Columbia Cup | Drama builds for Dave Villwock, Steve David

KENNEWICK — Unlimited hydroplane racing has had its share of controversy over the years, and Saturday's Lamb Weston Columbia Cup added to that legacy with another chapter of the soap opera "As the Turbine Turns."

Dave Villwock didn't know what he'd done wrong. Erick Ellstrom was seen yelling at the officials. Referee Mike Noonan was taking heat from everyone. And Steve David thought he had the national points lead at the end of the day. But he didn't.

If you leave Columbia Park early, you're going to miss a few mini-dramas.

For the record, David, driving the U-1 Oh Boy! Oberto, and J. Michael Kelly in the U-7 Graham Trucking, were heat winners. But this weekend's main event is the battle of David against Villwock.

Villwock, pilot of the U-16 Miss Elam Plus, entered the weekend with a 267-point lead over David in the national points race. He snared the top spot in morning qualifying with a speed of 163.223 mph. That gave him 100 more national points, compared to David's 80 for his second-place qualifying speed of 161.957.

The two teams drew the same heat later in the afternoon, and that's where the trouble began.

Villwock had Lane 1 and David Lane 2 in the pre-assigned format based on qualifying speed. Villwock led going into the first turn, but after coming out of the turn he was given a one-lap penalty.

"The rule is, if you take the inside lane you can be no more than 10 feet off the buoy," Noonan said. "Our ruling is Dave was off more than 10 feet. If you go into a turn in Lane 1, you must come out in Lane 1. We felt he came out in Lane 3. We gave him a one-lap penalty because we felt it affected the race."

With David knowing that Villwock had been penalized, he eased off and took the first-place finish and the 400 points that came with it.

Ellstrom and Villwock took turns pleading their case to Noonan about an hour after the race, but the call held up.

"We're back to being the national champs," said David after the heat win.

Not so fast.

Because Ellstrom and Villwock protested the call after the race, ABRA officials reviewed the tape. And they found that David had slipped up before the race.

"Coming around before the start, the U-1 had chosen to start in Lane 2," said Noonan. "Steve encroached on the next lane when he slid out on the turn. He looked in the mirror and saw where he was and shot back into his lane. We gave him a monetary penalty and took 150 national points from him."

Noonan told David about the penalty about an hour after the race, and suddenly Villwock was back in the points lead — 3,574 to 3,440.

The other race was uneventful, as Kelly led the parade around the river for three laps to take the win.

"We couldn't ask for anything better right now," said Kelly. "We just need to keep the boat out of trouble."

Racing resumes today with Heat 2A at 11:30 a.m. The final is set for 5:15 p.m.