Jimmy Shane Wins Apollo Columbia Cup, Andrew Tate Battles Back From Heat 3A DQ

Jimmy Shane won the 2026 Apollo Columbia Cup on Sunday, taking the U-27 Miss Apollo to victory on the Columbia River in Tri-Cities, Washington, for his second H1 Unlimited win of the season. Andrew Tate came home second in the U-1 BWR Racing after overcoming a Heat 3A disqualification earlier in the day.

The result gives Shane his second consecutive win since returning to H1 Unlimited to claim the APBA Gold Cup at Madison on July 5, and follows a weekend previewed in full in PBN’s Apollo Columbia Cup preview.

Heat 3A Disqualification Shakes Up Sunday

Racing on Championship Sunday opened with a setback for Tate. The U-1 Miss BWR Racing was disqualified from Heat 3A after the team failed to ensure the data box installed in the boat was functioning correctly, meaning no telemetry reached the Tech Truck.

The revised Heat 3A result handed victory to Corey Peabody in the U-3 Tahoe Miss presented by Beacon Plumbing, with Brandon Kennedy second in the U-6 Goodman Real Estate presents Royer Miss Madison, Dylan Runne third in the U-40 Bucket List Racing, and Gunnar O’Farrell fourth in the U-21 Beacon Plumbing presents Ronald McDonald House.

Shane and Tate had entered Sunday tied at the top of the 2026 National High Points Championship standings. H1 Unlimited flagged the stakes on its own Facebook page before racing began.

H1 Unlimited, Facebook

The battle for the 2026 National High Points Championship is heating up. Jimmy Shane and Andrew Tate enter Championship Sunday tied atop the standings, with every lap in Heats 3A and 3B carrying major championship implications.

Shane Holds Off Tate in the Final

Shane went into the final with first choice of lane, taking Lane 1, ahead of Nilsen in Lane 2 and Tate in Lane 3. Despite the earlier Heat 3A disqualification, Tate still had enough points banked to pick third, with Peabody, Kelly and Runne filling the remaining lanes in that order.

Tate rebounded from the Heat 3A disqualification to win his way back into the Columbia Cup final, where he ran second behind Shane across all five laps. Jamie Nilsen took third in the U-11 Miss Flav-R-Pac, ahead of Peabody in fourth, J. Michael Kelly fifth in the U-00 Maverick presented by Beacon Plumbing, and Runne sixth.

Brandon Kennedy, fourth in Heat 3A and fifth in the season standings entering the weekend, did not qualify for the Columbia Cup final.

Tate: ‘Hats Off to the Team’

Tate spoke to H1 Unlimited’s Danny Rogers dockside after the final, reflecting on the gap he had to close after the Heat 3A disqualification:

We knew it was going to be really tough. I think the only chance I had was to hit the line wide open with a bit of a run, and unfortunately I was half a second later than I wanted to be. We were playing catch-up most of the race, but we kept him honest and made him drive the boat hard. He drove a good race. Hats off to the team.

Tate was already looking ahead to Seattle:

I think I’m going to forget about this pretty quick. We didn’t win. The event was great, the people were great, but for me, I’m already thinking about Seattle.

Corey Peabody, who finished fourth, pointed to gearbox and propeller work as the priority before the fleet moves on:

Everybody’s worked really hard. We got faster, but some people got faster than what we did. So that’s racing. We’ve got to go do some homework and catch up with people.

Nilsen’s Breakout Weekend

Jamie Nilsen and the Miss Flav-R-Pac team produced one of the standout performances of the weekend, building through qualifying and heat racing to a podium finish in the final. Owners Scott and Shannon Rainey have chased consistent pace with the boat all season, and Sunday’s result puts the team firmly in the conversation heading into the season’s closing rounds.

The Long Road Back for Shane

Shane, 40, stepped away from unlimited hydroplane racing four years ago to work as an integration engineer on Blue Origin’s capsule assembly programme in Texas. He returned this season to drive for BWR Racing owner Bruce Ratchford, taking the seat vacated by Dave Villwock’s retirement after 2025.

His comeback has produced wins in both of his first two starts back, at Madison and now Tri-Cities, in a Charley Wiggins-built boat he chose over the team’s more experienced Miss Madison hull last May. Full background on Shane’s return, via the Tri-City Herald.

Next Up: Seafair

The H1 Unlimited fleet now heads to Seattle for the Apollo Mechanical Cup at Seafair, running Friday, July 31 to Sunday, August 2, on Lake Washington. It will be the third of four rounds counting toward the 2026 Total Weekend Points championship, with Shane and Tate set to renew their battle at the top of the standings.