Oh Boy! – A winner!

Oh Boy! Oberto-Miss Madison
wins national championship

Driver David clinches title in
season-ending race at San Diego

By Konnie McCollum
Staff Writer

(October 2008) – The U-6 Oh Boy! Oberto-Miss Madison, driven by Steve David, clinched its first National High Points Championship in the 47-year history of the team, after a second-place finish in Heat 2B at the 2008 San Diego Bayfair powered by the San Diego Union-Tribune on Sept. 21. Despite finishing second, David needed only to finish the heat in any place to clinch the High Points title.

File photo by Don Ward Oh Boy! Oberto-Miss Madison driver Steve David has made history by giving the community owned hydroplane its first National High Points title.

In a telephone interview a week after the race, David, said, “Oh Boy! This is bigger than winning a single race. More than one boat can win a race during the year, but at the end of the season, there will only be one U-1.”
During the start of the finals, David jumped the gun, which took the U-6 out of the running for the race. “We were looking for the perfect weekend, but I got a bit ansy,” he said.
It didn’t really matter, though, because the Miss Madison team found itself with a commanding points lead over the weekend.
The team needed only 677 points out of a possible 1,200 to win the title. The first 100 of those points came when David turned in a speed of more than 161 mph to give the Miss Madison the top qualifying position on Saturday. Four hundred points were added shortly thereafter when the U-6 scored a victory in Heat 1B. With just a few points left to add, David only needed to merely finish either of the next two heats to clinch the national title. Instead, he tenaciously battled Jean Theoret and the U-37 Miss Beacon Plumbing before succumbing to a second place finish in Heat 2B. He knew at the end of the race that Miss Madison, after 47 years of toil and struggle, had finally added her name to the history books.
“It feels great to be among the biggest names in unlimited hydroplane racing history,” he said. “Our victory today is magnified because of the ownership of the boat. The people of Madison who have supported the team have been wonderful. They deserve this.”
As for the team’s expectations for 2009, David said “Once you win, you don’t want to give it up. We’ve certainly raised the bar on expectations.”