Jimmy Shane flies 5 Graham Trucking to Seafair Victory.
Photo by Chris Denslow – H1

With a little help from his friends, Jimmy Shane combined the inside advantage, great boat speed and an outstanding job of driving to hold off defending Seafair champion Steve David in the 1 Oh Boy! Oberto and put the 5 Graham Trucking in the winner’s circle Sunday at the 2013 Albert Lee Appliance Cup on Seattle’s Lake Washington.

The help from friends came during the scoring up for the Championship Final Heat when Graham had secured lane one and was joined in lane two by Kip Brown in the 95 Spirit of Qatar in lane two and J. Michael Kelly in the 37 Miss Beacon Plumbing who took lane three, forcing David out to lane four.

David was asked about all the “kids” taking the good lanes and forcing him out to four and replied, “Yes I think we might have had a shot at him from lane two but four was just too far out.  I made a run to catch him once I got over into two but he’s just too fast to catch if he’s that far ahead.”

Shane with Seafair sponsor Albert Lee III.
Photo by Chris Denslow – H1

For Shane, the fourth win in his young career was doubly sweet, coming in the hometown of his sponsor Rob Graham of Graham Trucking.

“It’s incredible!” exclaimed an excited Shane. “Ted Porter has owned boats for a long time and Rob Graham has been sponsoring his boats for years but neither one of them had won in Seattle.  To win here in one of the biggest events on our tour is so special I can’t put it into words.”

Asked about his plans for celebrating, Shane added, “I’m going to celebrate with Colton!”  Colton is the baby son of Shane and fiancé Bianca Bononcini who are planning an October wedding in Chelan.

Brown finished third in the Spirit of Qatar and Kelly was fourth in Miss Beacon Plumbing. Jon Zimmerman was the trailer boat in the Final by virtue of a win in the provisional heat but drove from seventh to fifth in the 9 Fox Plumbing & Heating presents Team RedDOT powered by Les Schwab.

Earlier in the day, preliminary heats produced some great racing, especially in Heat 3A which saw Shane secure the inside but run a close second to Brown in lane 2 for all three laps.

David won all three of his preliminaries with Shane, Brown and Mike Webster in the 22 Boitano Homes presents Performance Tools also scoring wins in the qualifiers.

Next stop on the H1 Unlimited Hydroplane tour will be Labor Day weekend in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.