It’s been a long time since the Miss Madison unlimited hydroplane racing team had a season like this.
Not in the mix for the national championship. Not even a win in a final this season, though the team came close to winning the Gold Cup on Sunday on Lake Washington, taking second.
Call it a season of transition.
“I think it’s been a challenge on a lot of levels, but there’s been a whole lot of positives,” Miss Madison president Charlie Grooms said.
The Miss Madison team, a two-boat squad with the Miss HomeStreet and the Miss Goodman Real Estate, has been on a long successful run, becoming hydroplane racing’s top team in the years since the Miss Budweiser released its stranglehold on the sport after the 2004 season.
Since 2008, the Miss Madison team, running as the Oh Boy! Oberto and the Miss HomeStreet, has won every national title except three. Make that four now as J.Michael Kelly clinched the National High Points Championship by winning Sunday’s final.
The man who won seven of those titles, Jimmy Shane, retired after last season. He was replaced with a rookie in the HomeStreet, Dylan Runne.
Runne is a third-generation boat racer from Rumson, N.J. He had a successful career in the smaller classes. He was the first in the Hydro Racing League to win three consecutive national championships in three separate classes. He’s won one heat this season and was a close second in Heat 3B on Sunday at the Gold Cup on Lake Washington.
“It’s been a bigger transition than anticipated,” said Runne, who was disqualified from the final for going under 80 mph in the prerace milling period.
Runne noted that in the prerace, when drivers jockey for advantageous inside lanes, has been a big change. In the HRL, there were assigned lanes.
Runne is different from other drivers during the offseason. He is the CEO of Fenom Digital, which deals with e-commerce.
“I always make sure to mention at my core I’m a boat racer,” Runne said. ” … I credit everything to boat racing in my life and where it’s gone.”
His second place came against Andrew Tate, who landed in the Goodman Real Estate. Tate won in his Seafair debut in 2016, and took one of those national titles away from the Madisons in 2018. But since winning that title, finding a consistent team to drive for has been a struggle for Tate.
And this season has been a struggle too.
“I’m extremely disappointed,” he said of his season. “More with myself than the results.”
Tate flipped the boat in the final at season-opening Southern Cup in Guntersville, Ala., and the boat wasn’t able to go the next week in Madison, Ind. Last week in the Columbia Cup, he jumped the gun on the final.
But this weekend was better. He was the top qualifier. He had three second-place finishes and that heat win. And he was the runner-up in the final.
He and Runne grew up racing together back east (Tate is from Michigan), and they’re good friends. Off the water.
“When we’re out there on the water, all gloves come off and teammate’s really not the right words,” Tate said.
And now they have a year together as a team.
“We feel good where we are. We feel really good about where we’re going,” Grooms said. “And I just wish the season was longer.”
Notes
- Dustin Echols got off to a nice start Sunday by winning Heat 3A. He edged Kelly for the win.
- Strong Racing won both Heats in Heat 4. Corey Peabody won Heat 4A. Kelly got Heat 4B.
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