Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Todd and Samantha Christ maneuver the Juggernaut through the Webb's Slough course during the Aug. 26 races.
Jason Perkins and Eli Gurske of Team Pour Decisions navigate through the new Slough turns.
Mark Toombs and Amy Hensley make their way through the course in the Monkey Business sprint boat.
ST. JOHN – For the second time this summer sprint boat races made waves at Webb's Slough.
Participants and fans from all over the state and Pacific Northwest came to enjoy the sprint boat races Saturday, Aug. 26.
The weekend-long event started with the St. John golf scramble tournament Friday, Aug. 25. After the tournament, the Show and Shine event happened, where fans met the racers, saw the boats, and even sit in them to learn more about them before Raceday.
The racing started at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 26.
The drivers were split into three different classes, for a total of 32 teams.
In the modified class, there were 11 racers. For the 400-Class, there were 13 racers. In the Unlimited Class there were eight racers.
Highlighting the Modified Class was team Bad Idea and Purcell Racing. Each team had two boats each in the modified class.
Steamin Kiwi headlined the 400-Class, with driver Ruedi Schuler racing at Webb's Slough once again. The New Zealand native loves to put on a show for the fans, especially at Webb's Slough.
Also in the 400-Class was team 1776 Crash or Win. Their boat was easily recognizable as it had the Mountain Dew Soda logo all over the boat. The driver of this boat was Cleetus McFarland, his navigator was Spencer Faggioni.
McFarland has a large YouTube following with 3.26 million subscribers. This was his first time racing at Webb's Slough.
On race day, each team had four qualifying runs they could take.
After racers drove the track four times, the competition does what is known as the 8-cut, where the top eight in each class race again. Of those eight, there is then a 4-cut, where the remaining four drivers in each class drive one more time to crown the champions.
On a day filled with joy, crashes, record breaking times, the event ended with boat Jolly Rogers, driven by Eric Werner, and navigated by Tina Huff, winning the Unlimited Class. They drove the best time of the day, racing the course in a record 38.8 seconds. They were the only boat of the 32 on the day to break 39 seconds.
One of the crashes on the day came from boat 99M, TNT Racing. The boat had a strong run going on the course, before crashing on one of the banks on the far side of the course, waterlogging their engine, forcing them to require assistance from the "Slough Crew Island Hoppers". Island Hoppers came to the aid of the driver and navigator, as well as dragging them out from the bank using a rope, getting them back in the water.
For the modified class, team Purcell racing, driven by James Goldberg, and navigated by Margaret Purcell. They were solid throughout the day for their class, consistently putting up strong times before ultimately ending up with the checkered flag at the end.
In the 400-Class, the racing was close, but saw team Preventing Insanity, driven by Leighton Lillie, and navigated by Cody Holzer. Their final run on the day was a 39.68, just narrowly beating out second place team Punisher, driven by Phil Miller and navigated by Samantha Hughes. They drove a final time of 40.88.
The track design and turns were different from the race in June. With the racers not getting the track layout until the night before, it makes it difficult for the navigators as they do not have much time to memorize the track. Spring boat racing will return to Webb's Slough next summer, with updates coming later in the year to the Webb's Slough FaceBook page.
Reader Comments(0)