The first heat of 350 hydro was full of excitement and close racing.
Denny Henderson and Benny Aylor both had their Yamato's in top form. Denny took and early lead and I was chasing him, with Benny Aylor right there on my tail. There must have been a hole in the water or something as Denny lost it and his boat careened off to the right. I was pushing Denny very hard and he went into the turn very hot. It all happened so quickly, I only saw Denny's boat shoot off and I scanned the water to see if he was in front of me. Of course this is in split seconds. When I looked to the right to see where Benny was I saw Denny back in his boat. So I thought he just blew and engine and pulled off the course. (According to the story Louis Collins had in the District 15 news, about the same thing happened to Benny. I had fed Louis the info. but it apparently came from Benny who told us after the race. Denny can maybe expound on this.)
Anyway...It was just a couple of seconds and we were away from the turn and I took over the lead as we completed the first lap. I didn't see Benny anywhere close when I looked back at Denny, so I wasn't pushing it anymore. Surprisingly, Benny had recovered and was driving hard down the front straight. He pulled along side of me just starting into the turn. I got hard on the throttle had took the Aerowing to its limits. I had good acceleration, but both Denny and Benny had me on top end. If I could get a good jump off the turn maybe I could hold Benny off. It was a 1 mile course with average turns so there was a chance I could pull it off. Unfortunately, I dropped and sponson and dumped in the turn.
So now I was in the water, floating with my hydro and saw Denny making up time very quickly. After he recovered, Denny began chewing up the water, caught and drove through the pack to a second place. He was gaining on Benny all the way to the finish. I'm floating there and trying the piece together all the events in the last couple of minutes. I tried to make the second heat, but my hydro was too damaged so I came back in. Denny won the second heat, and the Texas State Championship.
When everything settled down, I had to go talk to the Denny and Benny to figure out what was going on. I can't remember everything but we must have had some pretty good laughs all around. When Denny hit that hole, he was thrown out of his boat, but he had a death grip on the wheel. He hit the water and bounced back in. As soon as Denny got back under control, he got back in the race. Denny came back into the pits without any shoes, as the water took them away when his legs hit it.:D I'm not real clear though on the reference to Benny doing "the same thing". David Weaver, is it you that has a contact to Benny? I forget, one of you east coast guys does, so maybe we can get a full report if Denny can't remember.
sorry I don't have pics of Benny. 1st is Denny, 2nd is me.