Category: News

After qualifying in eighth position at just 138.448mph and with only one motor in the truck, the U13 Car Pros/Spirit of Detroit team only wanted to do one thing; survive Seattle. Known as the boat racing capitol of the world, and with some of the worst water conditions on the ABRA circuit, Seattle usually takes its toll on the racing teams. “We had to run ultra conservative because we blew our other motor up in Tri-Cities and this one had to last us all day long” stated Dave Bartush, owner of the U13 team. “I just wanted to come out of there in one piece, and third place was not too bad. We are in really good position in the points standings.” 

Heat 1C drew accolades of driver J Michael Kelly. Racing legend Chip Hanauer stated on KIRO TV, “J Michael Kelly has more raw talent and natural ability than I did when I was racing.” Mike Fitzsimons added “He is talented and he is due.” At the start of the heat Mike was leading the U5 formulaboats.com driven by Jeff Bertram into the first turn after an on the mark start. But running into traffic, JMK had to slow down and go to the outside costing him some speed as he was chasing his best of friend down. Taking second place, heat winner Bertram has this to say about his friend, “The 13 team had their stuff running, he was giving me all I could take.”

Heat 2B saw the 1, 5, 6, 10 and the 13 all bunched up going into turn one with Kelly tucked into the third place position. Again the KIRO announcers had nothing but praise about JMK calling him one of the most talented drivers in 45 years. After running hard all of the heat Mike settled for 4th place. 

Heat 3A The Spirit drew the U5 once again and Greg Hopp driving Fred Leland’s U100 mirageboats.com. With another great start, J proceeded to out pace the 100 and setting his eyes on the 5 he started pulling him up the back chute, however with just three lap heats Mike decided to settle for second, garnering enough points to get into the winner take all final.

Jean Theoret and Dave Villwock had been trading water at the beginning of the start, and in doing so Theoret got disqualified, after he washed down Villwock giving him no chance at making Seattle his 5th straight win this season. Fighting deck to deck with the U10 the mighty 13 was pulling him all over the course, and while doing so they were gaining on the U6 Oh Boy! Oberto. Rounding the turn heading to the checkered flag the 6 had the first place tied up and the 10 and the 13 were dueling deck to deck, with the 10 taking second place at the wire while JMK took 3rd. After returning to the dock there was a little trouble with the electrical system and the fire company had to come put out a small fire on the boat. Damage was minor.

The next and final stop of the 2007 ABRA tour takes us to sunny southern California, where the girls are hot and so is the racing on Mission Bay in San Diego. September 16 will decide the order of finish for the National championship points.

The driving talents of J Michael Kelly are being noted around the country, as the hard charging young man from Puyallup Washington has been the subject of a couple of media outlets. KNDU TV from the
Tri-Cities WA area and the Madison Courier from Madison, IN have taken notice and have ran a couple of by lines on the youngster. 

Also, the Unlimiteds on Down, the Yahoo group that directly talks about all facets of racing have had several positive posts about Kelly and his driving of the U13 Spirit of Detroit entry.

Here are the URLs’ of the two media outlets and the Yahoo group:

http://www.kndu.com/Global/story.asp?S=6861036&nav=menu484_4_4

http://madisoncourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=18&SubSectionID=289&ArticleID=38036

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Unlimitedsondown

The Sunday morning test session proved to be a real rough time for the Dave Bartushs’ U 13 Spirit of Detroit entry. “I credit him with everything,” said Bartush of team crew chief Curt Tavnner. With just moments to spare, the team got the problem figured out and got onto the water to do battle in heat 2C. J Michael Kelly did a great job of holding off the challenge from Greg Hopp in the U100 Mirageboats.com entry.

Heat 3B was to be the spoiler for JMK, when the U9 Connover Insurance driven by Chris Bertram tried to squeeze between the U37 Beacon Plumbing and the U13 they bumped. Later in the same heat the 13 went dead in the water. “We have video on the boat now, and you can see where the exhaust came off and when that happened it fried the motor, and then we had a questionable call, but hey that’s boat racing.” Bartush stated. Before he went down, video from the boat showed the exhaust section coming apart from the engine.

With the engine shutdown, a situation was created where the team needed to enter the consolation and win just to be the trailer in the winner takes all final. The U21 driven by Brian Perkins jumped the gun allowing JMK to have a picture perfect start, giving him no competition for the rest of the race. “We’re still alive, and this is not the way we wanted it to be. But we are in the final. I just want to put pressure on the guys in front of me, if any of them make a mistake I will take advantage of it,” stated JMK after the heat of racing.

Running as the trailer boat in the final heat, Kelly had his hands full as the rest of the field was way out ahead of him. But, the talented young driver was not going to be looking at the back of the front line long. Working his way up through the rough waters of the back of the pack, J Mike reeled them in like reeling in a salmon off the Columbia River. “We had another up and down weekend” said J Michael, “We went from good, to interesting then we broke. I hate coming in through the back way to get into a final.” “We had our hands full” stated Bartush. “I’m happy with where we finished. It was a fun race to watch.”

