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Lynch Line for March 2007
2007 Season and beyond begins to take shape.  This
month ULHRA Inc. and Seafair Inc. producers of the Graham
Trucking Cup at Seafair for Unlimited Lights in early August
reached agreement to assure that ULHRA will be racing in
Seattle in 2007, 2008 & 2009. For the first time the ULHRA
sanctioning body has a multi-year contract to bring both the
Unlimited Lights and the North American Challenge Cup Series
for Thunderboats to the huge Pacific NW event held annually
since 1951 on Lake Washington in Seattle. This marks the
second race site to enter a multi-year agreement with ULHRA,
Inc; the first occurred several years ago with Regates de
Valleyfield and their annual event in early July in Quebec
province near Montreal. Last year 20 teams entered the Seattle event between the Unlimited Lights and Thunderboats (G) series'. An even larger number would like to enter the Seattle race this year……space permitting in what is increasingly becoming a confined pit area. Between the turbine teams and ULHRA more than 30 racing programs are sharing space in the Stan Sayers Pits. That is not a surprise considering the growth of professional hydroplane racing the past couple of years with more teams homeported in the Seattle area and they all want to race on their “home track”. ULHRA Teams are in final preparations for the 2007 season which kicks off a month earlier than previous seasons. Spring Training will be on Thursday, April 26th at Renton WA at Coulon Park. Indications are between UL, Thunderboats (G) and Lighter than LIGHTS there could be as many as 20 teams testing that day. ULHRA Video will be on the scene with live coverage here at www.ulhra.org of Spring Training. The new season opener is called River Rush and it kicks off the 2007 season on May 19th & 20th. River Rush will be conducted at Howard Amon Park in Richland; a tremendous facility in one of the Tri Cities on the Columbia River in southeast Washington State. This location is just a few miles upriver from where the Unlimited Lights have competed at Kennewick & Pasco at the end of July in the annual Atomic Cup event that was launched in 1966. River Rush will feature the Unlimited Lights and Lighter than LIGHTS. The LTL program is seeing significant growth in team numbers this year. As many as 25 LTL teams in two classes, 4 cylinder stock and 8 cylinder stock are expected to compete through the course of the 2007 LTL season. One of the many positive elements that comes with the ULHRA fleet is ULHRA Video. Live coverage of every ULHRA event was launched a year ago and continues this year. Adapting the technology for live video on the internet has taken quite an effort by the volunteer technical staff of ULHRA Inc. and each time out the program has improved. This brings the world to the local community and vice versa where the racing event is held. Records of those “logging on” to ULHRA Video in 2006 showed the program was reaching people around the world. An email from China was a welcome surprise. The numbers in racing hotbeds Australia and New Zealand, where someday ULHRA may have the opportunity to send teams, were expected. The unexpected was the surprising numbers in countries not known for a fan base for hydroplane racing. Interest will continue to grow with this service that is supplied free of charge to the race sites and the viewers by ULHRA Inc. If ULHRA is racing on a given weekend you’ll be able to follow the action live on your computer. The live coverage is followed by multi-camera recorded coverage of the racing heats by Gold Cup Video and on this website there are years of racing heats produced by Gold Cup Video dating back to 2002. More new teams are joining the series. Mike Jack will lead the Union Pride UL-94 Racing Team into Spring Training in April and compete in the Northwest Series of Unlimited Lights races. Mike is a Pacific NW veteran limited racer and put the deal together along with team owner Dave Bartholomew. This craft was originally raced by G-24 owner-driver Mike Eacrett back in the 80’s. In those days it was the largest 7 Liter hydroplane around and featured a turbocharged engine. It’s still among the larger Unlimited Lights at over 25 feet in length. This hull has been inactive since the 1999 season but is said to be in excellent shape. Power this season will be supplied by a naturally aspirated big block engine but don’t be surprised if supercharged power finds its way to the UL-94 engine well sometime in the future. After welcoming 12 new teams to ULHRA racing a year ago, another 8-10 teams may debut in 2007. The bulk of the ULHRA teams are homeported in and around Seattle WA but this series also has teams from Oregon, California, Alabama, Michigan, Illinois, New York, and Florida. The North American Challenge Cup Series for Thunderboats (G) will also feature Valleyfield’s new GP class which includes Canadian and U.S. teams. The Northwest Series for ULHRA received very good news this month. Powerboats NW, a leading performance boating and marine company headquartered in Tacoma WA returns as Northwest Series Sponsor. The Powerboats NW brand will be a major part of all Northwest Series ULHRA events including on the water demonstrations, displays, and other features. Last year for example, Powerboats NW owner Joe Malich conducted a “flyby” with a stunt airplane with the two craft just feet apart on the Columbia River. Later Powerboats NW ran side by side with the UL-72. Expect more “innovative” efforts by Joe Malich and Powerboats NW in 2007 where they feature many of the best in performance boats such as Fountain, Regal, Eliminator, Spectre, Nordic, and Outerlimits to name just a few. Check them out at http://www.powerboatsnw.com/ John Lynch P.R. Director, ULHRA Inc.
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