USSBA Race Report

Close racing bids fond farewell to Richland

Points battles setting up for the US Nationals!

By Jim DeFord

RICHLAND, Washington (August 18, 2007) — If the racing gets any better, any closer, someone’s head will literally explode! Again, in some of the tightest racing we have seen all year, the USSBA racing teams put the Richland track to bed in manner everyone can be proud of.

Stock Class
Lee Rice entered his “white boat” that is for sale in the stock class but never ran in the eliminations. Again, Brenda and Steve Rice took the checkers for the stock class.

Super Modified Class
The USSBA welcomed back Keith Richards after a two season layoff. Keith purchased Curt Elliot’s Madness boat before the St John event three weeks ago. Good to have you back Keith.

In qualifications the top eight were within a second of each other at one point and ended up within a couple of seconds of each other when the cut came to play. The Petersons led the way into the final rounds followed closely by the Ackermans, Cummings, Fisher, Hughes, Atkinson, Gray and Yeager.

Everyone was racing hard and the sun would drop fast placing all the elimination rounds under the lights before an estimated 1,600 cheering fans on warm Washington evening.

Benson Atkinson was the elected entertainer of the evening as he did a beautiful pirouette in the spinout pool that left the crowd and the pits cheering and laughing. Though not captured on still camera, we’re hoping for a great video of that exciting spinout.

In the eliminations Atkinson and Yeager spun out and DNF’d while Hughes was not able to run due to technical issues. All John Gray could muster was a 60-plus-second lap and that placed him on the trailer. In round 2, Cummings gently rolled his boat, either winning or losing a bet with Dan Morrison, and was eliminated.

Ron Fisher was 2-seconds off the pace and took the bottom step on the podium, leaving the Ackerman’s the only boat left to battle against the two-time Super Mod Champion, Trevor Peterson.

It was just a tick over half a second that separated Trevor from Scott as the Petersons extended their lead over the Ackermans to 148 points.

Group A-400
The USSBA welcomed its seventh rookie as Gahr/Gold entered the event with an impressive licensing run and they ended up qualifying in P6 when it was all said and done.

At the top of the ladder in the most contested championship in the USSBA, it was Kyle Patrick and Theresa Gibbs taking the top spot (48.415) over Doug Hendrickson and Hanna Rice (48.444). Don Smith and Jeff Zimmerman also joined the “48” club with a 48.750. Jack n’ Jack Bright qualified 4th at 49.616 in betwixt several DNFs. Bill Root and Tony Velie were in the low 50’s followed by rookie, Gahr, the Toftemarks and Healy/Potier. Comstock and Klinginsmith struggled the entire evening with DNFs and coupled with technical issues would, for the second race in a row, would not qualify.

In the eliminations it was a head-to-head-to-head battle between Hendrickson, Patrick and Smith. Bill Root was just off the mark followed by Bright, Gahr and Toftemark.

But, Doug and Hanna pulled out their Royal Flush and laid down the only 47-second laps in the class in rounds 2 and 3, taking home a very valued first place trophy in the closest racing we have seen all year. Don and Jeff passed by Kyle and Theresa, taking the second place trophy and monies. There are just 202 points between En Fuego’s second consecutive championship and fifth place Bill Root.

Super Boats
Jim Nelson had the Piranha boat’s engine tuned perfectly! It was nice to hear this amazing machine scream like we’re so used to hearing. A little later in the finals it did foul some plugs, but a new set had it screaming like a banshee once again.

And with that finely tuned machine he pulled all 43-second times taking the fast qualify points with little challenge. Rice and Pfeiler battled head-to-head for the #2 spot with Lee pulling Dave by 6-tenths.

In the eliminations Pfeiler DNFd and was out for the night leaving Lee and Tom to decide P1. Tom’s engine was chugging with those fouled plugs on the first run and he was clipped by Lee by 1.5 seconds. A new set of plugs and Tom’s boat was once again in the 43’s with Lee DNF’ing giving Piranha the checkers for Linda to proudly wave on the "Polish" checkered flag lap.
 

USSBA Race Report

Webb's Slough a monumental success!

