2006 Governors Cup

  Aug.27^th 2006

    Cloudless skies and hot temps greeted drivers for the 2006 Governors Cup sponsored by Pat Malaspina and John Dyer.  Heat races should have been a breeze, with flat water and light winds on the course for most of the day.  Strangely enough, many a boat had problems with batteries, transmitters, drive shafts, lost cowls, collisions and even a buoy or two.   The Div 2 Consolation was won by Mike Schultz’s Oh Boy! Oberto.  The Div 1 Consolation was won by Mike Krone’s Hurricane IV.  Both Connie winners chose to forfeit their points and take a chance in the Finals.  The Div 2 Final was a real barn burner.  Coming up the backstretch prior to the start Pete had the KYYX in lane 1 but he drifted inside the course and had to slow to correct the boat and left the rest of the field go by.  At the line the KYYX came charging thru the rooster tails looking for an open lane.  The KYYX found itself out front with Jeff Howard’s Elam.  It didn’t take the KYYX more than a lap though to get out front with a slight lead.  However, the Elam running a close second was not going to let the KYYX just check out.  Jeff went on the attack, taking a look to the inside of the KYYX as they rounded the last turn of lap 2.  The KYYX was having none of that and slammed the door to keep the Elam at bay.  This great battle looked like it was just getting going.  Now the Trendwest was starting to move up from a close third to challenge.   Going into the first turn on lap 3 the KYYX took a hop and rolled right in the path of the Elam.  In a flash the first and second placed boats were both upside down and out of commission.  The Trendwest was able to avoid the unfortunate former leaders and took the lead.  That moved Dave Sacry and his Circus Circus into second and Dale Schroeder’s Budweiser into third.  That’s how they crossed the line with the only real drama being avoiding the stricken boats.  Trendwest ducked inside the two dead boats on the final lap and was able to hold off a strong run by the Circus Circus.  Fallout from the crash has tightened up the points race in this division as the KYYX was disqualified for taking out the Elam.  This means he has 3 trailer starts in the final race of the season with only a 737 point lead on the Trendwest.  Definitely a race to watch for the season Championship!  The Trendwest still has an outside chance at the title.

   The Div 1 final was not as eventful as the Div 2 final but it did provide some great racing.  Prior to the start Jeff’s Budweiser cut a turn buoy and got a penalty lap, knocking him out of contention early. At the start Bob Vanden Akker, driving the Nitrogen Too and Jim Clark and his 67 Bardahl jumped out front.  They were closely followed By Dale Van Wyk’s Miss Seattle.  The Nitrogen took control out front and the Bardahl stayed outside leaving the door open for the Seattle.  On the last turn of the third lap the Seattle was able to slip past the Bardahl and try to run down the Nitrogen.  The Bardahl fell to third and found Mitch and the 54 Miss US coming on hard from a trailer start to challenge.  The Seattle stayed tight to the buoys on the last lap, closing the gap on the leader.  Off the last turn the Nitrogen Too would not be heeded and scored her second win in a row.  Second was the Miss Seattle.  The Bardahl was able to keep the US at bay to hang on to third.  The US would finish fourth. Fifth went to the Budweiser and sixth was the Hurricane IV.  The Div 1 season title is all but clinched with only one race left the Miss Seattle leads the 54 Miss US by 1,506 points.  Mitch will need a whole lot of luck to wrestle a season title away from either points leader.  Man I can’t wait for the next race.  A huge HAZZA goes out to Debbie and Dan Clark for bringing out the BBQ and to Dan’s son for grilling up some awesome burgers for us all.  Thank too for every one who brought chips and drinks and your Race Boats Too!!  Lastly, thanks to Pat and John for providing the cool trophies and prizes for the event.  See you all at the final 2006 race, the Silver Cup.  I’ve got some work to do to these boats.

                                                                                           Dale Van Wyk

                                                                                           1957 Miss Seattle