Edmonds hydro 5th at Indiana Governors Cup; Home Street Bank wins

It was a cold and stormy day in Madison, Ind. as thousands showed up at the Indiana Governor’s Cup hoping for sunshine and hydroplanes. Fans spent most of the afternoon getting drenched, huddled under umbrellas and tents, but they did get an exciting day of hydroplane action as their locally-owned a boat, Miss Home Street Bank, won the race.

Driver Jimmy Shane won all of his heats, and most with ease. In the final, Shane was trapped between two other boats going through the first turn, but-out accelerated them on the backstretch to take the lead.

Cal Phipps in the Dalton Industries attempted to catch them from the outside but instead his hydroplane flipped over and crashed with just a quarter of a lap to go.

Michael Kelly, driving the Graham Trucking hydro, inherited second place after Phipps’ crash. Third place went to Brian Perkins driving the Payne Insurance and fourth was Andrew Tate, driving the Les Schwab hydro. Tommy Thompson, driving Scott and Shannon Raney’s Edmonds-based hydroplane, Miss Peters and May, ended up fifth.

Racing for the day was delayed several times by heavy rains. This caused cancellation of racing for many of the limited class hydros but the unlimiteds were still able to run a complete schedule.

Our local boat had to start the final heat behind the top four qualifying boats due to failing to finish the last preliminary heat. As we wrote in Saturday’s story, the local team added new propellers to improve performance this year. Unfortunately, one of those now rests at the bottom of the Ohio River, which is why the boat failed to finish its last preliminary heat.

Outside of being soaked and losing a $15,000 propeller, the Raneys are coming home in good spirits. They now have three weeks to prepare for the next race in the Tri-Cities.

My Edmonds News will cover the progress of all the hydroplanes for the remainder of the season.

— By Harry Gatjens