Photo by Craig Barney - Unlimiteds.net

Sunny skies and a brisk breeze off the Pacific  Ocean greeted the race teams of the Air National Guard H1 Unlimited Hydroplane Series for the Friday afternoon qualifying session at San Diego Bayfair.

Steve David in the 6 Oh Boy! Oberto was the last boat out on Mission Bay in the first round by virtue of his current position atop the ANG Series high point standings and had been the fastest boat in testing with a lap over 162 mph.

But David’s best first round lap in the afternoon breeze was 157.980, leaving him second on the ladder behind Dave Villwock,  who turned 162.118 in the 1 Spirit of Qatar 96 minutes earlier.

As time ran out on the second round, it also ran out on the Oberto team’s effort to get back in the water and improve their speed.  This left Villwock and team Qatar atop the final qualifying ladder.

Jimmy Shane in the 5 Graham Trucking at 154.133, Jon Zimmerman in Jones Racing’s 9 at 153.683 and Kip Brown in the 17 Miss Red Dot at 152.744 rounded out the top five.

Racing begins at 4:00pm PDT Saturday with Heats 1A and 1B.  The remainder of the preliminaries and the Final Heat will be on Sunday.