Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Local boat racing team to run at Aug. 28 event
Dangerous Curves waits on a trailer for a test run.
WEBB'S SLOUGH - A debut is in the making for the next sprint boat races in St. John on Aug. 28.
Dangerous Curves is a team of locals, Mike Thomas and Clint O'Keefe, who formed last year and waited out the pandemic-canceled 2020 season.
Then the night before the opening race at Webb's Slough in June, they put the boat in the water for a test run and it did not go as they hoped.
"Catastrophic failure," said Thomas.
The boat sucked in water, ruined two push-rods, and bent a valve.
No racing for them and their debut was delayed.
Since then, Thomas and O'Keefe took the engine out of the boat and O'Keefe drove to Yakima last week to pick up re-built engine heads.
They hired a man in Post Falls to reassemble the engine. Now the St. John men are putting the small-block Chrysler into the hull and taking it out to the slough again.
"If we can get everything together, hopefully we'll be ready for the August race," Thomas said.
The first step is the test run.
O'Keefe works for the state Department of Transportation in Colfax. He bought the boat hull used from a fellow racer in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, and partnered with Thomas, a former Lamont 2005 graduate of St. John-Endicott High School.
"I've been going down to the races, hanging out, wanting to do it, and I finally found someone to do it with me," Thomas said.
To make the debut at the next race event on Aug. 28, the boat needs to pass inspection. Once it does, navigator Thomas and driver O'Keefe get four runs to qualify. From there, the "eight cut" follows as the field is reduced to eight, then the "four-cut."
The course is set on water snaking among dirt banks. There are enough two-way turns of its 13 that the race route is given to the teams the night before.
"Like streets in a town," said Thomas.
As the navigator, he needs to memorize the path and deliver hand signals to O'Keefe amidst the racing. No instruments are involved.
Thomas waits and wonders what it would be like to be out there.
"I haven't got to be in a race yet," he said.
They keep working to make sure the boat is ready.
"As of now, it looks like (it's) a pretty good shot," said Thomas, who owns St. John Auto Body & Custom. "It'll be a couple of late nights and long weekends."
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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