Story By John Mann
Things were looking promising for this year’s Lake Guntersville Hydrofest this past weekend during qualifying runs on Friday, but rough weather ended up cutting the event short both Saturday and Sunday and with no Southern Cup winner declared.
Things kicked off with testing and time trials last Friday where Andrew Tate, driver of the Goodman Real Estate hydroplane came just short of breaking the qualifying speed record for Lake Guntersville set in 2023.
Though rain was on the forecast for Saturday the races went ahead as planned with the first heat race, where four hydroplanes took part. It was during that race where things took a dramatic turn as the Miss Apollo, driven by ten time national champion Dave Villwock went into the air after hitting a series of waves on a turn, flipping over and shearing off one side of the boat’s hull. Fortunately Villwock escaped the accident unharmed.
“The water had been good but somebody had turned up the course and made three rollers,” Villwock said. “It’s really fast here and the corners are really large so we have a lot of speed coming into the turns. It’s just something that can happen at these speeds, a boat can get away from you. We’ll drag it back to Seattle and get it fixed up.”
Team owner Bruce Ratchford stated that the boat should be in action for the Madison Regatta in early July. Though Miss Apollo suffered the most damage it was far from the only boat to suffer mechanical trouble during Saturday’s events. The Miss US IV vintage hydroplane popped an oil line during an exhibition run and had to be towed back to the pit, while the U-6 Miss Madison had to withdraw from the races after multiple attempts to get going on the water both Friday and Saturday.
Madison team president Kyle Bipes released a statement on their social media, stating that “While it’s disappointing we couldn’t get more laps or get our driver qualified, weekends like this are part of racing.”
Saturday ended up getting cut abruptly short early in the afternoon due to a severe thunderstorm that rolled across multiple counties in the area, leaving the racers with only the hope of trying again the next day.
Sunday brought even more complications to the race even with the storm moved on, as wind over Lake Guntersville created a chop that kept all boats out of the water leaving spectators to wait for things to calm down.
During the lull the winners for the stock outboard races were announced, with James Klein taking the first place trophy in the Stock Outboard Marathon and Mac Phalzer winning the C Class. In the Offshore Super Stock Team Raymarine were the winners, with Cole Leibel driving and Gary Ballough acting as throttleman.
As the day stretched on and the water refused to settle it was finally announced at 530 pm that the event would be concluded. This means that there will be no Southern Cup awarded this year and no make up races are planned to take place.
Though things didn’t work out as scheduled the event still saw a good turnout, with the crowd staying shoreside all the way until the cancellation was announced. Kathleen Ruhleder, a music teacher at Snead State who sang the national anthem to open the event, shared her enthusiasm for the races and Lake Guntersville while taking a tour of the pit area on Saturday.
“I love Guntersville and even just driving through I’m amazed at the lake,” she said. “It’s been so much fun and I love getting to come out into the community and do things like this, it really helps you see how much is going on in your area and to meet the people that organize these kids of events.”
More information about Lake Guntersville Hydrofest can be found on their website at guntersvillelakehydrofest.com or by visiting their Facebook page at “Guntersville Lake Hydrofest.” More information about H1 Unlimited hydroplane racing can be found at h1unlimited.com.
