Sunday, July 29, 2007
No surprise ... not really
Oh, what could have been ...
It appeared prior to the start of the final heat that - FINALLY! - other drivers had figured out a way to beat Dave Villwock, as both Jean Theoret and Jeff Bernard managed to force their way to the inside lanes. Theoret and BEACON PLUMBING ended up in lane one, with Steve David and OBERTO in lane two, Bernard in lane three with FORMULABOATS.COM I, and ELAM all the way out in lane four. Chris Bertram in MISS CONOVER INSURANCE trailed slightly at the start along with David Bryant in TODD HOSS MORTGAGE INVESTORS, with J. Michael Kelly in SPIRIT OF DETROIT as the trailer boat.
David grabbed the lead out of the first turn, but it wasn't long before Villwock pulled alongside him. The two dragged-raced down the backstretch with OBERTO maintaining a slight edge through the second turn. But coming down the front straight to complete lap one, it was evident that ELAM had superior speed, even on the outside. Villwock gained the lead once going into the next turn, but David hung tough, only a few boat lengths back. By the time they were halfway down the backstretch, ELAM was set. In the meantime, Theoret was called for a lane encroachment and assessed a one lap penalty. J. Michael Kelly, who had to trail at the start, found some extra beans and had passed both FORMULABOATS and CONOVER, and with the penalty to BEACON, now found himself in fourth. And that's how it ended: ELAM first, OBERTO second, TODD HOSS MORTGAGE third, SPIRIT OF DETROIT fourth, FORMULABOATS fifth, CONOVER INSURANCE sixth, and BEACON PLUMBING seventh.
Once again, there were several decent heats of racing, even if the final was an ugly result. I know that OBERTO will be a popular choice to win next week at Seattle, but that WOULD be a gigantic upset based on how dominant ELAM's running. We may be looking at a 6 for 6 season, gang - I'm not seeing any signs that it WON'T be that way. And I don't think that's a good sign, either.
When Bud started doing that through the 90's into the beginning of this decade, it ruined the sport. This has nothing to do with me disliking Villwock, either (even though I can't stand him). It has everything to do with the health of a sport that struggled for years and was just starting to look promising again. Yes, the speeds are up. Yes - on paper - it looks to be extremely competitive. Yes, new owners are coming into the sport. But fans all over got tired of paying money every year to see the same boat win. You can argue that it's not Villwock's fault, and maybe that's a valid point.
As much as I also didn't care for Bill Muncey, he was asked before the Tri-Cities race in 1978 how it felt to be winning every race. He surprised a few people by saying, "It's great for me and certainly great for my sponsor, but I don't think it's great for our sport."
Prophetic words, aren't they?
I hope Seattle brings a better result, for everyone's sake.
