ALBANY, Oregon (September 7, 2008) — A 31-turn rotation was selected on what is the largest course on the circuit for the 2008 United States Sprint Boat Racing Series. The track was fast, mean and the corners in the infield were super-tight. Many drivers had difficulties with the rotation which results in some uncharacteristic DNFs.

Everyone was racing very hard as ever and the times showed it. Boats were clipping corners and catching air. The throng of 2,750 fans showed their approval as they oooh'd and aaah'd the drivers at every corner. With Bill Lundun announcing the event, he kept the fans informed every step of the way as the teams flew around the track to not only stake their final claim in the 2008 points chase, but also battle for the 2008 National Finals trophy.

Teams from British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and Idaho all came to race their hearts out and they put on one heck of a show as the stands stayed packed right up until the very end.

Nearby Interstate 5 was packed with cars headed down to Eugene for a football game and a traffic jam ensued as the drivers rubber-necked to see what was going on. At least two truckers saw the action and the signs, called their wives to say they would be delayed a day, and joined the fun to see their first USSBA sprint boat race.

I talked with one fan who was at his first race and he was just all over himself to buy a racing boat. Later I heard a check was written on the spot for one of the boats for sale so it looks like we'll have at least two new rookies for the 2009 season.

The atmosphere at track was electric. The fans were all smiles and into the race like I have not seen in the six years I have been involved in the sport. The racing teams were focused and everyone was in a great mood for a great day of racing.

Super-Modified Class

Since the first race at Marsing, it has all been about Dan Morrison, Cara McGuire and the #10 K&N Wicked Racing team. This day would prove no different. However, there were a few harrowing moments as Dan did have two DNFs in a row in the turn 5-14 and then 5-6 corners that bit many of the drivers.

Gayne Bafus was subbing for Lori Ackerman who was recovering from a knee injury sustained at Webb's Slough. They ran well, but could manage no better than fourth. The Ackerman boat finished dropped to fourth in the 2008 standings. There were rumblings through the paddock of the start of a Wounded-Knee racing team...Lookout for this team in 2009. They really have their eye(s) focused on the top step.

Three-time and defending champions, Trevor and Loren Peterson are still tuning up their new hull, engine and state-of-the-art Scott pump. They ran hard and put on an awesome show as they cowboy'd through the inner turns giving the crowd a thrill. The Petersons finished third and also dropped to third in the final standings. Not bad claiming the third step on the podium playing with setups and learning a complete new setup all year. Good work.

A contender for the most improved driver of the year is Tim Cummings. Along with navigator Mike Fuller, Tim pulled out all the stops and was with 4-tenths of Morrison in the final cut. This team has really stepped up after being a little unpredictable in their 2007 rookie season. They had a wild wreck at Webb's Slough in June, but with some duct tape and a big swallow of pride they finished fifth. The Jeepers Creepers team climbed to claim the #2 spot on the podium for the 2008 season with their best race of their careers on Saturday. Bring lots of photo-cards for the fans in 2009 you guys as I heard a bunch of your new fans cheering you on!

Fifth was Johnson/McNeal of Vancouver BC who had a couple of offs during the day. The track saluted our new friends to the north by displaying the Canadian colors and their national anthem. Looking forward to seeing your team in 2009.

One of the local faves Hampl/Edwards was sixth, also local Longfellow/Bentley seventh, Seattle-area Fisher-Staley in eight after having an interesting sideways dip in the water. Ron said the water, "Tasted okay." Gray/Bailey was ninth, Olson/Gilder tenth, thanks for coming over from Idaho. The Yeager's from Castle Rock were eleventh and son-mother team from Sequim, Brown/Cummings was 12th.

Great show everyone. Awesome racing. See you in 2009! Congratulations to the #10 K&N Wicked Racing Dan Morrison and Cara McGuire on both the National and 2008 season championship! It's been amazing just watching you both fly around every track.

Group A-400

The past three years this has been the tightest class. Jack and Jack Bright in Rock Chucker came to the Field of Dreams just eight points off Kyle Patrick and Theresa Gibb in It's All About Me and a third consecutive win at Webb's Slough.

The Bright's have been nursing their engine the entire season. They had a catastrophic failure the last race at Albany and sadly, this race shoved a piston bearing through the side of the oil pan on just their second qualifying round. Paul Gahr and Mark Gold also had a mechanical failure on their fourth qualifying round. Paul Gahr claimed the 2008 Rookie of the Year honors with an incredible first season.

