Aylesworth’s day up in flames

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, August 6, 2006

SEATTLE – The most dramatic event of the final day of the Chevrolet Cup came in the second unlimited heat race of the day, when the U-21 The Plumbing Joint went up in flames, causing driver Kevin Aylesworth to dive into the water and be dragged away to safety.

Aylesworth was in the far turn on the final lap of the race when he says his turbine blew up and took the fuel line along with it, causing a spectacular fire that approached the cockpit with Aylesworth inside.

“I heard a loud bang, so the motor blew up,” said Aylesworth, a San Diego native who is also the co-owner of the boat, the former U-25 hull of Dr. Ken Muscatel. “As soon as it blew up I looked in the rearview mirror and flames were coming out of both sides. I saw flames everywhere.”

Later, Aylesworth said the belief is that an oil line blew and took the gear box with it, because the fuel system was still intact. He said the motor was also still intact but what exactly went wrong would have to be determined later.

Aylesworth tried to put out the fire with the two 5-gallon extinguishers in the cockpit but it didn’t work, and as smoke and heat began to fill up inside the cockpit, Aylesworth climbed out and dove head-first into the water.

“The flame was coming out of the engine compartment toward the cockpit,” Aylesworth said. “So I rolled over the front windshield to go to the only piece of water I could find.”

Aylesworth bruised his left knee exiting the boat but was not otherwise hurt and didn’t go to the hospital. The boat, which stood no legitimate chance of winning the Chevrolet Cup anyway, suffered extensive damage. Aylesworth said he hopes to have the boat ready in a few weeks for the race in San Diego, the boat’s home port.

“I think we’re going to be flying a lot of boat repair guys from Seattle to San Diego to get some repairs going,” Aylesworth said. “We’ll take a look at the damage and figure out a way. We’ve got to make San Diego one way or another.”

Aylesworth is in his first season on the unlimited circuit after having success racing unlimited lights the past few years. The fire was the second scary event to happen to Aylesworth in the past two years.

Racing on Mission Bay in San Diego last year, Aylesworth was in a violent crash racing the UL-5 Freedom Racing boat. The accident nearly killed Aylesworth and left him in the hospital for a week.

It is unusual for a turbine to catch on fire when it does explode, but Aylesworth said the team practices emergency situations regularly so that they are prepared to evacuate if necessary.

“Fire is a freaky thing,” he said. “Within a matter of seconds, the thing was very, very hot, very fast.”

Muscatel takes a chance: With three boats unable to start and a fourth stalling out in the water just before the start, Dr. Ken Muscatel decided he’d give his odd-looking U-2.25 Graham Trucking boat a try in the unlimited provisional final. The team broke one of its uprights in an earlier heat and its backups were broken last week in the Tri-Cities. The broken piece was discovered too late to do much about it, so the team took off the wing and the broken upright and went onto the course with just one upright. That upright broke during the race and Muscatel finally headed for the pits with nothing hovering at the back end of his hull.

“They called me and said just bring it on in and basically I said, ‘I’m already here, I might as well race it,’ ” said Muscatel, who was competing in his 15th Seafair.

Muscatel said starting the race with one upright rather than none helps boats come out of corners by counteracting the torque on the propeller.

Muscatel, who briefly retired after last season only to buy a new boat, said he’s not sure if the team would compete in the final race in San Diego in a few weeks. He’s also not sure if he will retire at the end of the season.

“I ran as hard as I could,” Muscatel said. “That’s all there was, there ain’t no more. …It’s very disappointing.”

Electric in the lights: The UL-72 Powerboats Northwest presents Miss Boat Electric, driven by Michael Flaherty, won the Graham Trucking Cup hydroplane race Sunday on Lake Washington.

Becker defeated the UL-6 Port Orchard Signs presents MAACO of Bremerton, which finished second with Al Carstensen driving. Snohomish’s Greg Hopp, the defending champion, finished third in the UL-1 Mike’s Hard Lemonade/Happy Go Lucky.

G-Money: Veteran Snohomish driver/owner Jerry Hopp continued to dominate the G Boat class, winning the championship heat in the Hopp Racing G-15 Graham Trucking. Hopp won the four-boat field over the G-13 Tempo driven by R.W. Lynch.