2012 Air National Guard H1 Unlimited Series
Lamb Weston Columbia Cup, round 3 – July 27-29
For immediate release
Wednesday, July 25th, 2012
U-1 SPIRIT OF QATAR’S VILLWOCK BIDS FOR HAT-TRICK
OF H1 VICTORIES AT LAMB WESTON COLOMBIA CUP
· Villwock aims to extend 465-point National High Points lead
TRI-CITIES (USA): U-1 Spirit of Qatar’s Dave Villwock will be aiming for a hat-trick of victories in this year’s Air National Guard H1 Hydroplane Series when he tackles this weekend’s Lamb Weston Colombia Cup at Tri-Cities in Washington.
The Washington State team driver currently has a 465-point lead in the National High Points after winning both the opening rounds at Madison and Detroit in his Ellstrom Racing-built hydroplane, which has the backing of the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF), under the presidency of Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani.
Two boats were severely damaged at the Detroit race meeting two weeks ago and that means that just 13 of the 15 boats will start the race action on the Colombia River in Tri-Cities.
Mike Webster has withdrawn his damaged U-22 boat and Dave Bartrush is not entering U-13 Spirit of Detroit at Tri-Cities. But both U-11 Miss Peters & May and U-88 Degree Man have been repaired and will take part in the weekend’s action.
Villwock is the defending Columbia Cup champion and is in confident mood: “I look forward to the relatively smooth and fast conditions found on the Colombia Cup oval,” said last year’s National High Points champion.
“This year both Madison and Detroit were exceptionally rough. The Tri-Cities course is a super speedway by comparison. We can put in the high-speed stuff and let it all hang out. It will be fast!”
Arch-rival Steve David drives U-6 Oh Boy! Oberto and knows that he needs to win the heats where he is drawn alongside Spirit of Qatar. “I predict one of us (Villwock and David) will set qualifying and competition records for this race course on the Colombia,” said David.
Also entering the Tri-Cities races alongside the seasoned regulars will be Brian Perkins in U-21 Hapo Community Credit Union and U-99 Leland Unlimited, driven by Ryan Mallow.
The weekend’s on-water action starts with testing and qualifying on Friday on the 2.5-mile course, race heats on Saturday and further heats and the final on Sunday afternoon (Pacific Coastal Time).
Accumulated Points after round two
Number – Boat Driver Points
U-1 Spirit of Qatar 96 Dave Villwock 3650
U-6 Oh Boy! Oberto Steve David 3185
U-5 Graham Trucking Jimmy Shane 2073
U-9 Jones Racing Jon Zimmerman 1974
U-88 Degree Men Scott Liddycoat 1929
U-17 Miss Red Dot Kip Brown 1887
U-11 Miss Peters & May JW Myers 1775
U-37 Miss Beacon Plumbing J. Michael Kelly 1682
U-100 Leland Unlimited Greg Hopp 1607
U-57 Formulaboats.com Mark Evans 1514
U-22 Great Scott! Mike Webster 510
U-13 Spirit of Detroit Cal Phipps 30
Ends
For further information:
Neil Perkins, NDP Publicity Services, Mobile: + 44 7831 123153, E-mail: ndppublicity@googlemail.com and www.ndp-publicity.com (press releases).
Or
Steve Montgomery, Tel: + 1 206 618 8382, E-mail: scm@montgomerymarketing.com
www.qmsf.org
www.h1unlimited.com