Shane Takes H1 Unlimited Victory in Seattle

h1 seatle13 shane

Driving the Graham Trucking Unlimited hydroplane, Jimmy Shane won Sunday’s final to take home the Albert Lee Appliance Cup at Seattle Seafair. Photo by Chris Denslow/H1 Unlimited

Just a week after drivers Steve David and Jimmy Shane battled for the checkered flag in Washingon’s Tri-Cities area, the two H1 Unlimited competitors put on a good show for the fans at Seafair on Seatte’s Lake Washington.

With a little help from his friends, Shane combined the inside advantage, great boat speed and an outstanding job of driving the Graham Trucking boat to hold off David, the defending champion and three-time winner of the Albert Lee Appliance Cup, in the Oh Boy! Oberto boat.

The help from friends came during the scoring up for the championship final heat when Graham had secured lane one and was joined in lane two by Kip Brown in Spirit of Qatar and J. Michael Kelly in Miss Beacon Plumbing in lane three—forcing David out to the fourth lane.

“I think we might have had a shot at him from lane two but four was just too far out,” said David after being asked about all the “kids” taking the good lanes and denying him his fourth win in Seattle. “I made a run to catch him once I got over into two, but he’s just too fast to catch if he’s that far ahead.”

For Shane, the fourth win in his young career was doubly sweet, coming in the hometown of his sponsor Rob Graham of Graham Trucking.

“It’s incredible!” exclaimed an excited Shane. “Ted Porter has owned boats for a long time and Rob Graham has been sponsoring his boats for years but neither one of them had won in Seattle. To win here in one of the biggest events on our tour is so special I can’t put it into words.”

Brown finished third in Spirit of Qatar and Kelly was fourth in Miss Beacon Plumbing. Jon Zimmerman was the trailer boat in the final by virtue of a win in the provisional heat but drove from seventh to fifth in the Fox Plumbing & Heating presents Team RedDOT powered by Les Schwab.

David won qualifying and all three of his race heats at the sixth round of the H1 Unlimited championship to claim 1,600 valuable points. Brown finished second with 1174 points and was a mere four points in front of Seafair winner Shane, who now trails David by 663 points in national high points standings.

The next stop on the H1 Unlimited tour will be Labor Day weekend (Aug. 30-Sept. 1) in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

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