mathematician, so not sure how that works, eh?
As I'd ARSE-sume that Oh Boy Oberto's
stiffest competition will come from the U-96 Spirit of Qatar's Jean Theoret,
whom I last recall piloting the Miss
Beacon Plumbing to victory at Seafair.
As Oh 'KanaDuh's Theoret, hailing
from Maple Grove had been out of boats since 2009 before being called into
substitute for Kip Brown at last year's season finale in Qatar. As Kip's since
walked away from driving the U-96 by "mutual" consent after having
neck surgery, and hence Theoret
now takes over fulltime for team owner Eric Ellstrom.
And I'd expect the two Miss Graham Trucking
boats (U5 & U7) to be in the mix, especially
the U-5 after having recently learned its chauffer J Michael Kelly won the most
races last season and came excruciatingly close to winning the championship!
And the U-9 Miss Red Dot/Les Schwab who's got
a new pilot at its Keyboard, Scott
Liddycoat, who I've never heard of before should
figure into the mix. While there's probably somebody who'll come to the fore
that's been overlooked, eh? Perhaps the
U-27 or U-21? Especially since this year's number of events is so ridiculously
small!
As it seems a long time ago now, when three of this year's competitor's were
testing on the Columbia River in Tri Cities at the beginning of June, hoping to
get a potential jump on the rest of the competition, which we'll see how it all
goes down this weekend and if anybody can knock off Jimmy Shane and the Oh Boy
Oberto...