SEATTLE — The H1 Unlimited Racing Series will wrap up this weekend in Seattle with both the sport’s most prestigious trophy and national championship on the line.
The world’s fastest race boats will compete in the HomeStreet Bank Cup on Lake Washington from Friday to Sunday. The winner will be presented with the APBA Gold Cup, the oldest trophy in American motorsports, which is being held in Seattle for the first time since 1985.
Corey Peabody of Covington, Wash., will arrive as a favorite based on his dominating performance this past weekend on the Columbia River in the Tri-Cities, Wash. Driving Beacon Plumbing, Peabody was the fastest qualifier for the race, won every preliminary heat he entered and was first across the finish line in the Columbia Cup’s winner-take-all final heat.
Peabody was also the winner of the Southern Cup event in Guntersville, Ala., earlier in the season.
His teammate on the Strong Racing Team out of Auburn, Wash., is also expected to be in the thick of things.
J. Michael Kelly of Bonney Lake, Wash., has won more career races than any other active driver, was the winner of the Seattle race a year ago and also hoisted the first-place trophy earlier this season in Madison, Ind. Driving Beacon Electric, Kelly also has earned enough points this summer to go into Seattle holding first place in the race for the national championship.
Third in that title race is the biggest surprise this season — it’s Jamie Nilsen of Gig Harbor, Wash., in the Legend Yacht Transport. Based on his consistent running, Nilsen was holding the top spot in the standings until this past weekend when his boat blew a gearbox while running in second place during the final heat.
On Saturday, Nilsen drove the boat to a convincing victory in one of the event’s preliminary heats.
Dustin Echols of Monroe, Wash., is currently in fourth place in the national points chase.
Driving Flav-R-Pac, he started the season in the cockpit of one of the fastest boats, where he made a qualifying run in Guntersville that was the fifth fastest in the history of the sport. The following weekend in Madison, however, the boat (named Bucket List Racing at the time) flipped end over end in the final heat and was heavily damaged.
The crew got the boat repaired in time to finish second last weekend in the Tri-Cities.
The competition for the national championship is sure to capture much of the attention during the Seattle race. Fewer than 800 points, the equivalent of first-place finishes in two heats, separate the top four boats in the current standings.
In short, with this one event remaining, the title is very much still up for grabs.
Rounding out the field for the APBA Gold Cup are the two entries from the Madison Racing Team of Madison, Ind., which has won 11 of the past 14 national championships. Dylan Runne of Rumson, N.J., will be driving Miss HomeStreet, the three-time defending champion, while Andrew Tate of Canton, Mich., will be in the cockpit of Miss Goodman Real Estate.
Returning to the sport last weekend after taking the 2022 season off was Graham Trucking, which is always a Seattle favorite and the winner of races on Lake Washington in 2015 and 2019. Driving the boat will be Bobby King of Shelby Township, Mich., a veteran of limited-class inboards who qualified as an H1 Unlimited driver last weekend.
Another rookie is Brent Hall of Seattle, who is attempting to become the first African American boat racer to qualify at the sport’s highest level. Driving Boitano Homes, which has struggled with gearbox problems during his first two attempts to qualify this season, Hall needs to complete just five more laps, four of them over 130 mph, in order to become a qualified driver in H1 Unlimited competition.
Joining the circuit for the first time in Seattle is another boat that will be driven by a rookie.
Named The Beast Unleashed presents Miss Thriftway in honor of the boats driven by the legendary Bill Muncey in the 1950s and early ‘60s, the craft will be driven by Gunnar O’Farrell of Maple Valley, Wash. The boat has appeared in Seattle only once, as a brand-new hydroplane in 2019.
The APBA Gold Cup was organized by the American Power Boat Association in 1904 and was first held on the Hudson River in New York City. The winner of that event was a boat named Standard, which averaged just over 23 mph.
Next weekend’s APBA Gold Cup, the 113th running of the race, will feature boats that are about 30 feet in length, weigh more than three tons, and are capable of flying across the surface of Lake Washington at speeds approaching 200 mph.
The action can be watched live on the H1 Unlimited YouTube Channel.