Jimmy Shane drove the HomeStreet Bank unlimited hydroplane to victory in Sunday hydroplane race at Seafair.

Shane led the first four laps before he appeared to be passed by Andrew Tate in the Les Schwab. Tate, however had dislodged a buoy during the warm-up to the start and was thus moved to 7th. This shifted J. Michael Kelly in his Graham Trucking hydro to second in the race. Third went to Brian Perkins in the Albert Lee Appliance, followed by Tom Thompson in Edmonds-based Miss DiJulio presents J&D’s. Fifth was J.W. Myers in the Oh Boy! Oberto and sixth was Gregg Hopp in the Miss Rock.

In the first heat of the day, Shane was challenged hard by Thompson. But Thompson ended up getting penalized for being too early at the start, so he ended up fourth. Perkins took second followed by Hopp in fourth.

The second heat was won by Kelly, followed by Tate and Dustin Echols in the Bucket List Racing owned by Edmonds resident Kelly Stocklin. After these two heats, the boats were set for the final.

Because the boat scored the fewest points, Bucket List Racing was eliminated from the final heat, but it finished every other heat Saturday and Sunday. That was a success compared to last weekend’s racing when Bucket List lost its prop and damaged the entire boat. The boat also lost the prop again during testing on Friday.

On Saturday and Sunday, everything held up, and owner Stocklin wrote a humorous reminder on the replacement prop about how long it needed to last — and then wrote “Nice job sweetheart” at the end of boat’s last heat.

It was disappointing to see the race decided by a penalty as it was one of the most exciting final heats in years. But all of those involved were good sports once they saw video of the infraction.

The boats now all pack up for two races in Detroit the weekend of Aug. 19-20. The battle for the season championship is incredibly close as Shane now leads Kelly by just 9 points (the difference between qualifying 1st and 2nd) and Tate is only 400 behind, the number received in a single heat victory.

Here are the current standings.

HomeStreet Bank        Jimmy Shane               3.274

Graham Trucking        J Michael Kelly              3,265

Les Schwab                 Andrew Tate               2,920

J&D’s                          Tom Thompson           2,113

Miss Rock                  Greg Hopp                   1,704

Albert Lee                   Brian Perkins              1,015

Oh Boy! Oberto         J.W. Myers                      937

Bucket List Racing      Dustin Echols                 338

Visit My Edmonds News for coverage of the Detroit races.

— By Harry Gatjens