Brian Perkins gave owner Bob Schellhase his maiden victory in the UL-11 at 2009 Silverdale Thunder.

Onboard video from the UL-11 Schellhase/Bartels Racing Unlimited Light hydroplane in Heat 3 at Silverdale Thunder.

Onboard video from the UL-11 Schellhase/Bartels Racing Unlimited Light hydroplane in Heat 3 at Silverdale Thunder.

Smokin’ Joe Souza in the UL-9 and Dan McCullough in the UL-58 go head to head in this interesting split screen view of the B Main at Silverdale. Souza won the heat and advanced to the final…

Onboard video from the UL-9 Xaudaro/Wilmot Racing Unlimited Light hydroplane in Heat 1 at Silverdale Thunder.

Chris Denslow’s gallery of the 2009 ABRA Chevrolet Cup held on July 31st – Aug. 2nd, 2009 at Seattle, WA

Jeffrey Dahl’s gallery of the 2009 ABRA Chevrolet Cup on Lake Washington.

Walt Ottenad’s gallery of the 2009 ABRA Chevrolet Cup at Seafair held July 31-August 2, 2009 in Sattle, WA.

For this race, I continued to work with Scott “Pyro” Raney and the U-37 crew (great guys and girls – REALLY positive about EVERYTHING), doing all the onboard video. We got some amazing stuff that no one had really seen before, and had a bunch of fun doing it.  It was a great weekend – J.W. even made the podium…

Jeffrey Dahl’s gallery of the 2009 Seafair Airshow over Lake Washington.

We put both views together for a cool view of the final heat at Seafair.

Onboard video from the U-37 Schumacher Racing Unlimited hydroplane in the Final Heat at the Chevrolet Cup at Seafair.

Onboard video from the U-37 Schumacher Racing Unlimited hydroplane in the Final Heat at the Chevrolet Cup at Seafair.

Onboard video of J.W. Myers from the U-37 Schumacher Racing Unlimited hydroplane in Heat 2B at the Chevrolet Cup at Seafair.

Split-screen video from the U-37 Schumacher Racing Unlimited hydroplane in Heat 2B at the Chevrolet Cup at Seafair.

Forward looking onboard video from the U-37 Schumacher Racing Unlimited hydroplane in Heat 3B at the Chevrolet Cup at Seafair.

Rearward looking onboard video from the U-37 Schumacher Racing Unlimited hydroplane in Heat 3B at the Chevrolet Cup at Seafair.

Jeffrey Dahl’s gallery of the 2009 ULHRA Graham Trucking Cup on Lake Washington.

Joe Souza in the US Army – NAPA Auto Parts UL-9 finished Heat 1A at Seafair in third place with a 77.866mph average speed

Jean Theoret came back from a near-death experience in Madison to take the U-37 around the Lake Washington course at Seafair. Unfortunately he had not healed sufficiently to allow him to continue, and after this heat, handed off the driving duties to J.W. Myers for the remainder of the weekend.

Mike Webster takes the U-22 onto the Seafair Unlimited course for a test during the 2009 Chevrolet Cup at Seafair. Thanks to the Airbag Service crew for this video!

In Heat 1A of Unlimited Lights action at Seafair, the output shaft on the UL-56 broke at the prop, sending it into the right side tail, hitting the GoPro camera that was mounted there! This slowed down footage clearly shows the propeller as it bounced off the tail. Click the image below to see the prop caught in mid-air (courtesy of KIRO TV Seattle)

The U-7 Formula Boats  flips at 2009 ABRA Columbia Cup on July 26, 2009 in Kennewick, WA.

I was watching Heat 2A unfold Sunday morning with Steve David and the Oberto taking off into the lead when on lap two I saw Mike start to lift off and swung my lens towards him all the while yelling “Oh Sh*t!” Thankfully, Mike was out within 20 seconds or so and he was all right, but the boat was tweaked, losing the tails, rear wing and canard, and tearing up the cowling a bit. As I write this, the Formula team is working on getting the boat ready for Seafair – I’m sure Mike and the U-7 Graham Trucking boat will be there…

Walt Ottenad’s gallery of the 2008 ABRA Columbia Cup held July 24-26, 2009 in Kennewick, WA

Scott “Pyro” Raney invited me to join the U-37 Schumacher Racing crew for the swing through Washington, doing the onboard video.  Had a great time, but was really bummed when J. Michael Kelly flipped the U-7 right in front of me, fortunatelycoming out of it unscathed.

The high resolution version of this gallery can be viewed with Cooliris here and the rest of the weekend’s images can be viewed here

Chris Denslow’s gallery of the 2009 ABRA Lamb-Weston Columbia Cup held on July 24-26, 2009 at Kennewick, WA

Onboard video from the U-37 Schumacher Racing Unlimited hydroplane in Heat 3B at the Lamb Weston Columbia Cup.