Over 4,000 fans cheer the boats on!

By Jim DeFord

Photo by Mary DeFord

ST. JOHN, Washington (July 29, 2007) — If you build it, they will come.

And they did. 4000-plus strong.

Lori and Scott Ackerman, of Colfax, Washington became USSBA Sprint Boat racers the second race of the 2006 season. Their enthusiasm for the sport culminated Saturday at Webb's Slough in St. John, Washington before a gate-busting crowd of over 4,000 screaming fans.

Email is coming in and this is just a sample:

Barbara from Spokane says: Thank you so much for the stop in St. John. We drove the short distance from Spokane and had a blast. Everything ran smooth and there was constant entertainment. This was so exciting I can't wait until next year, maybe twice? The people from St. John and the USSBA were very organized and it was a really special day for me and my friends.

Gary from Spokane:

Great show Saturday!!!  That was awesome!! Thank you for coming back to Spokane. I went to the Playfair races and was disappointed when you did not return. I took two people with me that had never been and they fell in love with your sport. the smell of the fuel, the mud being sprayed on us and you crazy people that turn on a dime. Damn we love ya!!

Rex said:

Thanks to the whole town of ST. JOHN. for there (sic) partaking of the ussba sprint boat racing!

Over the last several months the efforts of the Ackermans, Dan Morrison, an excavator from Port Angeles, Washington, and one of Ackerman's competitors in the sport, the entire community of St. John, along with nearby Colfax, Washington and countless others gave birth to this track in time for the July 28th race date.

Webb's Slough, named for track owners Matt and Amanda Webb quickly became the center of this quaint farming town in Eastern Washington. Enough cannot be said about Matt and Amanda who took on the Herculean effort of hosting this event for the USSBA. They have lived and breathed Webb's Slough for many months with hardly a break.

A list of the sponsors that also helped with the task of creating and sponsoring Webb's Slough are: Mark Webb Diamond Jewelers, Morrison Excavating, St. John Grange Supply, Ackerman Heating and Air Conditioning, Kokanee Glacier Beer, KKZX 96.9 Classic Rock Station, X Ray, Coors Light, Taco Time & Arbys of Colfax.

Many, many thanks to the volunteers of St. John and Colfax who offered their own time to help with the preparation and cleanup of the facility, in addition to track security and as on-track safety crew members under the direction of USSBA Head Safety Leader, Chris Bowman.

Everyone on the Slough Crew did a magnificent job. I spoke with Chris Bowman after the race and he was ecstatic with the crew he had on Saturday. "It was awesome to have such a great crew," he said with a huge smile. As several boats spun out onto the islands there was a Slough Crew member there nearly before the boat came to a rest. Good job all!

Additional thanks to Derrick McLintock, of Inland Helicopters, who operated the helicopter that facilitated the aerial shots that the USSBA photographers and videographer were able to shoot. KXLY-TV and the Spokesman-Review were also on the grounds to report on this event. Rosalia Ambulance provided emergency EMT availability should that have been needed.

The track setting is an amphitheater style layout nestled among the amber waves of grain that this area is known for, and the track design is a long, narrow, tight track that would offer the drivers and navigators some interesting new challenges that contrast nicely with the two others tracks these boats also race on in Marsing, Idaho and Richland, Washington.

The town of St. John is a sweet, little, one-main-street spot-in-the road-amongst thousands of acres of wheat fields. A town where everyone mows their lawns on Thursdays so the weekends are free of the din of mowers, edgers and weed-eaters. A quiet, rural community where on this past Thursday the population began to quickly grow as the teams and fans started to arrive. By Saturday afternoon the population peaked at nearly 5,000!

This community so embraced this event that many of the farmers suspended their harvest—and they are now right, smack-dab in the middle of their harvest time—so that everyone had a chance to see the races. In the field across from the track where combine and truck operators were working, they gathered at lunch time to take a break and observe the boats from the hilltop.

The USSBA came to Webb's Slough with 25 boats. During the qualification rounds there were only 4 boats that did not have a DNF (Did Not Finish) of one sort or another. The majority of those DNFs (29 total) were trips onto on of the islands.

