• 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Mike Webster has withdrawn his damaged U-22 boat and Dave Bartrush is not entering U-13 Spirit of Detroit at Tri-Cities.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: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and www.ndp-publicity.com (press releases).

Or

Steve Montgomery, Tel: + 1 206 618 8382, E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

www.qmsf.org

www.h1unlimited.com