columbiaCup

Columbia Cup

Mike Campbell takes modern; Brian Gilmore posts first victory

TUALATIN, Ore. — Eighteen vintage boats and six modern hulls braved hazy skies and early-morning thunderstorms to compete in the second-annual ERCU Columbia Cup at the Lake of Tualatin Commons, on Sunday, August 17.

The Columbia Cup is a points race, so position finish in the final doesn't necessarily equate to a race victory, like our usual events do.

But for Mike Campbell, 1,369 points, including a first place performance in the modern final with his 1974 Country Boy, was an occasion when winning the final did mean winning the race.

With the 1973 Red Man Too still within reach going into the final, there was no way Campbell was going to let Nelson Holmberg get by him. And when Holmberg blew the score-up buoy during the mill for the final and had to go around, the task was made easier.

That doesn't mean Holmberg faded easily. After going around to pick up the score up buoy, he patiently picked-away at the rest of the field until he passed Craig Mullen's 1971 Pride of Pay 'n Pak for second place, on the fourth lap.

Campbell drove his usual dominant race, making sure no one would catch him in the modern final.

Holmberg finished the race in second place with 1,169 points. Brian Gilmore was third in the 1983 Gilmore Special with 734 points, Craig Bradshaw fourth with 704, Mullen fifth with 619 and Mick Shutt in the Miss Vernor's with 488.

Unfortunately for Campbell, his 1968 Harrah's Club flipped at the start of the vintage final, and the end of a perfect day came early. On the next lap, Kerry Kjos' 1960 Miss Thriftway hit the upside-down Harrah's Club and not only ended up upside-down itself, but also damaged the Harrah's Club driveline. From that point on, the race belonged to Mullen, driving Ben Keller's 1957 Hawaii Kai III. While Brian Gilmore gave steady chase, the Kai just performed very steadily. Bradshaw's 1970 Miss Budweiser was third, from the trailer position, while fourth went to Bob VandenAkker's 1963 Notre Dame while fifth was Gerry Bordon's 1970 Parco's O-Ring Miss.

When it came to vintage points, Gilmore finished first with 1,269 points to claim the race victory. Second place, on a tiebreaker, went to Keller's Hawaii Kai III with 1,200 points and Campbell's Harrah's Club was third with 1,200. The tiebreaker was given to the Kai as it finished the final in first place and the Harrah's Club did not finish. Fourth place in the official standings went to VandenAkker with 1,094 points. VandenAkker, who drove two vintage boats all day, also was fifth with 969 in his 1966 Miss Lapeer. Kjos was sixth in the standings with 750 points, followed by Bordon in seventh with 727 points in the 1970 Parco's O-Ring Miss.

The vintage first connie included VandenAkker's Miss Lapeer, because Bob surrendered his spot in the final to Bordon, who won a coin-flip tiebreaker with Jesse Shehan for the sixth spot in the final. VandenAkker, as fate would determine, won the first connie, but decided to keep the points and deferred the trailer spot in the final to Bradshaw, who finished second with the 1970 Miss Budweiser.

Third place in the vintage first connie went to Ron Daum, driving Howard Price's 1955 Gale V, while fourth went to John Earnest, driving his 1962 Gale V and fifth was Shehan, driving his brand new 1963 St. Regis. Mullen did not finish with the 1972 Hallmark Homes.

Dave Reiser and his Breathless Too held off Daum's newly re-vamped 1955 Such Crust III to win the vintage second connie. Daum was second and John Howell, participating in his first ERCU race with the 1975 Sunny Jim Jam, took third.

When the racing was finished, a series of three dashes were held for fun.

Dash For Dinner

First up was the "Dash for Dinner", a five-lap vintage class dash for a $50 gift card to the Claim Jumper Restaurant, sponsored by Ron Daum's Great Lakes Boat Shop. With the field being picked from the bottom six boats on the day, Mullen put his Hallmark Homes into first place and claimed the dinner. Second place in the dash went to Reiser in the Breathless Too. followed by Earnest in the Gale V. Ryan Bradshaw's Wayfarer's Club Lady was unable to finish, as was the Sunny Jim Jam.

Dash for Gas

In the "Dash for Gas", a $50 Chevron gift card, sponsored by Mick Shutt, the modern boats not named Country Boy (or Vernor's, since Mick was the sponsor), ran for the gas. When the 1988 Winston Eagle had to scratch, the field was narrowed to three, and Mullen completed a sweep of the dashes, taking his 1971 Pride of Pay 'n Pak to the first place finish. The 1973 Red Man Too was second, and the 1983 Gilmore Special did not finish after performing a gold medal-worthy blowover and landing the wrong way.

Roger Newton Memorial Dash

Finishing second doesn't always mean "first loser", as some people have rather pessimistically said during the Olympics this summer, and Bob VandenAkker is a perfect example of that.

During today's most important event of the Columbia Cup — the Roger Newton Memorial Dash, which featured the second place finishers from all of the day's vintage heats — VandenAkker gave a spirited chase to Ron Daum's newly-reworked Such Crust III, but finished second, which was perfect enough to make Bob the winner of the dash.

What that meant was the money collected in terms of sponsorship and further donations for the prize of the dash, will go to the Roger Newton Fund at the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum in Bob VandenAkker's name.

How much is that donation? How about $425?

Dash sponsors ERCU, Rose City Model Yacht Club, Eugene Radio Controlled Boats and Jeff Campbell, seeded the prize pot with $50 each. But when that was announced before the Dash, a rush of donations came in, and an additional $225 was collected from today's Columbia Cup participants in literally one or two minutes. Race organizers tried really hard to capture all of the names of donors and how much they contributed, but it was happening so fast that we regret that we couldn't get a full complete list. So, as not to leave someone out, we won't try to name all of the names. The donors know who they are, and they know their donations were very much appreciated.

There is rhyme and reason to the format of the dash. The last time Roger ran a race at Tualatin — which he called one of his favorite ERCU race sites — he was second in the Columbia Cup points standings, and the vintage final. So the field being filled with second-place finishers, and the "winner" being the second place boat was done by design.

While VandenAkker was the winner, Daum finished the dash first with the Such Crust III. Third went to the Parco's O-Ring Miss of Bordon, fourth to the St. Regis of Shehan, and fifth to the Thriftway Too of Gilmore.

Acknowledgements

Very special thanks go out to the drivers who brought 24 boats to the race on Sunday. Everyone pitched in to do something for the good of the race, ranging from setting and picking up the course to officiating and spotting. Particular thanks are extended to Bob VandenAkker & Mike Campbell, who inspected a couple of new boats and conducted a rookie driver's test this morning. Also to Mick Shutt who played an important role in sharing the CD duties for this race, preparing himself to take it over solo next year, and to Judy Fenton who helped out as an extra set of eyes watching heats and helping to make sure the scoring was complete as appropriate.

A special thanks also goes out to Brian Gilmore and his brother-in-law, who provided hot dogs and chicken, along with all of the fixins, for all of the ERCU members and their guests during the day's lunch break. It's also worth a hearty thanks to Gilmore for getting up early for trailer-pulling duty.