As who’ll take home the prestigious APBA Gold Cup
this Year?
This weekend’s Bayfair Cup on the bill Muncey
Sand diego Mission Bay’s season finale will decide this year’s Nathonal High
Points champion. Along with whom gets bragging rights over the winter’s
offseason for winning the prestigious APBA Gold cup. As I’d like to Arse-sume
that All eight Unlimited Hulls that participated at Seattle will make the trip
south down Interstate Freeway I-5…
I say rubber match because I’mthinking that’s
what this final race has become between the U-91 Miss Goodman Real Estate of
Andrew Tate vs. the two Strong Racing Hulls; the defending champion J. Michael
Kelly in the U-1 Beacon Electric and the U-9 Beacon Plumbing with Cory Peabody
at it’s tiller.
The season’s two main protagonists have been
Tate and Peabody, who seemed destined for an epic showdown on Lake Washington
in the winner take All Seafair Apollo Mechanical cup final this August.
As I did manage to listen to All seven Heats
from Seattle both days via a very sketchy Youtube channel livestream. Even
though Saturday saw their pit reporter’s transmissions completely garbled or
non-existan. Along with having to Jack up the volume ridiculously in order to
barely hear colour commentator John Walters…
Saturday’s preliminary Heats saw Tate win Heat
1A, followed by Peabody winning Heat 1B. While the best race of the day for
Mwah was Dustin Echols impressive victory in Heat 2A! Being His and the U-40
Flav-R-Pac’s first Heat victory of the season, winning ahead of J. Michael
Kelly!
Heat 2B pitted Tate against Peabody. As Peabody
claimed the inside lane-1 and subsequently “motored” away from Tate, who
finished second.
Sunday’s Heat 3A saw Tate win convincingly from
the inside lane-1. And when asked about it afterwards during the winner’s
interview bluntly said: We got Beat! When asked why He’d run inside on lane-1;
referring to Heat 2B.
As John Walters, whose also an H1 Unlimited Inspector
said that He’d noticed that the U-91 was running a different Skid Fin today in
order to get better “Bite” off the corners on Seattle’s relatively short, tight
2.0-mile race course.
While later in the day, Walters mentioned an
interesting factoid. Stating that today’s modern three bladed propellers used
are made from castings. And last only 100 minutes! Before becoming doorstops or
knickknacks…
Then lead announcer Brad Luce chimed in that
years ago Nate Brown had proclaimed to Him: “Thin is Fast, but Doesn’t last!”
Regarding an Unlimited Hydroplane’s propeller’s lifespan. With Walters noting
that every single time the blade hits the water it bends…
Heat 3B saw Peabody ultimately victorious,
albeit being pushed hard by teammate Kelly in a resurgent U-1 after an
overnight engine change. With the Strong Racing duo finishing 1-2…
Meanwhile, leave it to John Walters, who won
the sport’s very first race with a turbine engine in 1982, driving the Pride of
Pay ‘n Pak during the H1 Unlimiteds pathetic Seafair livestream broadcast. Casually
mentioning that Jim Lucero, the sport’s winningest Crew chief had died earlier
this year. With Walters saying “We lost a Good One”. With Lucero taking the
chequord Flag at age 77, just six days after Ron Jones Jr. death.
Huh, how come I haven’t read a word about this
on H1 Unlimiteds webpage? Oh yeah, that’s the same (lame) site that not only
couldn’t post stories during race weekends. But failed to post a race report of
Sunday’s Apollo Columbia Cup in Tri-Cities at All!
Hmm, why did it take me until Tuesday morning
after Seafair to find the race report Hidden on the website’s innocuous results
tab! Only after I started huntin’ and peckin’ around their pathetic website! Whilst
I still haven’t been able to locate a current National High Points championship
points standings tally anywhere on the web, Urgh!
Brad (Luce) also asked Walters how driver’s
felt after causing their team’s to have to rebuild their boat? In regards to J. Michael Kelly feeling bad
after His narly Blowover at Tri-cities the week prior!
Walters mused, Jim (Lucero) would say, “What
did you do to it John? It was perfect when it left the dock”.
As Lucero won a record 69 races as the Sport’s
winningest Crew Chief, including ten APBA Gold cups and eight National High
Points championships before retiring in 1998.
Luce and Walters salivated over how they
expected four boats to be gunning for lane-1 in the finals! And then during the
Milling period before the new “Score Up” at 1:15 before the start. Luce said is
that the U-1, U-9 and U-91 All together in the south turn? As we’ll keep an eye
upon that triumvirate! Before Luce said that Kelly had bailed from the Argie-Bargey
before exclaiming that Tate had gone Dead in the water!
Kelly got a legal start ahead of the rest of
the field before Peabody was battling for the lead on the outside, with the two
Beacon Hydros’ going Mano e Mano! With Kelly getting His first W’ of the season
and Peabody second, with Tate a dejected fifth! Having never recovered from His
dust-up with Peabody before the start…
Then the Officials ruled that Peabody had
encroached upon Tate during the start and handed Him a one minute time penalty,
with Kelly still being the winner. Now followed by Jamie Nilsen in the U-11
Miss Mercurys coffee second. Dave Villwock in the U-27 Miss Apollo third and
Tate fourth. With Dustin Echols fifth, the U-35 of Gunnar O’Farrell sixth and
Peabody relegated to seventh.
Now I’m not suggesting this, but after waiting
and waiting, and still Ah-Waitin’ to hear the post race drivers interviews
which never happened, Urgh! As I really wanted to hear Tate’s assessment over
what happened?
My mind sprung to having recently read an old
interview with Ron Jones Jr. where He mentions rebuilding the Miss Circus
Circus that burned in Hawaii for Steve Woomer as a “Truck” Boat. And whomever
was driving it? His sole task was to crash into Mark Evans to prevent Him from
winning the National High Points Championship, Youza!
And although I’m not implying this happened in
Seattle, since I think Peabody was still chasing Tate for the championship at
that point; but why do we live in such a conspiracy laden society these days?
Especially when one of the Strong Racing Hulls
won at Seafair; being J. Michael Kelly’s second win in-a-row. With the Miss
Madison Racing website stating that Tate substained damage during said milling
period. Which obviously would have been caused by Peabody in the U-9!
Yet Andrew Tate and the U-91 Miss Goodman Real
Estate lead the National High Points Championship by 949 points, which
represents two first place and nearly fifth place finish in Heat points! With
Tate having two wins vs. Peabody and Kelly having one apiece. Making you
believe that this triumvirate are the odds-on favourites for winning the Gold
Cup this Sunday in San Diego.
As I’m firmly rootin’ for my Numero Uno Skipper
Andrew Tate to seek His revenge upon Strong Racing at Mission Bay this Sunday.
And claiming His second Gold cup victory enroute to His second High Points
championship title!
