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Michael Flaherty drove the heat of his young career in the Final at Tri Cities. He came up just short, by about 4 boat lengths, to Greg Hopp. But due to an infraction prior to the start where Hopp and also Kevin Aylesworth were penalized for driving through the DMZ, or closed area of the course, Flaherty was declared the winner. Second place goes to Vince Xaudaro with Paul Becker in third. With 1 minute penalties assessed to Hopp and Aylesworth, Hopp wound up in 4th place and Aylesworth in 5th place. The other Final Heat starter, Steve Hook did not finish. Today's win continues a streak for the UL-72 teams. They've won each race on the Columbia Cup course this centuray. That's 4 wins with 4 different drivers. Phil Bononcini, co-owner of the UL-72 won in 2000. Canadian Patrick Haworth won in 2002, and George Woods won last year. It was also a disappointment to the Hopp Racing Team. The Columbia Cup Course is the only site on the ULHRA circuit where they have yet to win a race.
Kevin Aylesworth in his UL-5 Team Area Codes Cellular took first place in the B-Main following problems aboard the UL-40 Miss Red Dot Corporation. Harold Mills, driving the UL-40 made an excellent start and raced to the front. Lap one was the fastest compettion heat of the weekend at better than 112 mph. But on lap three Mills pulled off the race course and went dead in the water due to fuel pump problems. Aylesworth led Paul Becker in the UL-14 Miss Software Prototype across the line with Joe Turner in the UL-18 Pacific Rim Brewing Company taking third. Aylesworth and Becker now will join Michael Flaherty, Greg Hopp, Steve Hook, and Vince Xaudaro in the 6 boat Final Heat. After the B-Main the Ul-18 team discovered a small hole in the bottom of their hull, but it'll be repaired in time for next week's race in Seattle. In another first for the Unlimited Light Hydroplane Racing Association, Inc. the Final Heat will be 6 2/3 miles; four laps of the HAPO Community Thunder Cup Course. Traditional ULHRA heats are 5 miles in length.
Kevin Aylesworth in his UL-5 Team Area Codes Cellular won the start of Heat 2B from the outside lane. By the first corner, Greg Hopp was alongside in the UL-1 Mike's Hard Lemonade - Happy Go Lucky. Hopp drove to victory, but it was a tight battle for all 5 miles with Aylesworth never more than a roostertail length behind. The victory margin was about 3 boat lengths. In third with another solid run was Paul Becker in his UL-14 Miss Software Prototype. In 4th after a delayed start due to a missed buoy in turn two prior to the start was Harold Mills in the UL-40 Miss Software Prototype. Mills commented that his vision was obstructed by the late afternoon sun and didn't see the buoy. Mills circled around to pick up the turn pin but was well back at the start. In Unlimited Lights competition, once a boat passes the "score up" buoy on the backstretch for the run to the starting line, it must hold its lane all the way through turn number one. The fans were on their feet for the thrilling conclusion of an outstanding day of Unlimited Lights racing. Sunday afternoon will find 4 boats in the "B-Main" battling for the remaining 2 spots in the 6 boat Final. They are the UL-5, UL-18, UL-14 and UL-40. Already locked into the Final Heat in the winner take all Final for the HAPO Community Thunder Cup are... UL-72 Michael Flaherty 800 points UL-1 Greg Hopp 625 points UL-19 Steve Hook 600 points UL-929 Vince Xaudaro 569 points
Heat 2B
Green buoys with an evergreen background affect Heat 2A outcome Vince "X-Man" Xaudaro's apparent win in Heat 2A of the HAPO Community Thunder Cup was lost today. On laps 2 & 3 of the five mile heat, Xaudaro drove inside the 2nd buoy on turn #1. Because he failed to pick up that buoy twice, he incurred 2 one minute penalties, dropping the Tri Cities native to 4th place in the heat in his UL-929 Conover Insurance presents Ice Harbor Brewing Co. The win goes to Michael Flaherty in the UL-72 Verizon Wireless presents Miss Boat Electric. In second was Steve Hook in the improving UL-19 Conover Insurance presents Mz Zip Fizz Energy Drink Mix and third place went to Joe Turner in the UL-18 Pacific Rim Brewing Co. After the heat Xaudaro admitted he never saw the buoy, and race officials are working on a solution. With the late afternoon sun and the background of evergreens, it made for difficult viewing in that turn. Green buoys are used to distinguish the Unlimited Lights course from the Unlimited course. Heat
2A
Flaherty takes the victory in Heat 1B
X-Man takes Heat 1A at Hapo Community
Thunder Cup
Dash for Cash 
HAPO Community Thunder Cup for
Unlimited Lights
The
HAPO Community Thunder Cup welcomes the
Unlimited Light Hydroplanes to the swift
racing waters of the Columbia River at Tri
Cities WA. Action on the water begins this
Friday, July 29th and concludes on Sunday
afternoon, July 31st. This is the 40th
edition of the Tri Cities Water Follies.
