Villwock, King, David win heats

KENNEWICK – Dave Villwock, Jimmy King, and Steve David won preliminary heats Saturday in the Lamb Weston Columbia Cup race for unlimited hydroplanes on the Columbia River.

Villwock easily won heat 1A in Ellstrom E-Lam Plus, followed by Jeff Bernard in Formulaboats.com and Brian Perkins in Albert Lee Appliance. David Williams in Lakeridge Paving was fourth after hitting a buoy.

King in Hoss Mortgage Investors II won a tight race with Jean Theoret in Miss Beacon Plumbing in heat 1B. Greg Hopp was a distant third in Mirageboats.

David won heat 1C, followed by Dave Bryant in Hoss Mortgage Investors and Ken Muscatel in Procraft Windows, which hooked violently because of a steering system failure.

Two more preliminary heats and the final are set for today.