Tight St. John course challenges sprint boats

Opening round of sprint boat racing at Webb’s Slough in St. John Saturday had some surprises and spills in the full day of timed racing. Twenty-four boats were on the starting grid in the three competition classes at the start of the four timing runs.

Race crews had to navigate a tight course at the Slough which was prepped to top condition for the first run on the association’s schedule. The designated course followed a general figure-eight mode and racers in many cases had to allow for navigating across their own wakes.

A post race check showed part of one tight turn on the course had actually been sawed off by the racers as they tried to gain time during the day’s runs.

Sprint boat format calls for four qualification timing runs followed by an elimination series. The modified class with 12 boats was the lone group to go through the whole series.

Dennis Hughes of Spokane, who was undefeated in the modified class last year, had the fastest time on the course, but he put his boat on an island in the first round of elimination. The DNF in the round of eight put him out of the elimination runs.

Hughes, who has advanced the speeds of the boats with some of his own designs, and navigator Matia Caskey of Aberdeen booked a 49.584 on their first run of the day to dial in the crowd seated along the terraces of the slough. On their next run they cranked it up to a 49.272 which turned out to be the fastest time of the day.

Scott and Cari Jensen in the Fat Buddy team’s 8 boat took the modified class by topping another Fat Buddy boat, the 166 with Bud Florko and Josh Dunham aboard. The Jensen boat clocked a 52.825 for the win in the final round of elimination.

The Fat Buddy contingent from the Vancouver area had nine boats in the lineup for the competition during the day.

Scott Ackerman of Colfax and Graham Reynolds in the Two Pump Chump No. 17 placed third in the modifieds with a 53.965 final in the four-cut elimination round.

Veteran Dennis Hendrickson of Richland and navigator Michele Heaton-Muller topped the eight-boat 400 class with a 50.617 in their final go. Hendrickson trimmed time off each of his runs going up to the final round. His top qualification time was 51.179.

Hughes and Haskey placed second in the 400 class in their other entry for the day, the Fat Buddy 88B boat.

First qualification in the 400 had one of the tough crashes of the day when Brian and Aubrey Swindahl of Tacoma put their 76 boat on the bank after finishing their first run. The boat began to porpoise at the end of the run and rolled up on the bank after they passed the finish line. Both emerged unhurt, but their boat was knocked out of the action. The Swindahls actually charted a time for the run.

Dan Morrison and Cara McQuire of Port Angeles topped the three boats in the unlimited class with a 50.699. Their top run in the qualification in the Wicked Racing 10 boat was a 51.179.

Dean Lautenschlauger of Lewiston with Dona Van Stone placed second in the unlimited with a 58.47. Lautenschlauger is working on a turbo installation in the boat.

Bill Sparling and Gary McNeil placed third in the unlimiteds with the Sinister Racing boat.

Next outing for the sprint boats will be Aug. 9 at Port Angeles. The circuit had hoped to debut a new Riverdale course at Toutle July 5 but the race had to be scratched because the course wasn’t ready.