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Traction Products, Inc.
Weismann Marine, LLC.

Weismann gears U-37 to break track record!

August 8, 2007

 On Lake Washington's tight race course, Jean Theoret piloted the U-37 Miss Beacon Plumbing easily away from championship leader U-16's Dave Villwock in the Ellstrom Elam Plus to win 2 of her 3 heats leading into the final round at the Chevrolet Cup at the Seafair in Seattle.

Jean Theoret bombed the yellow and black checkered hydroplane into turn one and emerged on the back stretch in first place. Jean then blasted the track record on lap two with a top speed of 150.316 mph!

U-16's Dave Villwock tried to hang on through the first two laps, before falling back and Jean extended a roostertail lead to win Heat 2C.

Then in Heat 3B, Jean Theoret led the field wire to wire and again held off the U-16 to win Heat 3B of the Chevrolet Cup at Seafair.

"Lane one is the only way to go," said heat winning driver Jean Theoret. "I know in the final we'll have competition for lane one from three different boats, the U-6, the U-5 and the U-16. I was pleasantly surprised in both of my heats today that I could not only hold off Dave Villwock, but increase my lead with each lap. We have a good, rough water boat and the smaller straightaways worked to our advantage. It would be great to have a third win here. Having two wins here is a great blessing and this is where I had my first race win."

As defending Seafair champion Jean Theoret predicted, both he and Dave Villwock fought to control the inside lane during the five-minute milling period for the flying start of the final round.

Theoret and Villwock both entered the third turn with more than a minute on the clock - normally they would have about 40 seconds left. Jean slowed down to not overshoot the start when trouble began.

"We were going so slow in the corner coming to the start line that water was over my windshield," said U-37 driver Theoret. "I lost track of where I was on the course. We need to bring back the 'score-up' buoy that we had two years ago. At least then if we're going slow, we'd be going slow down the backstretch, not during the turn where we can lose control.

Jean moved in front of Dave's Hydroplane when he lost visibility and watered down Dave's turbine causing him to loose fire and then shortly after Jean was disqualified. 

"With competition as close as it is, the inside lane is so important even if you have to go real slow, it takes us 20 seconds to go from the entrance buoy to the starting line. We were at the entrance buoy with 40 seconds left. We were way too early. After I lost track of where I was, I saw that I was inside the buoy. I tried to correct and went over the buoy. Since I hit the buoy, I knew I'd get at least one lap, so I took it easy and saved the equipment and ran five easy laps.

So our bad luck continues to plague the U-37 team, Villwock went on to place fourth in the race, and Steve David racing the U-6 Oh Boy! Oberto went on to win the race.

"But today was a really nice win for Steve [David]," Theoret finished.  "I'm really happy for him and the Oberto team."

As a consolation Jean also had the second fastest lap of the weekend on lap 1 of Heat 3B with a speed of 147.692 mph! The next fastest boat of the weekend was U-10 with a lowly speed of 144.109 mph.

 

Check out Miss Beacon's website for more pictures and information about this great boat and team - www.U-37.com

Thanks to www.abrahydroplanes.com for the great pictures above. Be sure to check out their site for complete stories on all the rounds and for some more superb pictures.  

 



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