After 3 events
on the 2005 Unlimited Light Hydroplane
Racing Association tour, it's looking like a
2 team battle for the title. Not
surprisingly, it's the same two teams that
have battled for the title the past 5
seasons: Hopp Racing and their
UL-1
Mike's Hard Lemonade - Happy Go Lucky , and
Impact Racing's
UL-72,
now named Miss Boat Electric and driven by
2004 Rookie of the Year Michael Flaherty.
The two time defending champion UL-1 holds
less than an 800 point lead.
STANDINGS With 400 points per heat
victory and a total of 1200 heat points per
race, plus qualifying points, that lead can
melt away quickly.
The 72 hull,
driven by co-owner Phil Bononcini, won the
title in 2000, 2001 and 2002. The present
Hopp hull, then campaigned by Florida's Ned
Allen and driven by Bo Schide, won the title
from 1997 through 1999, and with the Hopp
Racing team the same hull, with updates and
converted to supercharged power, won the
title in 2003 & 2004. In fact, only one
other race craft has ever won the Unlimited
Lights season championship; the now retired
UL-23 Pegasus, owned by Bob Larimore from
Springfield OH, which won titles in 1995 and
1996.
While Hopp
Racing has won 13 of their past 21 races,
one site where they've never won is Tri
Cities WA. This hull won twice in 1997 and
1998 at Tri Cities with Bo Schide driving.
Meantime, the UL-72 hull has won this race
the last 3 times the Unlimited Lights were
brought to Tri Cities, in 2000 and 2002 with
Bononcini at the wheel, and last year with
George Woods Jr. at the wheel. Woods had to
survive the Tri Cities' B-Main in order to
transfer to the Final and go on to victory.
He has now moved up to the team's new
Thunderboat ACCS entry, the G-13 Tempo.
No one comes
into this race with more incentive to win
than the X-Man, Vince Xaudaro. He nearly
pulled off a victory a year ago, leading at
the start before being overtaken by Woods.
Since then, the UL-929 hull has undergone a
complete face lift. Click here for
BEFORE and
AFTER
Over the winter,
the boat was lengthened by 2 feet and
widened by a foot. As you can see, new
expanded tails were also added. In
addition, a new 509 cu.in normally aspirated
engine was installed this year, the largest
engine of it's type approved for Unlimited
Lights competition.
All the work
paid off as Xaudaro raced to his first ever
Unlimited Lights win in the series 2nd race,
at Evansville IN one month ago. But his
incentive to win in Tri Cities is very
deep. He wants to become the first native
Tri Citian to win on the Columbia River
course. Xaudaro is a graduate of Kamiakin
High School in Kennewick and each year seems
to have the largest rooting section at the
HAPO Community Thunder Cup. Xaudaro
currently sits 4th in the ULHRA standings,
1495 points back of Greg Hopp. That's not
an insurmountable lead with 5 races to go in
the 2005 season.
In third place
is San Diego's Kevin Aylesworth driving the
only tandem wing hull in the series: the
UL-5
Area Codes Cellular. Do not be confused by
the two rear uprights that nearly all
Unlimited Lights utilize. In this case
"tandem wing" refers to the hull
center section of the UL-5. There is the
traditional "ram" wing behind the front
"canard", and a second wing just behind the
engine, designed to allow air underneath the
hull to escape and avoid a "blowover"
accident. Aylesworth, after an impressive
Spring Training performance in May, has not
had the opening of the 2005 season his team
envisioned. While they are in third place,
less than 1400 points behind, finishes of
6th, DNF, and 4th in three Final Heats this
year are results this group expects to
greatly improve over the next 5 races.