The USSBA awards qualifying points to the top 16 positions in 4-point incrementals in each class starting at 64 points for first, 60 for second, etc.

In the stock class with only one boat entered Steve & Brenda Rice claimed 64 points.

In the hotly contested super modified class, the top three were the Petersons, the Ackermans, and the team of Gray/Bailey.

In the Group-A 400 class it was Doug Hendrickson & Hanna Rice, followed by Patrick/Gibb and the Father-Son team of the Brights.

For the Super Boat class Nelson/Meyers led the group by over five seconds followed by Pfeiler/Wright, Rice/Vestal and Hartwig/Fowler.

The crowd cheered and applauded with vigor as these drivers and navigators pushed themselves and their equipment right to the very edge as they wound their V-8 powered, 13-foot boats through this tight, little track. Many times they went over the edge and zipped up onto the shores spewing mud and water along the way.

The spinout pool is very small and as the boats came into the pool several spun out backwards shooting hundreds of gallons of mud onto the safety crew. Both the crowd and the crew members enjoyed themselves, covered head to toe in mud.

In the USSBA the eliminations start with the 8 fastest boats from the qualification rounds. There were only 4 DNFs in the eliminations. The following boats made the final elimination rounds:

Please click on any team name for a photo of their boat

Stock Class

#13 Steve and Brenda Rice

Super Modified Class

#9 Trevor and Loren Peterson

#17 Scott Ackerman and Lori Ackerman

#611 John Gray and Tom Bailey

#69 Dennis and Bill Hughes

#223 Benson Atkinson and Travis Teichert

#116 Ron Fisher and Paul Staley

#99 Tim Cummings and Mike Fuller

#3 Longfellow/Longfellow

Group-A 400

#01 Doug Hendrickson and Hanna Rice

#151 Kyle Patrick and Theresa Gibb

#169 Jack Sr. and Jack Jr. Bright

#70 Bill Root and Daryl Healy

#46 Frank and Kelly Toftemark

#34 Don Smith and Jeff Zimmerman

#68 Tyler Comstock and Savannah Klinginsmith

Super Boats

#64 Tom Nelson and Linda Meyers

#5 Dave Pfeiler and Marvin Wright

#711 Lee Rice and Amanda Vestal

#177 Darrin Hartwig and Steve Fowler

Stock Class

To make a long story short, Steve and Brenda Rice won their class. Even after DNF'ing round #3 they are still awarded the #1 position, the first place trophy and the monies that go along with it.

Super Modified

Track builder Dan Morrison ran into some mechanical issues and was not able to make it into the finals. He finished 10th. Yeager, Olson and Castillo also did not qualify for the finals.

In round 1, Colfax favorite Scott and Lori Ackerman were eliminated and finished 7th as were Cummings/Fuller taking 8th place, Hughes/Hughes in 6th, Longfellow/Longfellow in 5th.

In round 2 Benson Atkinson ran into some handling problems and his time dropped off over 4 seconds from his round 1 time relegating him to a 4th place finish.

John Gray, who offered the fans lap after lap of wild "cowboy-style" style racing took the bottom step of the podium as the crowd yelled their approval.

So then it was the Ron Fisher up against Trevor Peterson. A tough row to hoe for any driver as the Petersons are one of the most consistent teams in the USSBA. In fact, their round 1 and 2 times were only one-thousandth difference!

Ron was up first for the final round and was pushing it hard right off the start line. After a few turns he spun out part way on an island and could not recover. This second place run adds yet another trophy to Ron's amazing season.

The Petersen's then came out, and holding nothing back, ran their fastest lap of the elimination round. Awesome racing!

Group A-400

Second fastest qualifier Kyle Patrick and Theresa Gibb did not start in the elimination rounds due to a wedding that Kyle was the best man in. After qualifying Kyle and Theresa hopped on a chartered plane and flew back to Oregon for the wedding. That placed them 8th.

In what was the most bizarre run of the day, Doug Hendrickson came off the start line and 50 feet into the run waved off. But, then never returned to the finish line. Doug then continued on the course but at a horribly slow pace with the engine belching, burping and puffing.

