‘King of the Slough’ returns to track after cancer scare

Despite a health scare that kept him out of the previous race on the sprint boat circuit, Jack Bright, the “King of the Slough,” will return to his kingdom at St. John Saturday.

Five weeks ago, doctors performed an emergency operation to remove cancerous tumors from Bright’s colon, appendix and bladder.

“Luckily they didn’t look in my head,” he said. “I don’t think they would have found anything.”

Determined to return to racing by the St. John date, Bright continually bugged his doctors for clearance to return to the race track.

“I’ve never missed a race at St. John, I can’t start missing them now,” he told the Gazette over the phone Tuesday night.

After receiving clearance from his doctors to whip around the track in a 600-horsepower jet boat, Bright, Ontario, Ore., will compete for the crown in the A-400 class at this weekend’s races at Webb’s Slough in St. John.

“They said don’t lift anything. But apparently, banging around inside the boat is fine,” he said.

Bright earned the Slough monarchy by winning the first three races ever run on the Webbs’ water track.

In the very first race at St. John, Bright’s Rock Chucker boat hit the side of the channel, flew through the air over an island and landed upside down in the channel. After a few adjustments to the boat, the Bright team returned to the track to post the fastest time of the day and claim the top spot in the A-400 class.

“You don’t have to be crazy to do this stuff,” he said. “But it sure helps.”

He sits in fourth place in the United States Sprint Boat Association’s season standings, despite missing the July race at Albany, Ore., while undergoing cancer treatment.

Local racer Scott Ackerman will roll out his Two Pump Chump boat to try and gain ground in the season standings in the Super Modified division.

Ackerman’s number 17 boat is in second place in the standings, 16 points behind Canadian Cory Johnson.

Ackerman booked a second place finish in the June race at Webb’s Slough, and has run well all season. He was set to test out some modifications to “the Chump” this week on Williams Lake in preparation for the weekend’s big show.

Saturday’s races will be filmed by national crews and broadcast later this year on Lucas Oil’s “On the Edge” show on the Speed network.