Silverdale review -

Friday night:

We are in the pits and ready to go. After the disappointment at SeaFair we certainly want to make a good showing and pick up some points to get us back into the top 10.

Saturday night:

Problems in qualifying this morning, the boat is running fine but won’t build beyond 4800 rpm. We are stuck to the water and can’t get into the air, we have no speed. We go through the carburetor, clean it thoroughly and put in new gaskets, hopefully fuel delivery is the problem.

Heat 1B proves no better than qualifying. We get up to 4800rpm and no more, then the boat starts backing down and at 3500 rpm I pull into the infield to get out of the way – DNS. We are frustrated, tired and not scoring points – this has to change. We swap out the MSD unit and prepare for the morning and Heat 2 followed by the BMain and hopefully a shot at the finals.

Sunday night:

Sunday proves no better. We still have no rpm out on course. The boat runs great on the trailer and revs up to the chip limiter – but will not run high rpm’s under load. DNS in both Heat 2 and the BMain. Something has to give before we tow the boat 2500 miles round trip to San Diego. Still we have to look at the silver lining after Silverdale – our boat is in one piece, if not running properly.

Silverdale carnage:

The level of damage the ULHRA fleet experienced this weekend is nearly beyond description. It started early and continued all the way through the final. In Heat 1A Kerry Benyon blew over in the UL-6 and was fortunate to escape with only minor injuries, this happened going into turn one of lap one while the field was tightly packed. Incredibly all the drivers were able to avoid hitting the UL-6.

Things didn’t improve greatly for Heat 1B when the UL-11 sank at the dock after rollers swamped the boat while waiting to be craned off the water. In all Saturday was bad, Sunday would prove to be worse. In Heat 2B the UL-8 hit a kelp bed and tore the transom and skid fin of the boat apart, it is not clear they can repair in time for either San Diego or Port Angeles. By now the UL-17 had blown two engines and the UL-94 had blown their only engine. The UL-83 suffered damage in the BMain and all but sank before getting the boat lifted out of the water. Then in the first run of the Final the UL-929 bounced into the air in turn two and wishboned upon entering the water, losing both sponsons and their bellypan. Simultaneously the UL-98 threw a prop blade and tore a hole in the transom of the boat. On the restart the UL-1 lost a blade ending their race as well as damaging the boat and the UL-14 had some type of engine failure in the restart of the final. Walking away with a boat that wasn’t damaged was about all one could hope for after this weekend.