Sprint boat leaders bag championships at St. John Slough

Eric and Rhonda Werner hit the shore in the final run for the unlimiteds.

Skylar Smith and Casey Donahoe of St. John make their run in the semi-final. (Below) Dennis Hughes and Matia Haskey take the victory lab after winning the final round in the modified.

Final season’s action for the American Sprint Boat racers at Webb’s Slough in St. John Saturday featured strong competition with some added features in the championship round.

Saturday’s competition ended with conditions improving from the smoke and the winds which greeted the racers at the start of the day. Also, race boat fans turned out in strong numbers despite the rocky start for race day conditions.

The St. John races, which came after two rounds at Port Angeles, brought some of the strongest competition in the unlimited classes. Dan Morrison and Cara McGuire in the Wicked Racing boat took the unlimited class with a solo run of 58.94 seconds in the last round.

Morrison clocked the win after the new 907 boat entered by Eric and Rhonda Werner of Wrangell, Alaska, tested them all the way to the final rounds

However, the Werner boat, which featured a low profile design, went up on the side bank after the third turn in the final round of racing and came to a stop with Werner pounding on the front of the boat in frustration.

Morrison in the semi round went through the 38-turn course with a 55.347 fastest time, and the Werners advanced to the final with a 56.86 time.

Cory Johnson and Gary McNeill of the Fat Buddy team were bumped in the semi round with a 58.90 time.

In the modified class, Dennis Hughes and Matia Haskey in the Overkill boat nudged Robert Cox and Liz Petring for the first place honors with a 61.006 in the final. The Cox boat booked 6l.45 for second place.

Cox and Petring however took the season championship for the class with 348 total points.

The Fat Buddy Jr. boat of Jesse Miller and Logan Evans, which had dueled with the Cox boat for the first three races of the season, booked a did-not-finish in the semi round to be knocked out of the elims.

The Miller-Evans boat actually cooked the second fastest time in the first round of the elims with a 61.21 in the first round.

Their Fat Buddy Jr. boat was the last member of the Canadian Fat Buddy team in the hunt, and the shutdown of the boat marked the first time this year that the team was knocked out of any of the final rounds.

St. John’s Skylar Evans and Casey Donahoe in the Wavedigger advanced to the semis with a 64.03 in the first round of elimination, but didn’t make it to the finals.

Final round in the 400 class saw Doug Hendrickson and Nichole Heaton-Miller take the win with a 63.07 in the finals. They went up against Paul Garr who clocked 63.42 in the last round with his smooth driving skill.

The Hendrickson boat took the season title with 342 points after the last race.