3 mistakes by others give one Columbia Cup hydroplane driver a perfect race weekend

When asked on Thursday, neither Corey Peabody nor Darrell Strong felt there was a good chance that Peabody could catch either U-8 driver J. Michael Kelly or U-11 driver Jamie Nilsen for the national high points championship in H1 Unlimited hydroplane racing.

“I think Corey losing those three heat races (the boat broke down) in Madison hurts him,” said Strong, who owns both the U-8 Beacon Electric and the U-9 Beacon Plumbing. “He may not be able to catch Mike.”

Peabody, who drives the U-9, felt the same way.

“I’ve gotta win,” he said. “In reality, I’ve got to win, and Mike has to get no points. And I don’t want that. That’s OK. I signed on for this two-boat thing.”

Well, we’ve got a situation here now.

Peabody drove the U-9 to a perfect weekend, winning the 100 fastest qualifier points and all four heat races (including Sunday’s Columbia Cup final) for a total of 1,700 points.

“This is my first perfect weekend,” said Peabody. “It’s a great boat that can get me where I need to be. It’s about staying clean, and staying out of the referee’s eyes.”

Sunday’s victory also gave Strong and his wife, Vanessa, a home town win. The two live in the Tri-Cities. It also means a Strong race boat has won a final in eight of the team’s 12 races since the couple put together the team.

“This is Darrell and Vanessa’s home, so it’s our home,” said Peabody, who won for the second time in two years on the Columbia River.

For the third consecutive day, the national high points lead changed.

Kelly overtook Nilsen on Sunday. The U-8 driver has 3,499 points.

Nilsen, who had a rough day — an N2 violation in 2B took away 400 points, and he failed to finish the final — and dropped into third place in the standings with 2,970 points.

But Peabody’s perfect score puts him into second place with 3,480 points — just 19 behind his life-long buddy.

The victory turned out to be anticlimactic for Peabody, who led from the start — which was a total mess.

Five of the six boats in the final left the dock for the race course as soon as the 5-minute mark was hit.

That included both Peabody and Kelly, as well as the two Madison team drivers — Dylan Runne in the U-1 Miss HomeStreet Bank, and Andrew Tate in the U-91 Goodman Real Estate. Nilsen, in the U-11 Legend Yacht Transport, went with the team drivers.

Only Dustin Echols, driver of the U-40 Flav-R-Pac, sat alone at the dock for an extra 30 seconds before heading out.

“That was my goal,” said Echols, who foresaw a potential mess with the other boats jockeying for lane 1. “I figured it would be hard to get lane 1. So I stayed back, and made the goal to have a clean start, and then stay out of that mess. These guys were racing down the dock. We were kind of betting something would go south for at least one of them.”

Echols and his team guessed correctly.

Somehow, all of the jockeying for lanes and the adrenaline that comes with it got the best of half the field in the milling period.

Kelly, sitting in lane 1, found himself ahead of his timing marks. By the time he realized that he was going to be way over jumping the gun, he mashed the gas and took off.

“I knew with about 15 to 20 seconds before the start I was not going to make it,” admitted Kelly. “I was just hoping the other guys would jump too.”

What that did was bring both Runne and Tate — and almost Peabody — along with him.

Kelly, Runne and Tate were each assessed a 1-minute penalty.

“There was so much chatter on the radio I couldn’t concentrate,” said Peabody. “Someone was talking a penalty here, and a penalty there. I knew Andrew and I were gonna be close to jumping the gun. I was driving 81 mph when I crossed that start line.”

Echols said he’s seen that situation before.

“You start to worry about everybody else, rather than your own timing marks,” he said. “I didn’t want to leave anything to chance.”

Peabody wasn’t surprised.

“It’s the final heat. It’s the final,” said Peabody. “You’ve got to push it to win. I mean, this is the Tri-Cities final. Any one of these boats can win. You have to be up there in the front or get your ass handed to you.”

Peabody’s start was clean, and he held the lead from the get-go. Nilsen was back farther and sitting in second place. But on the third of the five laps, his gearbox broke on the Franklin County side of the river, and he shut the boat down for a DNF — did not finish.

That brought Echols — who foresaw this mess — up into second, and that’s where he finished. That gave Kelly Stocklin’s team its best finish in an unlimited race ever.

“Two weeks ago this boat was broken in two,” said Stocklin. “Now we got a second place.”

To his credit, Kelly ended up placing third. Tate finished fourth, while Runne was fifth.

