I'm writing this from the shores of Doha, Qatar (next to Saudi Arabia), where we just wrapped up the final race of the season for the Unlimited hydroplane circuit, which is now known as H1 Unlimited.

Many of you know Qatar from its offshore teams led by his excellency Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al Thani. It was in fact Sheikh Hassan who brought the Unlimiteds to this magical place.

The results from this race tell only a small story of the roller-coaster ride the weekend presented. I was leading in the points standings going into the event and just needed a win in Heat 4 to wrap it up before the Final. While leading that heat, I did what we know as a “blowover.” Click here to see the video.

Our boat (Oh Boy! Oberto) did a 360-degree flip and landed right-side up with minor damage. However, we were not allowed to reenter that heat because our accident stopped the race.

I was afraid our chance for the national championship was lost—but “it ain’t over till it’s over” proved true once again. Heir apparent for the national championship after my crash, was the U-5 Formulaboats.com piloted by Jeff Bernard. In the start of the final heat Jeff also blew over. That left the U-16 Miss Elam Plus piloted by Dave Villwock as the favorite for the championship.

I was in Lane 3 with the U-16 in Lane 1 and the U-7 driven by J Michael Kelly in Lane 2. As the heat wound down, it looked like the U-16 would pull off the win and I’d lose the championship by 165 points. Waiting for the fat lady to sing, the U-16 started to compressor stall and we passed her half a lap before the end of the race to clinch the national title. Actually it was back-to-back championships for 2008 and 2009—something not achieved since the Miss Budweiser era.

This also gave me my fourth national driving championship in the past five seasons, putting me in the rare company of Dean Chenoweth, Bill Muncey and Chip Hanauer. A total of six drivers in our 105-year history have four or more driving championships.

Looking back to 1988 and my first Unlimited ride, I was lucky to not get lapped twice let alone once in a heat. Sometimes you have to kiss a lot of frogs to get where you want! That’s probably happened to you too. If you’d like to ask questions or share your stories please e-mail us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .