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2015 H1 Unlimited season

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The 2015 H1 Unlimited season is the sixtieth running of the H1 Unlimited series for unlimited hydroplanes, sanctioned by the APBA. It will be the first time since 2009 that the series will have no sanctioning from the UIM.

Teams and drivers

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In 2015, all boats used Lycoming Engines with the exception of the U-3 Go3Racing team which used an Allison V-12 engine and the U-18 Bucket List Racing team that used a smaller T-53 Lycoming turbine engine.[1]

No Engine Team Owner Driver Rounds
U-1 Lycoming T55 Oh Boy! Oberto City of Madison Jimmy Shane All
U-3 Allison V-12 Go3Racing Ed Cooper Jimmy King 2
U-5 Lycoming T55 Graham Trucking I Ted Porter J. Michael Kelly All
U-7 Graham Trucking II Ted Porter Jesse Robertson (R) All
U-9 Red Dot/Les Schwab Mike and Lori Jones Scott Liddycoat 4
GBR11 Miss Peters & May Scott and Shannon Raney Tom Thompson All
U-12 Miss Diljulio Jay Leckrone and Denise Garl Patrick Sankuer All
U-18 Lycoming T53 Bucket List Racing Kelly Stocklin Kelly Stocklin 4
U-21 Lycoming T55 Lakeridge Paving Greg and Brian O'Farrell Brian Perkins 4
U-22 Webster Racing Steve and Sue Webster Mike Webster 4
U-27 Wiggins Racing Milt and Charley Wiggins Cal Phipps 4
U-96 Elam Plus Erik Ellstrom Jean Theoret 4
U-100 Leland Unlimited Leland Unlimited Kevin Eacret 4

2015 Season Summary

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The 2015 season began with the 65th annual Madison Regatta held in Madison, IN on July 3-5. Race officials battled high waters and floating debris on the Ohio River the entire weekend. Because of debris, race officials opted for a series of two- and three-boat shootouts instead of the usual four-boat heat races. In the final — reduced from five laps to three — J. Michael Kelly, driving the U-5 Graham Trucking boat, won for the second straight year. The formatted Madison Regatta will not count toward the national points race.[2]

The 2015 Coeur d’Alene Silver Cup, scheduled to be held on July 17-19, was cancelled in April.[3]

The second race of the season (and the first official high points race) was the APBA Gold Cup held at Tri-Cities, WA on July 24-26. Jimmy Shane in the U-1 Oberto captured the 2015 Gold Cup Championship after officials checked the video and saw that Jean Theoret in the U-96 Ellstrom Elam Plus went into an area called the DMZ and was disqualified from the championship heat. In what looked to spectators like a battle for second and third between Shane and J. Michael Kelly in the U-5 Graham Trucking, Shane and Kelly battled deck-to-deck for all five laps for the championship with Shane edging Kelly by the smallest of margins.[4]

The third race of the season was the Albert Lee Appliance Cup at Seafair held at Seattle, WA on July 31-August 2. Michael Kelly driving for Graham Trucking earned his second straight Albert Lee Cup victory at Seafair Sunday. He beat Jimmy Shane driving for Oh Boy! Oberto after their boats bumped in the final lap and Shane was penalized. Jean Theoret in the Ellstrom Elam Plus placed second, and Scott Liddycoat in the Les Schwab/RedDOT took third.[5]

The fourth race of the season was the UAW/GM Spirit of Detroit Hydrofest held at Detroit, MI on August 22-23. Jimmy Shane, in the U-1 Oberto, thrilled the crowd in the seven-boat, five-lap final which included a side-by-side battle with J. Michael Kelly all the way down the backstretch on the next-to-last lap. Shane beat Kelly by seven-boat lengths. Brian Perkins finished third, followed by Cal Phipps and Scott Liddycoat.[6]

The final race of the season was the San Diego Bayfair on September 18-20. For the third straight year Jimmy Shane won the H1 Unlimited Hydroplane national championship, wrapping up the title early on the final day of the 2015 San Diego Bayfair at Mission Bay. In the final, Shane dominated the way he had all weekend and polished off his perfect Bayfair performance with his second Bill Muncey Cup victory in the last three years. Scott Liddycoat, driver of the So. Call 811/Red Dot/Jones Racing boat, finished second in the final while Cal Phipps, driver of the Dalton Industries/Wiggins Racing boat, finished third. Oberto announced that this season was its final season as a title sponsor for an H1 Unlimited boat. The Miss Madison boat, which is publicly owned by the town of Madison, Ind., will continue racing next season under a different title sponsor.[7]