Defending champion in the #01 K&N Wicked Racing boat, Doug Hendrickson and Hannah Macke started out the season weak. Without an engine. They borrowed Bright's boat to claim some points, but were never able to stay ahead of Jack and Kyle the whole season. They finished third in the race and and championship. Disappointing for the two-time champions, but their team left ready to focus on 2009 and bring the A-400 championship trophy back to Wicked Racing.

Todd Gary and Randy Myra struggled with handing issues all day and Gahr-Gold capped their engine problems that started at St. John with a mechanical failure in Q4.

It's All About Me. This team has pushed and pulled and tuned and re-tuned and adjusted this and that, bought a new boat/motor in 2007 and continued to drive and push hard the last three years to beat the defending champion, Doug Hendrickson for the ultimate racing trophy: The Group A-400 2008 Championship, with the National Finals championship as the cherry on a great racing season. They battled head-to-head with the Bright's and Wicked Racing to finally claim this top spot. It's great to watch a team like this work very hard and see it come to fruition. Congratulations!

SuperBoats

The Super Boat class is in a rebuilding phase. A few teams have decided to attempt their own series and that left Dave Pfeiler to claim the championship without contest. There are more Super Boats to be racing in 2009, so look for announcements coming soon. Congratulations Dave and Amanda. Thanks for making the drive from Idaho to put on a show for the fans. See you in 2009.

As we close another racing season, the USSBA Board of Directors is already hard at work promoting the professional series it sanctions to take it up several more levels for 2009. The interest generated the past two races has been phenomenal! Talk of a world series event taking place is a real possibility. Konrad Scott and Dutch Rooy visited on two back-to-back occasions with nothing but good things to say about our sport. Several people who have connections, and have been watching, mentioned how much more professional the series is being run now as to as little as three years ago. So, teams, get ready for 2009! It will be something you will not want to miss.

ALBANY, Oregon (September 1, 2008) — Once again the weather gods shine down on the United States Sprint Boat Association Racing Series as the teams head into Albany, Oregon the Field of Dreams racing facility. It's reported to be once again in the low to mid 80's on Saturday.

It's time for the National Finals where all the points are doubled! The standings sheet has also been updated to show all the teams that have a mathematical chance in darker text.

In the SuperBoat class it's reported that Rice and Root will again be no shows handing the SuperBoat championship trophy and all associated championship monies to Dave Pfeiler. Many thanks to Dave for being the professional racer and taking it all the way and racing hard. You've done a great service to professional sprint boat racing, Dave.

Dan Morrison and Cara McGuire in Team Wicked's K&N sponsored boat lead the Super-Modified class into the National Finals with the Petersons 40 points out and the Ackermans 106 points back.

Lori Ackerman continues to nurse a torn ACL from their horrific crash at St. John, so we're not sure if she will be able to navigate on Saturday. The boat sustained serious damage and Scott was determined to get this boat back in the water. We'll check with Scott later this week to see what their plans are.

In the meantime, Tim Cummings is 128 points out and Doug Olson rounds out the top 5 at 254 points behind the leader.

Kyle Patrick and Theresa Gibb enter the National Finals just 8 points ahead of Jack Bright Sr & Jr. This will be an amazing battle to watch on Saturday as these teams push for every single point in qualifying and into the elimination rounds.

Waiting on the wings, but definitely not sitting on their laurels and racing as hard as ever will be Doug Hendrickson and Hanna Macke. Doug is rumored to have a few aces up his sleeve and there will be raised eyebrows as the #01 K&N Wicked Racing boat takes to the track Saturday morning. You do NOT want to miss this one!!!

Paul Gahr and Mark Gold had a tough race at Webb's Slough with their engine acting up. Look for that issue to be resolved and this boat smokin' hot!

See this links at the top right hand corner of this page for information for this Saturday's race.

See you there!!!

WEBB'S SLOUGH (St. John), Washington (August 25, 2008) — Right from the start something was different this weekend. Call it an “aura” or just something-in-the-air, but something was different. Everyone was smiles and hugs all around and we all knew it was going to be a special weekend of racing as the United States Sprint Boat Association once again brought its show to the beautiful wheat-laden hills of St. John, Washington.

