Tobin Blog: Atomic Cup 2006

Me at the races, little boats in the background:

Natalie, my uncle Rob and me:

Sunday we had a big windstorm that delayed the start of Heat 2A by over 2 hours. Here is the start of that race:

Here is what happened in turn 3 of lap 1. We had our usual spot at the entrance to turn 1. So unfortunately these pictures were taken while the boats were about 1.5 miles away.

The after pictures, these were taken at 1:19 PM local time.

This is why they call them HydroPLANES, emphasis on the plane:

Here is the start of Heat 3A, some great deck to deck racing. And yes, that is the same boat that flipped in heat 2A. This picture was taken at 5:28 PM

I thought he was going to go over again here:

This boat was driven all day by Dave Willock, the old Miss Budweiser driver. Either he is crazy or else he has the biggest set of huevos known to man. Either way, I have a lot more respect for the guy after this weekend. By the way, he won this heat and thus qualified for the finals with two wins and a did not finish: flip in his three heats.

There was another incident in Heat 3B, no one saw it as it happened to these boats in the rooster tails of the lead boats. This is all we know of what happened:

Yes, this is a boat upside down. They put little floats under the boat to keep it from sinking as it is towed back. Both drivers were fine.

It wasn't that hot of a day in the Tri-Cities for once, only 79 degrees for a high. About 17 degrees below race average. But still a good day for a Coors Light:

This is my cousin Matt, it might have taken him four years but he was finally living up to his Cougar status. For those of you that know Matt, this is slightly out of character:

The start of the final race, 6:39 PM. A little less than 3 hours behind schedule due to flips and wind. But it did make some interesting pictures with the sun shining down. No one can remember racing this late on the river ever before. The glare was definitely an issue for the drivers.