Sunday Race & Heat Recap:

Sunday’s Apollo Mechanical Cup final heat didn’t disappoint when seven H1 Unlimited hydroplanes took to the water for the five-lap heat to determine the winner of this weekend’s 75^th anniversary at Seafair. The Strong Racing duo of J. Michael Kelly in the U-1 Beacon Electric and Corey Peabody in the U-9 Beacon Plumbing put on an impressive side-by-side battle in the final lap of the final heat on Lake Washington with Kelly claiming the victory just one week after the team suffered extensive damage to the boat at the Tri-Cities event.

Once the H1 officials were able to review some footage, it was determined that Peabody encroached on the U-91 Miss Goodman Real Estate hydroplane of Andrew Tate and ultimately the U-9 was assessed a one-minute penalty.

Following the U-1 to the finish line following the assessed penalty to the U-9 will be the U-11 Mercury’s Coffee boat of Jamie Nilsen in the second position and third will go to the U-27 Miss Apollo Mechanical of Dave Villwock.

The H1 Unlimited hydroplanes will be back in action in San Diego, California for Bayfair and the APBA Gold Cup September 13 to 15.

 Driver Quotes:

J. Michael Kelly, U-1 Beacon Electric, Strong Racing

What does it mean to capture the Apollo Mechanical Cup win after all your team has gone through since last weekend?

“This is just amazing and it just shows you the team that we have and the team that backs me and Corey (Peabody). I created a lot of work in Tri-Cities this past week and we spent a lot of hours fixing my boat so to be able to come back from that and chip away and find speed and to win Seattle again is just amazing. My teammate Corey, he could have slowed down, but I looked in my mirror and there was a lot of white and blue Beacon Plumbing there. He made me man-up and put my foot to the floor. It’s crazy to be able to bounce back. Proud of my team, proud of myself and just proud of everybody that put in the effort. Proud of everyone at Beacon Electric, Beacon Plumbing, Darrell and Vanessa Strong and my entire team. I’m the lucky guy who gets to drive these things and I love doing it and I hope I’ve got some more years in me. This was a much-needed win and just an amazing feeling right now.”

Apollo Mechanical Cup Results:

Driver:                                    Boat:                                                                                  Avg. Speed:

1. Michael Kelly                  U-1 Beacon Electric                                                             141.358 mph
2. Jamie Nilsen                   U-11 Miss Mercurys Coffee                                                131.051 mph
3. Dave Villwock                 U-27 Apollo Mechanical                                                     129.688 mph
4. Andrew Tate                    U-91 Miss Goodman Real Estate                                     127.750 mph
5. Dustin Echols                  U-40 Flav-R-PAC                                                                122.325 mph
6. Gunnar O’Farrell           U-35 Gutters by Keith presents Boitano Homes           120.354 mph
7. Corey Peabody               U-9 Beacon Plumbing*                                                       114.082 mph

*Encroachment. One minute penalty assessed.

 Heat 3A Results:

         Driver:                            Boat:                                                                         Avg. Speed:

1. Andrew Tate                   U-91 Miss Goodman Real Estate                              142.948 mph
2. Dustin Echols                U-40 Flav-R-PAC                                                          136.347 mph
3. Gunnar O’Farrell          U-35 Gutters by Keith presents Boitano Homes    131.654 mph
4. Bobby King                    U-12 Graham Trucking                                                123.957 mph

 Heat 3B Results:

         Driver:                           Boat:                                                                        Avg. Speed:

1. Corey Peabody                U-9 Beacon Plumbing                                              142.390 mph
2. Michael Kelly                  U-1 Beacon Electric                                                   141.474 mph
3. Jamie Nilsen                   U-11 Miss Mercurys Coffee                                      135.838 mph
4. Dave Villwock                 U-27 Apollo Mechanical                                          133.739 mph

Heat 2A Results:

Driver:                                    Boat:                                                                               Avg. Speed:

1. Dustin Echols                  U-40 Flav-R-PAC                                                            140.540 mph
2. Michael Kelly                  U-1 Beacon Electric                                                         137.662 mph
3. Jamie Nilsen                   U-11 Miss Mercurys Coffee*                                           97.396 mph
4. Gunnar O’Farrell            U-35 Gutters by Keith presents Boitano Homes       93.667 mph

*Jumped start. One minute penalty assessed.

 Heat 2B Results:

                Driver:                    Boat:                                                                 Avg. Speed:

1. Corey Peabody               U-9 Beacon Plumbing                                         144.743 mph
2. Andrew Tate                   U-91 Miss Goodman Real Estate                       143.200 mph
3. Dave Villwock                U-27 Apollo Mechanical                                      120.505 mph
4. Bobby King                     U-12 Graham Trucking*                                      94.653 mph

*Jumped start. One minute penalty assessed.

Heat 1A Results:

Driver:                                     Boat:                                                               Avg. Speed:

1. Corey Peabody                U-9 Beacon Plumbing                                          143.616 mph
2. J. Michael Kelly              U-1 Beacon Electric                                              134.886 mph
3. Dave Villwock                 U-27 Apollo Mechanical                                      128.980 mph
4. Dustin Echols                 U-40 Flav-R-PAC*                                                102.531 mph

*Jumped start. One minute penalty assessed.