As he continued on course the wave-off was fruitless as he weaved the boat back and forth. Later, Doug commented, "I thought a float had stuck and was trying to break it free."

Doug finally knew it was over and as they headed back to the spin-out pool, Hanna stood up, reached into the engine compartment and removed the air-cleaner cover!

As they headed back to the trailer, the team was already aware of what was wrong. They stood dejected as the team's perfect season was stained permanently with an uncharacteristic DNF.

Round two placed Toftemark on the trailer just two-tenths off Bill Root's time, who placed on the podium in 3rd.

And then it was ex-Farmer, Jack Bright vs. local-favorite, wheat farmer and St. John resident, Don Smith. The side bet was if Don could beat Jack, Jack would drive one of Don's combines for week.

No one knows the "other side" of that bet...

It was a 1.5 second split that sent Jack Bright bringing home the big trophy and standing on the big step. Don Smith was a happy camper...errr, farmer/racer as he and Jeff brought home the boat in one piece along with some shiny metal to place on the trophy wall and the satisfaction of knowing that St. John is a little bit of a better place because of it all.

It cannot get better than this...Or could it?

Spin and Win

Danny Sullivan has nothing on Jack and Jack Bright, Sr. and Jr. respectively. Back in 1986, Danny Sullivan did a 360° spin in the Indy 500, recovered and went on to win the race.

And then comes Jack Bright.

In round three of the qualifiers, the Brights took quite a ride through turns 10-11, nearly flew completely over the island while doing a 360° flip. They submarined into the channel closest to the beer garden, spewing muddy waters upon a standing, cheering, crowd of thousands of fans.

Jack and Jack took home the biggest shiny trophy and a sweet pile of prize money, courtesy of the Webb's Slough prize money sponsors, and a nice little gain in the points as we march towards the end of the 2006 season.

Super Boats

This (basically) unlimited class will make your head spin, give you goose-bumps and really make you appreciate the smell of methonal in the morning.

Four Super Boats ran in this class with two running methonal and two running aviation fuel.

Tom Nelson and Linda Meyers have the ultimate in sprint boat racing. A Mackcraft hull. A custom built and tuned engine by Jim Nelson. All that coupled with the right driver, navigator and a 100% dedicated team, you have a boat that literally screams through a super-tight course where a layman would wonder if he could get his rowboat through that little channel.

0-90 in 2.2 seconds. 3-7 g's in the corners. These are the Super Boats.

Lee Rice has the other methonal burning machine but was off the pace a bit due to the fact that his super-charger is in the shop for repair. Lee and Amanda placed a very respectable 4th and put on a great show for the fans.

Darrin Hartwig took third place with a daring move, borrowing an engine from Hanna Rice's brother's river boat and the desire to just race. Darrin has been at nearly all the events, waiting for his methonal engine to be repaired, but offering his services in staging the boats. Thanks Darrin!

Dave Pfeiler, never one to let up on the throttle, performed very well all day long and his awesome red and silver boat, sent waves of muddy waters upon the cheering fans. Congratulations on your second place win and holding strong to the points lead in Super Boats!

In Conclusion

Webb's Slough became Lori and Scott Ackerman, Dan Morrison, St. John, Amanda and Matt Webb's virtual Field of Dreams.

They came. They saw. They cheered. Four thousand-plus. The racers came in full-throttle and foot to the floor. The fans cheered more.

Next Race

The next US Sprint Boat race will be a night-time, under-the-lights race at Richland, Washington! Just a two hour drive from St. John/Colfax, Richland is a wider, more high-speed track than Webb's Slough. If you loved Webb's Slough, Richland at night is the ultimate!

Come see the USSBA Sprint Boats at Richland, Washington, at Horn Rapids ORV Park. Links and more at the top of this page.

See you at Richland under the lights!!!

USSBA Race Report

Amazing Race - Night Thunder strikes again!

The points battle tightens

By Jim DeFord

RICHLAND, Washington (June 30, 2007) — With one night race under their belts the teams were much more relaxed for race #3 of 7 at Richland, Washington. The weather gods greeted us once again with a mildly warm day and the night would stay much warmer than our first night event.

