TRI-CITIES, USA: 95 Spirit of Qatar’s Kip Brown reached his second successive final at the Lamb Weston Colombia Cup on the Colombia River in Washington State yesterday, but the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF)-backed Our Gang Racing driver was not able to repeat his stunning Detroit Gold Cup win on this occasion.
Honours at the Tri-Cities event fell to Steve David in 1 Oh Boy! Oberto, who was shadowed to the finish of a tactical final showdown by title rival and defending Colombia Cup champion Jimmy Shane in 5 Graham Trucking.
Brown arrived at the ‘score-up’ buoy too early and was penalised down to seventh place in a final where Jon Zimmerman was awarded third position.
Steve David came into the Kennewick race weekend with a 183-point National High Points’ lead over Jimmy Shane.
Jon Zimmerman was third and Kip Brown finished closely behind in fourth spot.
The Lighthouse Point driver extended that by 50 points by winning Saturday’s qualifying session with an average speed of 158.766 mph. Shane battled against a fuel problem and this left the door open for Zimmerman to take second and Kip Brown to seal 70 points for third in 96 Spirit of Qatar.
Shane and David won the first of the heats on Saturday.
Shane got the better of Zimmerman to add a maximum points haul to his tally but Kip Brown parked 95 Spirit of Qatar in lane one early in heat 1B before reaching the score-up buoy, only for David to take the lead from lane three.
Brown managed to hold off a challenge from J Michael Kelly to seal second position.
THE PENINSULA
