Tight finishes at Webb’s Slough

Brian Swindahl in the Bandit Black 76 boat turns down the number 13 channel in a qualification run on the way to a win in the 400 class Saturday at Webb's Slough. The races were the second of two summer sprint boats events in St. John.

Charlie Reynolds in the 199 Bad to the Bone boat goes up on the bank in a qualification run Aug. 27.

Second round of sprint boat racing at Webb's Slough in St. John Saturday saw two of the season's class leaders derailed in the final round of a full day of action.

The Spokane team of Dennis and Samantha Hughes took the modified class, and the Brian Swindahl boat from Tacoma took the 400 class.

Winners in the abbreviated finals for the unlimiteds was the Eric Werner and Liz Petring team in the Jolly Rogers boat.

The unlimited finals went just two elimination rounds with the Werner boat and the Wicked Racing boat of Dan Morrison both breaking 47 seconds on the tight slough course which was made a notch tougher for Saturday's runs by the rotation schedule required for the course.

The order for the course started with close to an open run around the outside of the course, but then challenged drivers with two turns in the interior links of the course. Toughest turn was the one from the 12 to 5 lengths which was tighter than 90 degrees.

In the final run of the unlimiteds, Morrison hit the bank and failed to finish while Werner in the 907 boat again broke the 47 mark with a last run time of 46.91.

The two teams arrived at St. John with the Morrison boat holding a 19-point edge on the season standings. The Werner win puts them into the lead for the unlimiteds as they advance to the final race of the season at Port Angeles.

Four other boats in the unlimited class failed to advance to the final runs.

One of the big setbacks for the day was sustained by the Bootleggers 33 boat of Ron Gallagher and Josh Reynolds who were making their first start.

The team, which made the entry without having time to paint the aluminum hull, had trouble making a start on the first timing run of the day and then hit the beach on the second run.

Brian Swindahl's Bandit boat cooked three fast times in the finals for the 400 class. The Bandit boat and Doug Hendrickson's Wicked Racing boat have also been in a points race all season with Hendrickson leading the points race by a scant six-points over the first three races on the tour.

Hendrickson also went into the bank on the last round while Swindahl finished to top the class. Times for Swindahl in the finals were 51.178, 51.205 and 54.604 after he backed off in the last run.

Hendrickson's best time was a 51.619 on his second run.

The final script differed in the modified class with the Hughes 69 boat, and Scott and Carri Jensen on their Big Fish 8 boat from Vancouver battling through all three runs in the finals.

Hughes cooked on the final run with a 49.281 with Jensen-Jensen hitting 51.098, their best time in the finals. The Jensen boat had a slight edge in the quarter-final, but Hughes had the lone below 50 seconds time in the last two runs. They were the lone boat outside of the unlimiteds to break the 50 mark in the finals.

Eight modified boats filled the grid for the finals with Dustin Chase in the Flyin' Hawaiian and Bill Reichert and Mike Woods in the Fat Buddy 54 boat advancing to the semi round.