By Ron Angel

Dave Villwock captured his eighth Gold Cup with a dominating performance on the Detroit River in the 101st running of the Jarvis Property Restoration/Grosse Pointe Yacht Club APBA Gold Cup over the weekend. With this 8th win, in the super bowl of boat racing, Villwock, piloting the Spirit of Qatar, equaled the mark of the legendary Bill Muncey and is only three behind all-time leader Chip Hanauer.

With 60 overall wins in the unlimited class, he is but one shy of Hanauer and two behind Muncey. Villwock powered his way to four preliminary heat wins and a maximum of 1600 points and had little trouble in the final cruising to a several boat length victory over Steve David in the Oh Boy! Oberto averaging 143.971 mph. David, the two-time defending high points champion, clocked 141.170. Villwock has won the last three Gold Cups; 2007, 2009 and 2010. The race was canceled in 2008 due to constant high winds on the river.

“The course was very rough," said Villwock. "The Oberto was really good in the rough water but I think we were set up well for all types of conditions."  There was a 25 minute delay in the final as winds were reported at near 30 mph, at the start it was more like10-12 said course referee Lee Hertz.

Following Villwock and David to the checkered flag were:

J Michael Kelley-Graham Trucking. 133.471
Greg Hopp-Jarvis Construction. 130.935 
Jeff Bernard-Formula-boats.com. 124.512

A very scary moment on Saturday, in an otherwise great weekend of boat racing that included Off-shores, Vintage and other classes, was the accident of JW Myers, whose boat lost it’s left side skid fin (that holds the boat on track for the difficult left turns) and sent Myers into the Roostertail point. Myers has broken bones in his  foot but returned to the pits on Sunday and was greeted by well-wishers throughout the afternoon.

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