However, this team has one of the great
stories of the 2005 season. Here you see
the hull at the end of Heat 2A at Evansville
following contact with the UL-10 driven by
Cal Phipp's when the
UL-5
hooked in turn one of the final lap. After
getting the boat back on the trailer, the
ULHRA "family" went to work. The UL-72 team
replaced the damaged rudder, the UL-9 team
patched a sizable hole in the left sponson,
and the UL-5 team changed engines. They
made the start for the UL Final at
Evansville but Aylesworth decided to shut
down after lap one.
Following Tri
Cities on consecutive weekends are
the Graham Trucking Cup at Seafair, Aug 5-7
and the brand new Quicksilver Regatta in
Silverdale WA, near Bremerton, Aug 13 & 14,
hence the Western Triple Header
Another
team hoping for a turnaround at Tri Cities
is the veteran Thunder Valley Team and their
UL-40 Miss Red Dot Corporation driven by
Harold Mills. While demonstrating improved
speed with their Stadaucher-Balcer hull
built out of wood in the 80's, as engine
specialist Chuck Dow notes, once they
strengthen one thing to go faster, the next
weakest link surfaces. At Valleyfield, it
was support along the left sponson and "non
trip" underneath the hull being severely
weakened on the rough Bay St. Francois
course. Extensive replacement of "angle
iron" has taken place, along with extra
supports below deck next to the engine. The
ever improving "Fabulous 40" as the team
calls their hull, looks to challenge in Tri
Cities. One positive for the team is the
continued strength and reliability of their
engine package. An oil problem discovered
at the season opener this year has been
corrected with installation of a new oil
cooler.
One of the
interesting stories this week is the
UL-14
Miss Software Prototype, driven by Paul
Becker. At Spring Training and at the season
opener in Issaquah, the newly upgraded and
higher powered hull showed marked
improvement over the past couple of seasons
This hull was originally built by Ron Jones
Sr. back in 1974. Yet it held off Greg Hopp
in the Mike's Hard Lemonade for nearly two
laps in an Issaquah preliminary heat in
June. Narrower than the newer UL hulls, it
can still turn quickly on corners with
longer arcs.....exactly what awaits Becker
and the UL-14 at Tri Cities. The Becker
owned team did not go to Evansville and
Valleyfield.
One to watch for
this weekend is the UL-6 Verizon entry of
BCS Enterprises, driven by co-owners Al
Carstensen and Kerry Beynon.
This team showed tremendous improvement at
Spring Training over 2004, but ran into
engine problems at the season opener. This
will be the team's first outing since. The
UL-6 is a 4 time winner of Unlimited Lights
races, and Carstensen showed excellent
quickness in his UL driver debut at Tri
Cities a year ago. Now with improved
steering and cornering, this could be a team
on the move in ULHRA competition.
One team that
simply wants to move at all, is the brand
new
UL-19,
Mz Zip Fizz Energy Drink Mix. In fact they
might be considering dropping some of their
sponsor's product into the engine well. The
19 has been short of "fizz" so far this
season. The splendid looking hull just
hasn't had much performance out of the
engine, but hopes all has been rectified for
Tri Cities. That's particularly important
to the driver since Steve Hook resides in
Richland WA, just a few miles from the race
course.
The
UL-18
Pacific Rim Brewing Co. entry of Joe
Turner is the smallest boat in the fleet,
but it's taken over the moniker of "The
little boat that could". In 2 of the last 3
outings this team has made, Turner has
qualified for the Final Heat, including a
5th place finish at the season opener in
Issaquah WA. For a team that struggled a
long time to find their way, Turner & Co.
are becoming more competitive with each time
on the water.
The Unlimited
Lights will be on the water all three days
this weekend at the HAPO Community Thunder
Cup. This will include a first ever UL heat
at Tri Cities, televised on KNDU TV25. This
will be part of their live telecast at
5:00pm on Friday afternoon.
John Lynch
"Voice" of the
Unlimited Lights
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