Walking through the pits before the qualifications began one could observe a plethora of different styled and colored goggles and glasses to help improve the driver/navigator's night vision and reduce glare.

Again, a very large crowd greeted the teams as they began the third and fourth rounds of qualifying.

Steve and Brenda Rice returned for their first race of the year. The lone boat in the stock class—obviously earning 64 qualify points.

The top eight for the Super Modified class were the Petersons at 51.871, Ackermans at 52.076, Morrison/McLure at 55.675, Gray/Bailey running a 55.853, Fisher/Staley at 56.417, Hughes/Hughes at 56.623, Cummings/Fuller at 57.238 and Atkinson/Teichert at 58.057.

In the final round Atkinson/Teichert had a harrowing ride at the top sweeper. The photos show the boat riding to the top of the water and skipping across the surface like a rock. They pulled a 180 on their nose and landed wet-side down with no injuries and surprisingly, no boat damage.

The Ackerman's missed a turn 1/3 way through the first round and parked their boat for the night. Cummings/Fuller and Hughes/Hughes were also eliminated.

John Gray had been fighting handling problems throughout the night and trailered his boat after round two. Ron Fisher claimed the third rung of the podium for the second time and was awarded very well with this finish and is a mere two points behind the Ackerman's who hold onto their #2 position in the points battle.

Rookie Dan Morrison took home the second place trophy and the Petersons ran consistent and hard all night, a near-normal occurrence for them and claimed the top spot for the second time this season. The Peterson's are in first over the Ackerman's by 96 points.

In Class A-400 Hendrickson/Rice have the only perfect score out all four classes winning every point possible so far in qualifications and eliminations and they continued that snowball roll through tonight's race at Richland with very consistent times.

Right on Doug's heals were Bright/McAdow just a half-second behind Hendrickson and Hannah Rice. Third place qualification points were awarded to Kyle Patrick and Theresa (with an "H") Gibb, just .02 seconds behind Jack Bright.

Smith/Zimmerman were a second out of Patrick's time with Bill Root another second back and then Comstock/Klinginsmith claiming 7th, but with mechanical issues would not appear in the eliminations.

Don Smith was not able to run in the eliminations rounds also due to mechanical issues. Jack Bright, who had run strong all night long missed a turn and put away his boat for the night.

Frank and Kelly Toftemark made into the second round but then DNF'd when missing a turn. Root/Healy took home the third place trophy.

Patrick/Gibb pushed it real hard and came within .9 of a second on the last round as Hendrickson had a 49-second run in the first round, but could not better that time, but still running fast enough to claim the top prize.

In the SuperBoat class Nelson/Meyer, battling severe overheating problems still managed to pulled off the fastest lap of the day of any class at 46.715. With the engine running so hot, the only way to keep running was to pour more cool-running methonal at the engine. Tom told me after the race they were using 6.5 gallons of fuel per run just to keep the engine temperatures down.

Unfortunately, they were not able to get the engine running in the eliminations and ended the night in third place.

Dave Pfeiler and Marvin Wright claimed 60 qualification points with Lee Rice and Amanda Vestal snagging 56 points.

In the eliminations Lee could not match Dave's speeds and claimed the #2 spot with Dave taking hope the larger trophy this night.

Dave leads Lee by a mere 34 points as we head to Marsing on July 14th for round #4 of the United States Sprint Boat Association's 2007 racing season.

See you all there!

USSBA Race Report

Record crowd greets first night race!

Teams reciprocate with extremely competitive racing

By Jim DeFord

RICHLAND, Washington (June 16, 2007) — You could cut the anticipation with knife. Everyone was just a little nervous. The Friday Night test run went off without a hitch, but as we all know, things can change drastically under race conditions.

Everyone was hoping for a good show and a good crowd to see it all! This race-night could become the test-bed that could possibly form the future of the USSBA. It doesn’t get better than good ol’ Saturday Night racing! Anyone remember NASCAR?