Season Schedule and Results

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2015 H1 Unlimited Hydroplane Race Winners[8]
Race title Location Date Winning Boat Winning Driver
Indiana Governor's Cup (Madison Regatta)[9] Ohio River, Madison, Indiana July 3–5 Graham Trucking I J. Michael Kelly
Silver Cup Coeur d'Alene, Idaho July 17-19 Event cancelled[10]
HAPO Gold Cup[9] Columbia River, Tri-Cities, Washington July 24–26 Oh Boy! Oberto Jimmy Shane
Albert Lee Appliance Cup[9] Lake Washington, Seattle, Washington July 31-August 2 Graham Trucking I J. Michael Kelly
UAW-GM Spirit of Detroit Hydrofest[11] Detroit River, Detroit, Michigan August 22–23 Oh Boy! Oberto Jimmy Shane
San Diego Bayfair[9] Mission Bay, San Diego, California, California September 18–20 Oh Boy! Oberto Jimmy Shane

†: Due to debris in the river as a result of recent rains, the course was shortened and was run as a non-championship exhibition race.[12]

National High Points Standings

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2015 High Points[13] [14]
Place Boat # Boat Driver Points
1 U-1 Oh Boy! Oberto Jimmy Shane 6,560
2 U-5 Graham Trucking I J. Michael Kelly 5,463
3 U-27 Wiggins Racing Cal Phipps 4,735
4 U-9 Red Dot/Les Schwab Scott Liddycoat 4,703
5 U-21 Lakeridge Paving Brian Perkins 3,603
6 U-3 Go3Racing Jimmy King 3,107
7 U-96 Elam Plus Jean Theoret 2,783
8 U-100 Leland Unlimited Kevin Eacret 2,669
9 GBR11 Miss Peters & May Tom Thompson 2,511
10 U-7 Graham Trucking II Jesse Robertson 2,435
11 U-22 Webster Racing Mike Webster 1,482
12 U-12/12R Miss Diljulio Patrick Sankuer (0)

David Warren (691)

691
13 U-18 Bucket List Racing Mark Evans (169)

Kelly Stockton (0)

169

References

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  1. ^ "2015 Teams". H1 Unlimited. h1unlimited.com. Retrieved June 22, 2015.
  2. ^ Winstead, Kenzie. "Graham Trucking reigns supreme in Madison Regatta". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved 2021-07-18.
  3. ^ "July hydroplane races canceled in Coeur d'Alene | The Spokesman-Review". www.spokesman.com. Retrieved 2021-07-18.
  4. ^ "Jimmy Shane & U-1 Oberto Team Capture HAPO Gold Cup". NBC Right Now. 27 July 2015. Retrieved 2021-07-18.
  5. ^ says, Greg Dill (2015-08-03). "Kelly wins Seafair hydroplane race as Shane gets penalty". My Edmonds News. Retrieved 2021-07-19.
  6. ^ Goricki, David. "Jimmy Shane leads from start to finish in Hydrofest final". The Detroit News. Retrieved 2021-07-19.
  7. ^ Riggins, Alex. "It's all go, not just show, for Bayfair winner". mcall.com. Retrieved 2021-07-19.
  8. ^ "Race Results - 2010-2019". hydroplanehistory.com. Retrieved 2021-07-18.
  9. ^ a b c d "2015 Schedule". H1 Unlimited. h1unlimited.com. Retrieved June 22, 2015.
  10. ^ "July hydroplane races canceled in Coeur d'Alene | The Spokesman-Review". www.spokesman.com. Retrieved 2021-07-18.
  11. ^ "Hydroplane racing returning to Detroit River". Detroit Free Press. freep.com. June 21, 2015. Retrieved June 22, 2015.
  12. ^ "2015 Madison Regatta Updated Race Format". H1 Unlimited. h1unlimited.com. July 5, 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  13. ^ "High Points - San Diego.pdf". Google Docs. Retrieved 2021-07-18.
  14. ^ "2015 Season Summary - Statistics". hydroplanehistory.com. Retrieved 2021-07-18.