the city is Home Port to half a dozen
professional teams including onetime
National Champion Miss Elam plus team
Elam is a family affair father’s Sven
and Son’s Eric and Tom race their boat
Elam the brothers design and build boats
shop hydroplanes like Miss Elam are
lightning fast because they are designed
to fly through the air barely touching
the water for a Seattle boy racing one
is a dream come true growing up in
Seattle hydroplane racing was everything
when you were kids here and then
unlimited hydroplane racing was the
Pinnacle of Motorsports in Seattle you
know as a kid of my age I don’t know
anybody that wouldn’t want to run
unlimited hydro plants it’s just it’s
awesome the team’s philosophy is simple
I’d like to say uh winning isn’t
everything but I got to tell you winning
is everything and that’s that’s what
drives everything it’s it’s just a pure
will to want to win okay hold it right
there now Slide the boom all the way in
second place is the the first guy to
lose a key to the team success driver
Dave vilwalk one of the most successful
in Motorsport today it’s all about
communicating the team that can
communicate together and and keep a boat
running you know under adversity is a
team that’s going to win in the
end team Elam is fighting for the top
spot in the standings and is busy
race this week’s problem the engine the
most critical component of the
boat Miss Elam uses shanuk helicopter
engines to each speeds of over 200
$125,000 and can take 10 weeks to adapt
hydroplane because of the wear and tear
of racing the team must have more than
times with the next race just days away
team Elam is down one engine and
scrambling probably no one has really
had a good night’s sleep in about 3
weeks we haven’t been working around the
clock we’ve been working to just just to
the point to get a few hours of sleep
