8/22/04

No Final Heat

H-P has decided to call the race due to windy conditions and rough water. Two of the six boats wanted to run the final as the conditions have improved greatly over earlier conditions for Heats 3A & B. If the final is not able to be run, then the winner is determined by the total points earned for the weekend. Elam, who would take the win if the final was not run, was one of the teams that did not want to run.

Final Results Based on Points

High Points for 2004

Rough water has been the talk of the afternoon here in St. Clair. In Heat 3A, the U-25 Miss Aim Plastics could not stay running. The U-16 Elam and U-2 Graham Trucking were also plagued with problems, with both boats going down and restarting several times. Troxell was finally able to bring the Elam in for the win.

Heat 3B was a similar story. The Llumar was unable to get away from the dock for the start. Steve David redeemed himself for jumping the gun yesterday by timing the start perfectly. He had lane 1 with Villwock in lane 2. After some serious bounces and catching a lot of air under the boat, Villwock and the Bud went down in turn 3. Pieces were seen flying off of the boat beforehand. David went on to win the heat and his return to the pits was marked by loud cheering from the crowd and crews. Villwock was brought back in by rescue boats as the Miss Bud was taking on water from a gaping hole in the front of the left sponson. The "Commissioner's Option" is being used to allow the Miss Bud to run their backup boat in the final. They will be the trailer.

Stay tuned for highlights from the final set to run at 4:30!

Heat 3B Results

Heat 3A Results

Draw for Heat 3A - 1:30pm

Draw for Heat 3B - 1:50pm

Heat 2A saw J.W. Myers in a wire to wire win. Elam with Terry Troxell hung back in third place for the first lap and a half. By the end of the first lap, the Oberto had damage to the rear wing after the V-brace supporting it broke. David piloted the Oberto back to the dock at the end of lap 2 in an attempt to salvage the last set of uprights since the original pair were destroyed during the Gold Cup in Detroit. With the Oberto withdrawing from the heat, Elam moved in to second place. After Oh Boy! Oberto arrived back at the docks, the crew noticed that the shaft was sticking out from behind the boat. They discovered a bolt had worked its way out of the shaft and could have allowed both prop and shaft to come out. The Llumar team donated a spare horizontal to the Oberto team since theirs sustained damage.

In Heat 2B, rookie J. Michael Kelly managed to get lane 1, leaving Villwock and the Miss Bud lane 2. Muscatel and the Miss Aim Plastics were a quarter of a lap behind the Bud and Graham Trucking at the start. Kelly held off the Bud until Villwock decided to show why the Miss Budweiser has dominated the sport. Villwock quickly put several boat lengths between himself and the Miss Graham Trucking. Bud went on to win not only the heat, but to also secure the National High Points Championship for the 2004 season.

Make sure to check out the latest photos from St. Clair!

Heat 2B Results

Heat 2A Results

**Lost bolt out of shaft, V-brace broken

Here's the latest form St. Clair! The total points for the weekend are in the last column. See below for the heat assignments. The boats will fight for lanes in each heat.

Draw for Heat 2A - 11:30am

Draw for Heat 2B - 12:30pm

Draw for Heat 3A - 1:30pm

Draw for Heat 3B - 2:30pm

8/21/04

Heat 1A saw the Miss Bud, the Oberto, and the Elam in what should have been an awesome heat. But all the boats were early setting up for the start. There were many throughout the pits questioning whether the Elam stayed on plane. No call was made. The Oberto and the Miss Bud were several boat lengths ahead of Elam when Steve David and the Oberto accelerated. In the call that would bump the current points leader down to 3rd place, both in overall points and in the heat, H-P called the Oberto for jumping the gun yet again. There is no clock visible to the drivers, no camera on the start/finish, and no helicopter footage to verify the call. Villwock and the Bud went on for the win.

Heat 1B saw a clean start with all of the boats very early and barely on plane. It was a wire to wire victory for the Llumar with J.W. Myers. The rookie, J. Michael Kelly, placed 2nd in front of Muscatel and the U-25.

That's all of the racing for today! We'll be back tomorrow for the rest of the heats and the much anticipated final!

Heat 1B - Results

Heat 1A - Results

**Jumped the gun

As of 3:44pm, no heats have been run due to freighter traffic. We have just been told that Heat 1A will go off at 4:15 with a new lineup for both heats. There was no reason given for the changes to the heats.

Heat 1A

Heat 1B

Here's the latest. Heat 1A was delayed 5 minutes. After all 4 boats had left the dock, the course was black-flagged and all boats were ordered to return to the pits. An apparent communications breakdown caused H-P to be unaware of an oncoming freighter, which has the right-of-way. Heat 1A is now slated to go off at 3:30pm. Stay tuned!!

Heat 1A

Heat 1B*

* Unofficial

The Budweiser Bluewater International Hydrofest 2004 presented by Citizens First is the first official hydroplane race in St. Clair, MI. It is run on the St. Clair River that connects Lake Huron to Lake St. Clair. After running an exhibition race here in 2003, the St. Clair community was eager to bring the boats back for a race. This is the last official H-P race of the season since San Diego opted to stage their race without the H-P folks.

Thus far, every boat has made it out on the course for testing. We have a 6 boat field.

Field

The weather has been sunny, cool and windy. We have been fortunate that the wind is blowing with the current, and not against, keeping the river from white capping.

We will be running 2 heats today, Heat 1A & 1B. H-P is still deciding how to pick the boats for each heat. Stay tuned!

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