By Harry Gatjens

Steve David won Sunday’s unlimited hydroplane race in Sacramento. His Oh Boy! Oberto led the final from start to finish in the five-lap final heat. Second was Jimmy Shane in the Graham Trucking followed by J Michael Kelly with the Performance Chevrolet. Fourth went to Kip Brown with the Spirit of Qatar. Mark Evans was next with his Miss FEDCO, followed by Tom Thompson in the Edmonds-based Miss Peters and May. Seventh was John Zimmerman with the Red Dot.

All in all, it was a successful first weekend for our local hydro. Still assembling the boat in their shop on Wednesday the crew traveled overnight to get to Sacramento Thursday afternoon. Outside of a bad bearing that they discovered on their first run, the boat ran well each time out. They got two seconds and a third in their preliminary heats and then made the final. Driver Thompson and owners Scott and Shannon Raney are happy to have completed all heats and come home with an undamaged boat. They now return to Edmonds to prepare the boat for the next race the first week of July in Madison, Ind.

In their first heat on Sunday, Miss Peters and May ended up third behind the Red Dot and the Performance Chevrolet. Fourth was the Spirit of Qatar and fifth was the Rocky Mountain Window Film.

In heat 2B, Shane won in the Graham Trucking, followed by FEDCO driven by Mark Evans, the 100 Leland Unlimited driven by Ryan Mallows, and Greg Hopp in the U-14 Toyota. David in the Oh Boy! Oberto was penalized and ended up fifth.

In the last set of preliminary heats, Shane won 3A in Graham Trucking followed by Brown in the Spirit of Qatar, Kelly in the Performance Chevrolet and Hopp in the U-14 Toyota. Zimmerman in the Red Dot “jumped the gun” and had to run an extra lap..

The Oh Boy! Oberto won 3B followed by Miss Peters and May, then Miss FEDCO and Rocky Mountain Window Film. Mallow in the 100 Leland Unlimited had to withdraw due to damage received earlier in the day. This result put the Miss Peters and May in the winner-take-all final.