Jimmy Shane will Replace Villwock

KENNEWICK, WA (Nov. 4, 2025) - BWR Racing owner Bruce Ratchford is pleased to announce the signing of veteran unlimited hydroplane driver Jimmy Shane to the team’s racing stable for the 2026 season.
Shane replaces the retiring Dave Vilwock.

Shane, who had amassed 25 victories - including five Gold Cups - and seven national championships, retired from the sport at the end of the 2022 season to focus on his family.
“I’m very excited for the opportunity, and I felt like it was a good time for me,” Shane said. “I had accomplished most of the goals I wanted to on my little break. I feel like I can have a good balance returning to racing and supporting those goals going forward.”

Suitably, those goals, as he put it, are another generation in his footsteps. Shane, whose 9- and 12-year old sons are also racing, said that the family environment at BWR and in the hydroplane racing fraternity as a whole made the decision easier.

“My oldest son has been racing for three years now, and this was my youngest son’s rookie season in Junior Hydro and Junior Runabout,” Shane said. “He won the 2025 championship in J-hydro in only his third race. I’m really thrilled about that.”

“I can tell that Bruce truly has in his heart what is best for the sport and for the team,” he continued. “That was one of the things that really got me over the hump to come back.”

Ratchford, who is on the heels of a national championship-winning and Gold Cup-winning debut season in H1 Unlimited, is excited to add Shane to the team, as he feels that their philosophies will align perfectly going into the teams’ sophomore effort.

“I’m thrilled,” he said. “This guy, he’s got a big picture mind and he knows how it all works. I just love his thought process.”

Shane spent the majority of his career - and enjoyed his greatest success - in the cockpit of the Miss Madison racing team, which campaigned under sponsorship from Oberto Meats and HomeStreet Bank during his tenure.
During that time, he worked hand in hand with U-91 Goodman Real Estate crew chief Mike Hanson, and drove both of BWR’s primary racing hulls to race victories and national championships.
“I think it’s wonderful,” Hanson said. “He was a great driver for the Miss Madison team. We won a lot of races with him and a lot of national championships. He’s got a good square head on his shoulders, and he will be a good asset for BWR and for the sport.” Ratchford is similarly enthusiastic about the partnership.

“He’s got it all. And it’s really important to have that kind of relationship,” Ratchford said of Shane’s connection with the BWR crews. “We’re thrilled to have him back in the boat. It’s definitely a statement not just about winning races but about the entire sport.”
Shane is also excited by the potential reunion, as the BWR teams include many former team members that he worked side by side with previously.

“I’m pretty stoked to get back with many of the same faces that I knew before,” he said. “There’s instant comfort and trust. I can drive like I did in the past, knowing that they understand me and I understand them. I’m very fortunate for the opportunity to come back and show I still have what it takes.”

Which hull Shane will drive will be announced at a later date. The BWR team is busy preparing all three racing hulls for the 2026 campaign.