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95 Spirit of Qatar’s Kip Brown reached his second successive final at the Lamb Weston Colombia Cup on the Colombia River in Washington State on Sunday afternoon, but the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF)-backed Our Gang Racing driver was not able to repeat his stunning Detroit Gold Cup win on this occasion. |
Honours at the Tri-Cities event fell to Steve David in 1 Oh Boy! Oberto, who was shadowed to the finish of a tactical final showdown by title rival and defending Colombia Cup champion Jimmy Shane in 5 Graham Trucking. Brown arrived at the ‘score-up’ buoy too early and was penalised down to seventh place in a final where Jon Zimmerman was awarded third position.
Steve David came into the Kennewick race weekend with a 183-point National High Points’ lead over Jimmy Shane. Jon Zimmerman was third and Kip Brown a close fourth.
The Lighthouse Point driver extended that by 50 points by winning Friday’s qualifying session with an average speed of 158.766 mph. Shane battled against a fuel problem and this left the door open for Zimmerman to take second and Kip Brown to seal 70 points for third in 96 Spirit of Qatar.
Shane and David won the first of the heats on Saturday. Shane got the better of Zimmerman to add a maximum points haul to his tally but Kip Brown parked 95 Spirit of Qatar in lane one early in heat 1B before reaching the score-up buoy, only for David to take the lead from lane three. Brown managed to hold off a challenge from J. Michael Kelly to seal second position.
David cruised to victory over Zimmerman in heat 2A, but 2B was stopped when Kelly inverted 37 Beacon Plumbing as he entered turn two outside Shane and Brown. The boat was severely damaged in the crash and Shane led from Brown at the restart and held on to take the chequered flag.
Shane and David were drawn together in 3A and the former held his line to perfection to see off his great rival. Zimmerman was third and Brian Perkins was fourth.
Kelly Stocklin replaced Ryan Mallow in 100 Leland Unlimited for heat 3B and the rookie was racing Mike Webster for fourth place when he flipped on the back straight.