And this night would prove a huge success for Tri-City Watersports and the USSBA as one of the largest crowds ever to see a Sprint Boat event at Richland flowed through the gates on this Father’s Day Eve.

A very excited, record crowd showed Saturday evening to watch the teams race the most competitive race I have ever seen from dusk into night. As the lights came on the track and the boats took on a whole new look. The colors were brighter and the water sprays more prominent and colorful. Racing doesn’t get any better than this.

Several “sleeper” race teams came out of the virtual woodwork to place a wake-up call to past year’s champions to stand on their respective podiums.

Super-Modified
The Peterson brothers again set the benchmark of this class right out of the box and captured 64 qualification points with a 45.946, followed by the sophomore, husband wife team of Scott and Lori Ackerman at 46.480.

Gray/Bailey was at 50.544, Fisher/Staley in fourth at 50.940. The Son/Father team of Hughes/Hughes ripped off a 51.550 lap for the #5 spot, the Yeager team was 6th with a 53.746 followed by the two rookie teams of Cummings/Fuller at 55.451 and Morrison/McGuire at 55.660 rounding out the top eight.

In the elimination rounds it was the Petersons and the Ackermans going back and forth to the final round. The Petersons were up first and ran a 46.340, just a tick off their fastest lap in round one and then the Ackermans stepped up and laid out a 46.298 taking the Super-Modified trophy for the night.

Fisher and Staley finished third. Ron Fisher has unarguably the oldest equipment in the series and said in an interview after the race that he had decided that we was going to commit to the series and run hard in 2007. The results showed with this surprise podium finish.

The #69 boat of Hughes/Hughes, racing just their second official race finished fourth. Rookie driver Dan Morrison finished fifth on his maiden outing followed by Yeager and Tim Cummings, also a rookie this year. John Gray was unable to run because of electrical issues

Group A-400
2007 Champions, Doug Hendrickson and Hannah Rice claimed the fastest lap in Qualifications. Jack Bright claimed 60 points for the #2 spot followed by Bill Root of Tsunami Racing who evidently got a well deserved shot in the arm with third fastest. Smith and Zimmerman had two visits to the beach but still pulled off fast laps to claim 52 Qualification points. Patrick/Gibb struggled with handing issues and was relegated to the fifth position, nearly 5 seconds off Hendrickson’s fast lap. Frank and Kelly Toftemark claimed the 6th spot with the brother/sister team of Comstock/Klinginsmith taking the final spot.

In round one of the eliminations it seemed that Kyle Patrick had solved his handling problems as he was just a half-second off Hendrickson’s pace. Jack Bright, looking for a good finish tonight had a second rocker arm come loose for the night and was not able to continue. Both Don Smith and Bill Root were right behind Patrick. Comstock did not start and the Toftemark’s had horrible handling issues and trailered their boat for the night.

In the second round Doug Hendrickson nearly DNF’d by almost taking a wrong turn coming down to the finish line. Don Smith took advantage of that and was a mere 4-tenths off Doug’s speed. Both Patrick and Root were eliminated.

In the final round it was Hannah Rice’s violently waving hand on that last turn that prevented any close calls for the En Fuego Team as they took the checkers with a 45.387. Don Smith and Jeff Zimmerman also improved their time but it was just not quite enough to take Doug off the top and they claimed second place.

Super Boats
Tom Nelson and Linda Ensminger made their first appearance of the year and immediately snagged 64 qualification points with an absolutely phenomenal lap of 41.483. Dave Pfeiler and Marvin Wright were second fastest followed by Lee Rice and Amanda Vestal were third.

In the eliminations both Lee Rice and Dave Pfeiler DNF’d leaving Tom Nelson to run alone in the second round of eliminations.

However, Tom Nelson never runs slow and pulled off the fastest lap of the race at 41.093! The speed of the Piranha boat is second to none and at night it looks even faster, if that’s possible.

Race #3 will also be at the Richland track. Gates open at 6pm with final qualifying and racing beginning at 7pm. Do not miss this race!!!
 