▪ The U-12 Graham Trucking had enough points to qualify as the trailer boat in the final. But the team elected not to run, so it could be ready for next weekend’s APBA Gold Cup in Seattle. The U-3 Griggs presents Ace Hardware lost a propeller in their third heat of the weekend. The prop shot up through the rear stabilizer wing, putting a hole in it. That ended the team’s day.

▪ Jeff Bernard drove GP-79 to victory in the Grand Prix America Thunder Cup, which gave him enough points to clinch the season championship for the third consecutive year.

“We’ve had our ups and downs all year,” said Bernard. “But the team did a great job. My uncle, Mike Weber, is my crew chief.

Bernard knew about halfway through the 3-lap final that he had the win.

“I was just hoping the boat would stay together,” he said.

▪ In the 2.5 stock final, it looked like Jason Aslakson of Olympia had won as he outlasted the leaders.

But after the race, he was penalized for encroaching on another boat, and dropped to third.

That gave the win to Cashmere’s Kyle Davenport.

Final H1 stats

HEAT 1A — 1. Corey Peabody, Beacon Plumbing, 400 points, 152.948 avg. speed; 2. J. Michael Kelly, Beacon Electric, 300, 147.764; 3. Andrew Tate, Miss Goodman Real Estate, 225, 144.508; 4. Dylan Runne, Miss HomeStreet, 169, 143.797.

HEAT 1B — 1. Jamie Nilsen, Legend Yacht Transport presented by The Truss Company, 400, 145.895; 2. Dustin Echols, Flav-R-Pac, 300, 141.355; 3. Bobby King, Graham Trucking, 225, 131.366; Jimmy King, Griggs presents Miss Ace Hardware, DNF.

HEAT 2A — 1. Andrew Tate, Miss Goodman Real Estate, 400 points, 150.763 avg. speed; 2. Jimmy King, Griggs presents Miss Ace Hardware, 300, 147.099; 3. Dustin Echols, Flav-R-Pac, 225, 140.052; Jamie Nilsen, Legend Yacht Transport presented by The Truss Company, DSQ.

HEAT 2B — 1. Corey Peabody, Beacon Plumbing, 400, 153.450; 2. J. Michael Kelly, Beacon Electric, 300, 152.289; 3. Dylan Runne, Miss HomeStreet, 225, 148.972; 4. Bobby King, Graham Trucking, 169, 136.636.

HEAT 3A — 1. Corey Peabody, Beacon Plumbing, 400, 152.302; 2. J. Michael Kelly, Beacon Electric, 300, 148.321; 3. Jamie Nilsen, Legend Yacht Transport presented by The Truss Company, 225, 146.377; 4. Dustin Echols, Flav-R-Pac, 169, 140.987.

HEAT 3B — 1. Andrew Tate, Miss Goodman Real Estate, 400, 150.161; 2. Dylan Runne, Miss HomeStreet, 300, 149.874; 3. Bobby King, Graham Trucking, 225, 142.872; Jimmy King, Griggs presents Miss Ace Hardware, DNF.

FINAL HEAT — 1. Corey Peabody, Beacon Plumbing, 400, 146.395; 2.Dustin Echols, Flav-R-Pac, 300, 126.342; 3. J. Michael Kelly, Beacon Electric, 225, 123.771; 4. Andrew Tate, Miss Goodman Real Estate, 169, 120.317; 5. Dylan Runne, Miss HomeStreet, 127, 111.720; Jamie Nilsen, Legend Yacht Transport, DNF.

ACCUMULATED POINTS — Corey Peabody, Beacon Plumbing, 1700 points; Andrew Tate, Miss Goodman Real Estate, 1244; Dustin Echols, Flav-R-Pac, 1064; J. Michael Kelly, Beacon Electric, 1185; Dylan Runne, Miss HomeStreet, 901; Jamie Nilsen, Legend Yacht Transport presented by The Truss Company, 655; Bobby King, Graham Trucking, 649; Jimmy King, Griggs presents Miss Ace Hardware, 340.

NATIONAL STANDINGS — 1. J. Michael Kelly, Beacon Electric, 3499 points; 2. Corey Peabody, Beacon Plumbing, 3480; 3. Jamie Nilsen, Legend Yacht Transport presented by The Truss Company, 2970; 4. Dustin Echols, Flav-R-Pac, 2782; 5. Dylan Runne, Miss HomeStreet, 2565; 6. Andrew Tate, Miss Goodman Real Estate, 2314; 7. Jimmy King, Griggs presents Miss Ace Hardware, 670; 8. Bobby King, Graham Trucking, 649.

Jeff Morrow is former sports editor for the Tri-City Herald.