The season finally found its rhythm at the 1000 Islands Regatta in Brockville, Ontario, after two consecutive event weekends lost to weather cancellations. For the Lupton teams making the long journey from New Zealand, the timing was perfect, and the anticipation enormous. What followed was a weekend that mixed promise with frustration in equal measure.
Ken Lupton, piloting the GP-577 Lucas Oil machine, arrived as the back-to-back HRL Grand Prix champion and the man to beat. His brother Jack rolled onto Blockhouse Island with a literal secret weapon: a brand-new Henderson Grand Prix hull, one of the most advanced hydroplane builds in the sport. The GP-33 JLM Motorsport entry represented months of preparation, a transatlantic shipping operation, and the collective effort of a large crew working to get the boat competition-ready before the green flag dropped.
In time trials, the hierarchy was quickly established. Brandon Kennedy set the pace in the GP-35 TMSpecial with a blistering 31.476-second run, while Ken clocked 47.443 seconds and Jack, making his debut in the new boat, posted 38.387 seconds in seventh. Both times reflected the reality of running machinery that had barely turned a wheel competitively.
Jack’s Q-1B qualifying run returned no time at all. The new boat simply wasn’t ready to complete a heat. Q-2B told the same story: another DNS for the GP-33. For a team that had shipped a brand-new hull across the Pacific and spent the New Zealand summer preparing for this exact moment, it was a hard weekend to absorb.
Ken’s campaign followed a similar pattern. He won Q-1B outright, posting 147.326 seconds to beat Kent Henderson’s Canada Boy by nearly three seconds, the kind of form that signals a defending champion firing. But Q-2A brought mechanical failure, and the GP-577 returned no time. In the final, Ken lined up again, only for the Lucas Oil entry to retire without completing the race.
In a post-event statement, the Lucas Oil team confirmed the scale of the mechanical problems: three engines across both boats were found to share a common fault, and the team made the difficult decision to withdraw from the Madison event the following weekend. The reasoning was straightforward. There simply was not enough time to rebuild the engines and make the drive to Madison. Valleyfield on 10-11-12 July is now the focus.
Jack’s message to supporters after the weekend was generous and honest. He described it as the best weekend his team had ever had, despite the results, and credited an enormous support crew.
“Brand new boat, heaps of little issues,” Jack wrote. “Upside: we have the best team ever. We will work super hard to get on top of it.”
The Grand Prix final was won by Kennedy in a clean sweep that saw him take time trials, both qualifying heats, and the final. Andrew Tate in the GP-71 The Wild One finished second, with Eric Langevin in the GP-212 Sylco completing the podium.
The Luptons will regroup, strip the engines, and return at Valleyfield with considerably more knowledge about the new Henderson hull than they arrived with. That knowledge, combined with Ken’s established pace over this circuit, makes the Quebec round a very different proposition.
Grand Prix class — 1000 Islands Regatta, Brockville
Hydroplane Racing League | 26–28 June 2026
| # | Boat | Driver | Time (s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time trials | |||
| 1 | GP-35 TMSpecial | Brandon Kennedy | 31.476 |
| 2 | GP-50 Freedom | Bobby King | 32.892 |
| 3 | GP-757 Canada Boy | Kent Henderson | 32.912 |
| 4 | GP-212 Sylco | Éric Langevin | 33.347 |
| 5 | GP-71 The Wild One | Andrew Tate | 33.828 |
| 6 | GP-33 JLM Motorsport | Jack Lupton ★ | 38.387 |
| 7 | GP-577 Lucas Oil | Ken Lupton ★ | 47.443 |
| Qualifying heat 1A — 27 June | |||
| 1 | GP-35 TMSpecial | Brandon Kennedy | 146.128 |
| 2 | GP-71 The Wild One | Andrew Tate | 159.450 |
| 3† | GP-212 Sylco | Éric Langevin | 148.476 † |
| Qualifying heat 1B — 27 June | |||
| 1 | GP-577 Lucas Oil | Ken Lupton ★ | 147.326 |
| 2 | GP-757 Canada Boy | Kent Henderson | 150.202 |
| 3 | GP-50 Freedom | Bobby King | 150.776 |
| — | GP-33 JLM Motorsport | Jack Lupton ★ | DNS |
| Qualifying heat 2A — 28 June | |||
| 1 | GP-35 TMSpecial | Brandon Kennedy | 156.970 |
| 2 | GP-757 Canada Boy | Kent Henderson | 161.526 |
| 3 | GP-71 The Wild One | Andrew Tate | 162.859 |
| — | GP-577 Lucas Oil | Ken Lupton ★ | DNF |
| Qualifying heat 2B — 28 June | |||
| 1 | GP-212 Sylco | Éric Langevin | 142.503 |
| 2 | GP-50 Freedom | Bobby King | 158.452 |
| — | GP-33 JLM Motorsport | Jack Lupton ★ | DNS |
| Final — 28 June | |||
| 1 | GP-35 TMSpecial | Brandon Kennedy | 147.553 |
| 2 | GP-71 The Wild One | Andrew Tate | 152.786 |
| 3 | GP-212 Sylco | Éric Langevin | 156.492 |
| 4 | GP-50 Freedom | Bobby King | 156.826 |
| 5 | GP-757 Canada Boy | Kent Henderson | 174.102 |
| — | GP-577 Lucas Oil | Ken Lupton ★ | DNF |
| ★ New Zealand. † Penalised (P5 + P7), scored 0 pts. Times shown are elapsed race times (4 laps) except time trials (single lap). | |||
