Sprint boats charge to start season at Slough

St. John’s Skylar Smith and Casey Donahoe took a spectacular detour early Saturday when their boat went up on the bank at the west end of the course during time qualifications. The boat remained upright and slid backwards into the starting area of Webb’s Slough.

Sprint boat racers booked some fast times and survived some calamities Saturday before a big crowd at Webb's Slough in St. John.

The slough this year was the first race for the circuit, and crews were reported to be scrambling for the launch at the St. John course.

Some crews ran into first-day woes, but most of the veterans on the circuit battled into the elimination rounds.

Skylar Smith, St. John's entry, placed third in the super modified class with the number-three time in quarter finals at 54.526.

Smith qualified for the elimination round after finishing in the top eight for the class.

He accomplished that despite putting the red St. John boat up on the bank at the west end of the track in the second timing round.

Smith and navigator Casey Donahoe slid backwards across the bank between the west end curve and actually landed afloat in the starting chute area of the course.

Smith, who graduated from St. John High School this year, credited fellow racer Scott Ackerman of Colfax with a lot of support Friday night when the Smiths were attempting to get their boat together.

Ackerman even allowed the Smith to use some of his parts.

Ackerman, who was hitting competitive times in the 54-second range in the time trials, put it up on the bank just before the finish pool in the first elimination round to finish eighth.

He wound up watching Smith advancing to the quarter finals in the class.

"I made his boat go a lot faster, and let him use some of my parts and he winds up beating me," Ackerman noted with a chuckle Tuesday.

Dennis Hughes of Spokane, who was debuting his all-new 69 boat, actually had the fastest time in the super mod class with a 50.587 in the quarter-final run.

Hughes also put it on the bank for a did-not-finish in the semi elimination round and wound up in fourth place behind the Smith-Donahoe boat.

Robert Cox and Liz Petring, who booked the first run under 51 seconds in the time runs, wound up taking the class with a 51.047.

Cox had the second fastest run in the class with 51.009 in quarter-final round.

All three of his elimination runs were under 52 seconds.

The J. Miller-Evans boat finished second in the class with a 52.656.

Phil Miller, a member of Fat Buddies-north team from B.C., rolled up the day's fastest times with clockings in the A-400 class.

Miller cooked a 49.284 in the final round for a two-plus second edge over Doug Hendrickson Cory Johnson and Gary McNeil from Surrey, B.C., back in the competition after a year off, took the super boat class with a 51.845 in the lone elimination round for the class.

Veteran Dan Morrison, a strong competitor from Port Angeles, and the Gallagher-Gallagher boat failed to finish in the first and only run in the elimination round.

Amanda Webb of St. John said they estimated the crowd count in the 4,000 range for the season opener.

They accommodated 450 RVs in the field next to the track with all but 20 of them on the grounds by Friday night.

Webb noted their upper terrace VIP section, which incudes 22 sites, is already sold out for the Aug. 29 edition at the slough when the sprint boat racers will be going for double points to determine the season championships.