We got a chance to watch the finals from a lift about 30 feet above the crowd. Great view... you can really see the boats and how they line up. Wish I had a better camera with me. At times, you're high enough you can see through some of the roostertails, but it's still tough to tell who's in there. At one point, you could only see three of the six boats on the race course because everyone else was stuck in a roostertail. Interesting perspective to watch the race. As we've reported, Villwock took the lead on the second lap and ran away with the race.

After the win, Villwock said "Erick (Ellstrom) told me to get out there in free water and let it fly. Get some big speed." The team had to tear the gear box apart before the final. Why? "Because they wanted to win," Villwock said. Owner/crew chief Erick Ellstrom said "The Tri-Cities is always good to us. Just a great day."

KNDU's Scott Reister asked him... with four wins in a row... can you dynasty now? Ellstrom: "No."

Jimmy King works on "Janet" - the U3 Hoss Mortgage Investors was down to two engines at Tri-Cities with no chance of making the finals when they withdrew for the weekend.

Final Results...

1. U-16 Miss Ellstrom Elam Plus
Dave Villwock

2. U-6 Oh Boy! Oberto
Steve David

3. U-10 Hoss Mortgage Investors
David Bryant

4. U-13 Spirit of Detroit
J. Michael Kelly

5. U-5 Formulaboats.com
Jeff Bernard

6. U-9 Miss Conover Insurance
Chris Bertram
7. U-37 Miss Beacon Plumbing
Jean Theoret
(U-37 Gained a 1-lap penalty for encroachment)

Dave Villwock: " We're always pushing. We try to win ever race. You get points for the National Championhip and you take them wherever you can

Jean Theoret: "I think the inside lane is the important thing (for the final)."

J. Michael Kelly: "Still pulling a little to the right. It's OK." U13 had steering problems earlier.

Provisional
1. U13
2. U48
DNF. U21 jumped the gun, did not take last lap.
DNS. U25

U100 withdrew

Final set...
U16
U37
U5
U10
U6
U9

Heat 3c

1. U16
2. U100
3. U48
4. U21

U1 withdrew

Chris Bertram U9 and J. Michael Kelly U13 bump in runup to start. U13 penalized... Dnf.

Jean Theoret: "It's getting rough out there (water)."

Heat 3b

1. U37
2. U9
DNF. U13
DNS. U3

U3 opted out... Bad engine... Done for the day. Saving engines for Seattle.

U1 withdrew from 3C. Gear box problem.

Heat draws...

3B

U-3, U-13, U-9, U-37

3C

U-16, U-21, U-48, U-100
U-1 has withdrawn

This is the way to stay cool between races. The pool setup is in the U-17 camp.

Heat 3A draw
U-5
U-6
U-10
U-25

Fans in Evansville

Mike and Kirk from Evansville watching Columbia Cup 2007! The live stream from HydroINSIDER.com hooked up to their big screen.

Dave Bartush said about crew chief Curt Tavnner "credit him with everything." The U-13 crew did an amazing job to get that boat back on the water. They almost missed the one minute gun, but got the boat in the water and went on to grab a second place and 300 points.

J. Michael Kelly, U13, and Steve David, U6, walk up the gangplank together after congratulating each other on the race.

There was some smoke from the U6 on the backstretch. David said it's a little bit of oil gets into a hot gear box, "no big deal"

Heat 2C

1. U6
2. U13
3. U100
DNF. U3

Jimmy King in U3 went dead in the water.

Jeff Bernard, U5, talking about his encounter with a buoy. "Sun glare," he said. "we'll take a monetary fine over a lap penalty any time."

About the Heat win...
"We had some problems yesterday, yesterday was my fault, the crew needed this."

U-13 crew looked a little worried as they're working on the boat getting ready for the heat, but they say they have the steering problem fixed and they will be ready for the next heat. They are getting it on the water now.

Heat 2B

1. U5
2. U10
3. U25
4. U21

U-100 team doing engine work. Not a lot of information available right now.

Official results - click on the RESULTS banner on the top right at HydroInsider.com. We'll track all the results there this week. We'll use the blog for quotes and instant photos.

U-16 Dave Villwock wins Heat 2A, U-37 Jean Theoret.

Villowock: "Got a good lane position. Hopefully, the pesky winds will stay away."

Just an aside... Jimmy Shane has to be one of the happiest guys I've ever met. Always smiling and joking around. When he says he's excited to be here doing this, he really means it. And he appreciates the support from Ted Porter and the FormulaBoats team.

If you're watching the live stream, please drop us an email and let us know what you think and where you are watching it (name and place please). Thanks!

Email at: paul.dughi@kndu.com or news@kndu.com

U13 crew optimistic... They expect to be on the water...

Other updates from our morning pit walk:

U-1 & U-5 running OK. Jimmy Shane not happy he's running 5 seconds back being a rookie, but things happen so you never know.

U-9 Chris Bertram says they don't have the horsepower this weekend. "We'll put on a good show," he said and see what happens.

U-25 Dr. Ken says this boat handles better and is faster than the hull he raced last year.

U-21 gear box is still running hot, so they'll hold back a little and wait to get in the water. They didn't run in practice runs Sun. morning. They will wait until the last minute before the 5 minute gun to move out to try to reduce heat time on the gear box.

U-37 Billy Schumacher said they're racing to get into the finals. "No sense pushing it now," he said. THey're matched up against Villwock in Heat 2A.

U-48 electrical problems fixed. David Williams: "We picked up 2 seconds a lap"

U-16 everything's OK.

U-3 new prop is in-line now. Not quite as good as original one they lost in the Columbia on Sat. "We wish we had that one back," said Jimmy King. Also had engine work overnight.

U-13 (see below post) steering - tough fix, wait and see whether they can race.

U-10 new engine put in due to fuel controller problems. Should be fine (see below)

U-10 went dead in water. Fuel controller issue is engine. Faster to swap it out so they are putting in a abckup engine. Then they'll fix the other one on the shore.

U-13 head a steering problem. J. Michael Kelly: "Trying to fix it, not sure if we can. If not, we're done for the weekend.

U48 is up and running... Turned a 138mph lap Sun. Morning.