Sprint boats to return to Webb’s Slough

Windows from Lancaster to Ewan should be rocked this weekend, as engines roar on the second race of the United States Sprint Boat Association season at Webb’s Slough in St. John.

Racers will descend on the town Friday night, lining Front Street with their boats for safety and technical inspections. The line-up also gives race fans a last chance to view the boats at their polished best before they are coated with mud from Webb’s Slough the next day.

Colfax racer Scott Ackerman and wife/navigator Lori will try to rebound from a disappointing showing in the last race July 25 at Albany, Ore.

Still breaking in their new boat, Bad Medicine, the Ackermans finished in seventh place at Albany.

The Oregon course is longer than most, with the racers having to make 34 turns through the biggest track on the circuit.

The Ackermans officially debuted their new boat in the first race circuit stop at St. John in June.

Last year, they wrecked in the St. John finale and were out of commission for the rest of the season.

The high number of turns on the Albany course meant the Ackermans’ number 17 boat never had a chance to work up speed. They did not finish their first elimination run and the race day ended there.

The Albany finish put the Ackerman boat in fifth place in the USSBA season standings with 786 total points.

Canadians Cory Johnson and Gary McNeil are perched atop the season standings with 898 points, 32 points ahead of two second place boats, Dan Morrison and Cara McGuire of Port Angeles and Tim Cummings and Mike Fuller of Sequim.

Johnson and McNeil’s number 55 Liquid Addiction boat earned 454 points to top the first Webb’s Slough race this year.

At Albany, Johnson and McNeil earned 444 points to fall just shy of Cummings and Fuller.

Cummings and Fuller took the top spot at Albany with 450 points. Their number 99 boat, Jeepers Creepers, finished in fourth place at Webb’s Slough in June, just two points behind the Ackerman boat.