USSBA Race Report

Marsing greets season opening race with heat & excitement

Low water makes for interesting racing

By Jim DeFord

MARSING, Idaho (June 2, 2007) — The sun baked Treasure Valley as Marsing was set to open the United States Sprint Boat Association's 2007 season. The teams had spent the off-season thrashing on their hulls, paint schemes, power plants and pumps to be ready for what is looking to be one of the most exciting racing seasons in the history of the sport here in the United States. A few did not make the deadline and will make their first appearances of the year at Richland, but 19 boats showed up to start off.

The water was running a little low, but after the teams walked the track they were ready to rock and roll! The low water made this "driver's track" even more so and by the end of the day there were 25 DNF's ranging from trips to the beach to mechanical issues. The majority were due to beached boats. Fortunately, there were no injuries, just a few minor scuffs and bruised egos.

Several teams were working out the typical first-race bugs with Scott and Lori Ackerman having fuel pressure problems. Lee Rice unfortunately had something break on his engine in the eliminations, but I hear he'll be ready for the Richland night race on June 16th.

The 2007 season is also the first year the USSBA has awarded qualification points and for this race the Peterson brothers were fastest boat in the Super Modified Class. Hendrickson and Rice scored 64 qualification points in the Group A-400 class and Lee Rice and Amanda Vestal took the top points in the Super Boats.

Super Modified

In the qualifications it was the Petersons and Gray/Bailey running head to head, but John Gray DNF'd in the first elimination round and trailered his boat.

As always, the Petersons were running even hotter than the 97-degree sun that cooked the Idaho track, 50 miles southwest of Boise. The closest anyone could get was the Yeagers, and were still over 4 seconds off the pace until Trevor and Loren ripped off a 56.037 which was their fastest lap of the day. The Yeagers DNF'd.

The Ackermans battled fuel pressure issues all day and would never really offer a challenge. A very disappointing day for the second year team. Looks for them to be all over the #1 spot in this class once they get their boat running 100%.

Ron Fisher was back, looking to run a full season and ran very respectably and finished fourth. Doug Olsen ran fifth. The rookie Son/Father team of Hughes & Hughes finished 6th followed by Atkinson/Teichert and Gray/Bailey.

Group A-400

The 2007 season started off like the 2006 season ended. With everyone chasing Doug Hendrickson and Hanna Rice. They ran the fastest laps all day long and waved the checkered flag at the end of the day. Very impressive, though a slight bobble in Round Two nearly stuck En Fuego on the beach!

Kyle Patrick & Theresa Gibb were the first of that group. Kyle is running a new hull this year and is running very smooth. Look for Kyle to win a race or two this season and really push the battle for the trophy even tighter than 2006. Kyle and Theresa will never be satisfied with the second place trophy they took home today.

And you can never forget about Jack Bright and his new navigator, Darrel McAdow. Jack ran fast, consistent laps all day long. Never once did this team even look like they were going to hit the rocks as they finished third in today's battle.

Don Smith and Jeff Zimmerman ran a few respectable laps in qualifications, but then had a couple of DNFs and then also DNF'd in round one of the eliminations. This is a very fast boat and once Don and Jeff work out the kinks, you'll definitely see them on the podium.

The brother-sister rookie team of Tyler Comstock and Savannah Klinginsmith finished 5th for the day followed by Bill Root and Toni Velie who had mechanical issue and did not start in the eliminations.

Super Boats

Tom Nelson and Darrin Hartwig were at the race. Boatless. The both are finishing engine repairs. Tom will be ready for Richland and Darrin has his fingers crossed.

Dave Pfeiler and Marvin Wright, who run the Marsing track moved up a class this year and are Super Boat rookies. The ran head to head against the only other Super Boat running today by longtime sprint boat racer, Lee Rice and his navigator Amanda Vestal.

Lee and Amanda took the qualification points just ahead of Dave and Marvin and it was looking to be an exciting elimination round, but Lee went out with mechanical issues leaving Dave and Marvin holding the first place trophy in their first Super Boat try.

The results and standings are now online. Mary and I are in the process of going through photos and should have those online in the next day or two and I know I am really looking forward to seeing Paul White's videos using a brand new camera mounting system that should reveal some of the most exciting sprint boat video ever recorded!