 Heat 1B Results:

           Driver:                          Boat:                                                                           Avg. Speed:

1. Andrew Tate                    U-91 Miss Goodman Real Estate                               142.464 mph
2. Jamie Nilsen                   U-11 Miss Mercurys Coffee                                          138.849 mph
3. Gunnar O’Farrell           U-35 Gutters by Keith presents Boitano Homes    134.571 mph
4. Bobby King                     U-12 Graham Trucking                                               132.498 mph

 Saturday Heat Recap:

Following the morning second qualifying session, the H1 Unlimited hydroplanes took to the race course for a total of four heats on Saturday afternoon. In the first heat, 1A, the U-9 Beacon Plumbing hydroplane of Corey Peabody showed the speed of Strong Racing. The U-40 Flav-R-PAC of Dustin Echols also showed strength on the start, but unfortunately jumped it resulting in a one-minute penalty from the officials. Peabody would claim the first heat win of the day and when the U-9 lined up again for heat 2B, Peabody once again made his way to the front to win ahead of Andrew Tate.

Revchem Composite Fast Lap award winner, Tate in the U-91 Miss Goodman Real Estate hydroplane for Miss Madison Racing claimed the win in heat 1B, but would finish second in heat 2B.

After Echols was found to have jumped the start in heat 1A, he was able to redeem that in heat 2A when he got a perfect start and held onto the lead to claim the first heat win of 2024 for the U-40 and Bucket List Racing.

 Driver Quotes:

 Dustin Echols, U-40 Flav-R-PAC, Bucket List Racing

What does it mean to get your first heat win of the season?

“It just shows our hard work is finally paying off. It took us long enough. The last heat, I had a good boat ride, but I just didn’t hit the start right and it’s on me. Finally, this one all came together and all the pieces came together perfectly. As the race unfolded, I thought, ‘finally, this one is ours.”

What did it mean to have so many fans cheering for you after that win?

“It’s the absolute best feeling ever. We have a lot of fans that follow our work around the circuit and they all know how hard we’ve been working to get to this point. Finally, it just paid off and they can celebrate with us.”

 Corey Peabody, U-9 Beacon Plumbing, Strong Racing

What has it meant to showcase a solid performance in today’s heat races?

“Now that we have cleared the tech truck. It was a good run for the Beacon Plumbing U-9 boat. Jeff Campbell (crew chief) and the crew have got this boat rolling for me.” 

 Revchem Composites Fast Lap Qualifying Results:

1. Andrew Tate                     U-91 Miss Goodman Real Estate                         156.985 mph
2. Corey Peabody                 U-9 Beacon Plumbing                                            155.242 mph
3. Dustin Echols                   U-40 Flav-R-PAC                                                   153.744 mph
4. J. Michael Kelly               U-1 Beacon Electric                                                150.385 mph
5. Dave Villwock                  U-27 Miss Apollo Mechanical                              150.294 mph
6. Jamie Nilsen                   U-11 Miss Mercurys Coffee                                    148.306 mph
7. Gunnar O’Farrell           U-35 Boitano Homes                                               146.287 mph
8. Bobby King                     U-12 Graham Trucking                                           142.140 mph

Qualifying Recap:

The H1 Unlimited hydroplanes took to the water for the 75^th anniversary of Seafair for the Apollo Mechanical Cup on Friday morning for testing followed by qualifying to see who can take home the $2500 Revchem Composites Fastest Lap award this weekend.

The U-91 Miss Goodman Real Estate hydroplane piloted by Andrew Tate showed speed during the Friday morning test session with a top speed posted of 155.032 mph, but the team only posted two laps in the session. The U-9 Beacon Plumbing hydroplane driven by Corey Peabody and fielded by Strong Racing took to the course for five laps but didn’t post a qualifying lap speed.

In the first three races of the 2024 H1 season, the Revchem Fastest Lap award has been shared by both the U-91 and the U-9 so the battle was on for Seafair. Peabody was up first and flew the U-9 around the two-mile race course to post a top speed of 155.242 mph, but Tate and the U-91 were up next and posted a speed at 156.985 mph to claim their third Revchem award of the season.

With a shortened qualifying session on Friday, the Saturday morning test session started off with an extension of qualifying to allow the boats another pass to try to improve their times from Friday afternoon as per the H1 rule book, all boats need to have the chance to take a second opportunity to improve their qualifying effort.

Following two different incidents at last week’s race in Tri-Cities, Washington, three of the hydroplanes sustained damage that needed to be repaired in short order to make it to the water in Seattle. The U-1 Beacon Electric of J. Michael Kelly, the U-27 Apollo Mechanical of Dave Villwock and the U-12 of Bobby King all made it to Seafair, but only the U-1 and U-27 made it onto the water on Friday. The U-12 Graham Trucking team was still battling some mechanical issues on Friday and weren’t able to make a testing or qualifying lap, but took back to the water on Sarturday morning to qualify for the event.

H1 Unlimited also celebrated a new annual initiative for Seafair with Hydros & Heroes where names of fallen Washington officers are honored on each hydroplane competing at Seafair. Families and friends of the fallen officers attended Friday’s events and were hosted by Beacon Electric/Beacon Plumbing and Strong Racing.

Driver Quotes:

 Andrew Tate, driver, U-91 Miss Goodman Real Estate, Miss Madison Racing

How is your boat running and what does it mean to claim another Revchem Composites Fastest Lap award this season?

“The Miss Goodman Real Estate Crew has been working hard to give me the best, most competitive boat possible for this weekend.  They’ve made a number of changes and it keeps getting better and better.  We were able to pickup another Revchem Composites Fastest Lap award and I can’t thank them enough to putting supporting our sport this year with a fun award that we’re all chasing each race weekend. Fans are going to see a really fast group of boats racing this weekend and Seafair 75 should be one of the best ever.”