Sprint boats run fast at first Slough

Scott Ackerman and Mike Hall of Colfax take third place

Sprint boat racers and fans took advantage of near ideal conditions Saturday for the first of two racing rounds at Webb’s Slough at St. John.

The race card listed a total of 34 entries for the competition under the auspices of the United States Sprint Boat Association.

The lineup entry included 14 boats in the super modified class, 12 in the A-400 class, and eight in the super boat class.

The St. John opener was the first round for the racers this year.

Race format again called for four qualification runs with the boats booking the fastest times advancing to three rounds of elimination.

Fastest time of the day on the slough course, which includes 13 different segments, was booked by veterans Cory Johnson and Gary McNeill of Maple Ridge, B.C. in their Liquid Courage boat in the Super Boat class. The duo marked a 44.781 in their second qualifying round to get a roar from the large Slough crowd. The run was .178 faster than the 44.959 booked by the eventual class winners in the super, Jerimy Brewer and Pessley Lollar of Pasco in their 15 Rum Runner.

The 44-plus run for the Liquid boat was their last for the day while Brewer-Presley finished out qualifications with two more runs just over 45 seconds.

They went on to top four finalists in the cut eliminations while dueling Bill Sparling and Amande Vestal in the Sinister boat. The three boat final saw Brewer Lollar crank out times of 45.835, 46.087 and 46.117 in the last three rounds.

Dennis Hughes of Spokane and Matia Haskey of Aberdeen topped the 14-boat entry in the super modified class in their 49 Overkill.

They had the fastest round in the qualifications with a 46.952 on their third run. The Overkill was the lone boat in the class to clock under 50 seconds, and they did it in three of the qualification runs.

Hughes and Haskey followed the hot qualification runs with four consistent sub-50 runs in the four elimination rounds.

Eric Werner and Nichole Brown of Port Angeles placed second with Werner getting the Jolly Rogers boat under the 50-second barrier on the final run with a 49.446, still more than two seconds back of Hughes-Haskey.

Scott Ackerman and Mike Hall of Colfax placed third in the class after booking the third-place time in the final four. Best time for the locals was their last go, a 51.696. Werner-Brown nudged them for a shot at Hughes Haskey in the finals with a 50.181.

Doug Hendrickson of Pasco and Nicole Muller of Boise topped the 12-boat entry in the A-400 class which saw two of the top qualifiers fail to finish in the elimination rounds.

Kyle and Alex Partick of Albany, Ore. in the Psycho Racing boat cooked the fastest time in the first elim runs with a 50.236, but that was the end of their day. Hendrickson-Muller bumped the 50-second barrier for the class on the next round and took the class when Scott Saxton and Frank Farrand failed to finish in the final round.

Most serious mishap of the day came in the second round of qualifications when Dillon Cummings of Sequim, and his mom Teri, went over the bank in front of the crowd on the number-two corner of the course. The 99 Jeepers Creepers boat came to a halt with its bow punched into the Slough barrier fence. Both members of the Cummings crew were able to crawl out of the inverted boat and were checked out later by EMTs on the scene.

Cummings made another attempt at running the boat but ran into engine trouble.

Next round of USSBA racing at the slough will be Aug. 24.

The Webbs plan to debut a slough-side concert performance July 20 featuring Peter Rivera, original lead singer with Rare Earth.