On the prospect of racing in Seattle JMK had this to say, “The water is rough there, we like rough. We are going to be coming in fresh.” “All in all the boats doing real well, now if we can get on the front line….” Bartush surmised.

Friday Tri-Cities Wrap

Twelve of the world’s fastest unlimited hydroplanes have set up camp in the Lampson pits in Tri-Cities WA, for the 42nd consecutive running of the Lamb Weston Columbia Cup.

The U13 Spirit of Detroit made the cross country trek to continue its run for the National Championship, and driver J Michael Kelly was hanging it on the hook during qualifying. Registering a speed of 157.944 mph, Kelly looked smooth as he traveled the two and one half mile course. However after the run it was noted that the boat suffered an N2 violation and the speed was disqualified. An earlier run of 151.911mph is the speed posted for the U13. “It was what it was” stated owner Dave Bartush on the disqualification of the faster speed.

The 13 is sporting a second set of eyes for this weekends running of the Columbia Cup, “We have a camera mounted on the back and are looking to have one installed in the cockpit. We are getting some great exposure; unfortunately no one is taking advantage of it” said Bartush. “We are sponsored by Car Pros’ in Seattle, it would be great for a sponsor to have his name right there by that camera.”

In the annual Dash for Cash, JMK was running against Steve David in the community owned Oh Boy! Oberto, the U9 Connover Insurance driven by Chris Bertram, the U48 Lakeridge Paving driven by David Williams and the U3 Hoss Mortgage Investors driven by Jimmy King. Kelly powered the SOD to second place against the fast running David in the U6.

Saturday Tri-Cities Wrap

The U13 Spirit of Detroit was entered in heat 1A with the U6 Oh Boy! Oberto, driven by Steve David. The heat looked to be a fast one as the U5 formulaboats.com entry driven by Jeff Bernard and the newly repaired U10 driven by David Bryant rounded out the field.

Coming down to the start of the race the 6 and 5 both looked to be early, and ended up jumping the gun and that set the battle between the 10 and the 13. J Michael Kelly and David Bryant put on one of the best races on Saturday giving J Michael 300 needed points for the second place win.

The Gold Cup has been likened to the Indianapolis 500. This weekend in Detroit, Michigan, nine of the fastest hydroplanes in the world vied for the coveted cup. The U13 had, well to say the least an upside down weekend. Not that they had any accident, they were about one of two that was in the Dodge Pits to not receive any major damage.

Friday, J Michael Kelly took the boat out during qualifying and posted several laps in the mid 150mph range. “It got windy, and I like windy. This boat handles the chop well”. With the second most winning hull, the 13 needs just a couple of wins to surpass as the all time winner.

You need to remember to be careful what you wish for, with Fridays chop, Saturday brought even more choppy conditions. With winds out of the west at around 20-25mph. no one was to venture out onto the course. Thunderstorms threatened all day long. With that, Sunday was to be a full day of racing.

Gold Cup rules state that you have to race 60 miles, which meant 6 heats of racing were to be ran on Sunday. And of course, the 13 was to draw the fast boat heat. Up against the 16, 6, 5 and the 37 Kelly had his work cut out for him. “My plan was to keep up the pressure. Make them push hard” stated JMK. And pressure he gave them, passing the 37 he was reeling in the Oberto and the Elam, settling for third place, tremendous work and driving from the 28yo.

The next heat was another barn burner. Drawing the 6, 3 1 and the 5 Kelly in the final lap lost his vertical upright and then was held in the infield for heat 2b because his engine shut down. After returning to the dock Mike had one comment, “IT’S ROUGH”. Banging his elbow with the rough conditions, JMK sported an elbow brace the rest of the day.

The heat that was to be the real upset of the day, after trying to figure out the reason for the engine shut down in the prior heat, Kurt, (crew chief for the 13) decided to just change the motor and worry about that engine later. But, with precious time clicking off the clock, they were scheduled to be in heat 3a. However they could not get the new motor that was just installed to fire. Turned out the fuel filter had issues. This meant that another team would not have to finish allowing them to be in the final. This is not the way that team owner Dave Bartush wants to beat his competition.

After another team decided to bow out for the day ABRA officials informed the team that they are the first alternate. Sitting in the water waiting to see if any of the teams had any trouble, none did, we watched as the grasp of the Gold Cup slipped out of our hands.

Going into the second lap the U5 formulaboats.com driven by Mike Allen was involved in a blow over accident. Fortunately Allen received minor injures. This allowed the team to be the trailer boat in the restarted final.

While in the warm up period, the U5 formulaboats.com driven by Jeff Bernard, did not answer the call. This allowed JMK to go to the front line. After fighting the entire race fending off the U3 Chrysler Jeep driven by Jimmy King, the checkered flag flew and the day that started out good, went to bad, turned out to be great with a third place finish in the Gold Cup.

Owner Bartush stated, “That was one hard earned third place finish. The moon and the stars lined up for us on this one.”

The teams now have a couple of weeks before they assemble in Tri-Cities Washington for the Columbia Cup, the last weekend in July.