As soon as you drove onto the grounds of Webb’s Slough it was immediately obvious that Matt and Amanda Webb, and all the masses of local volunteers, had been very busy since June. The track and grounds were meticulously groomed and green.

Konrad Scott, CEO of Scott Design, visiting from New Zealand, also commented on the beautiful facility that the Webb’s had assembled. “You have us (New Zealand) beat hands down,” Konrad was noted to have said. Konrad was also extremely impressed with the organization not only of the facility but how the track staff and USSBA officials and staff worked together like a finely tuned clock to present a professional racing series to the thousands of fans that lined the incredible seven-tiered hill, packed the stands and sipped beverages in the beer garden.

Friday Night’s Show and Shine was a great event with all the teams sharing stories and having a great time. The fans that came to see the boats played off the jovial atmosphere and joined in the fun. Team t-shirts and hats were literally flying off the shelves!

Driver, Cory Johnson and Navigator, Gary McNeal, from Vancouver, BC, were the newest members of the USSBA racing organization. Cory bought the #314 boat off the USSBA website sight unseen with no plans whatsoever to race it. “I was going to use it to run up and down the rivers at home (British Columbia), but the boat was just too powerful, so we decided to race it and here we are.”

Cory and Gary had only viewed the videos on the USSBA website/YouTube, had never been to a race and had never even seen a track.

Once the boat passed tech the USSBA officials cleared the way for Cory and Gary to run their licensing run that evening. So we all packed up and headed to the track.

As Cory and Gary walked the track, Cory commented to me as they walked by, “This is the first time we have even seen a track.” I quipped, “We could make it a bit less wide if you’d like.” “Yeah right…”

Their first mistake was not putting the drain plug in the boat. Okay. Get that rookie mistake stuff out of the way and move on. By the way, Cory is a tugboat driver and Gary works construction. And yes, there were a few under-the-breath snickers regarding a tugboat driver taking on a 600HP sprint boat.

With the drain plug firmly installed Cory and Gary headed out onto the track for a few warm-up circles and then he shut us all up about the abilities of a tugboat driver/construction worker combination and we all gave them a standing ovation in one of the most impressive licensing runs ever.

By the time they were done, the volunteer safety team and the USSBA officials were all smiles and raised eyebrows as Cory and Gary showed us all they would be a force to be reckoned with in the USSBA Racing Series. More on that later…

Jack Bright Sr. and Jr. returned to Webb’s Slough as the only class A-400 driver to win a race on this track. The first race they spun-and-won. The second race they just plain won without the off-track, on-island antics, but there was still something missing for the Rock Chucker team: Fast lap of the weekend.

“I’m tired of getting beat by super-mod boats for the fast lap. We’re going out to claim the entire weekend as the fastest boat at Webb’s Slough.”

That was a pretty tall order with Dan Morrison and Cara McGuire in the ultra-quick, #10 K&N sponsored Wicked Racing boat. Dan and Cara have been consistently the fastest boat on the track since Marsing. And they have not lost a race in the Super-Mod class since Marsing.

The Bright’s also had to deal with Kyle Patrick and Theresa Gibb in the It’s All About Me machine. The team thrashed over the two weeks installing new headers and other I-could-tell-you-but-I’d-have-kill-you goodies that added an alleged 60hp to bump Jack from the top step of the podium.

In addition, Doug Hendrickson and Hanna Macke (formerly Rice) were also super-focused on stepping to the top rung of the A-400 ladder. The #01 K&N sponsored Wicked Racing team had also been thrashing the once-orange—now Wicked Racing green—boat the past two weeks to kick things up a notch as Hendrickson and Macke attempt to defend their 2006/2007 A-400 back-to-back championships.

A handful of points back from Hendrickson are Paul Gahr and Mark Gold in the #02 Live Wire. If the #01 Wicked Racing team is not careful, Live Wire could scoot right on past them for the third step in the 2008 USSBA A-400 championship racing series.

The battle for the Super-Mod championship was hot and heavy coming into Webb’s Slough. Morrison has two consecutive wins after a disastrous premiere race at Marsing, and that has kept them ahead of the ever-persistent, defending multiple champion, Peterson brothers. The Ackerman’s in the Two Pump Chump machine started strong with a win at Marsing, but have been following Morrison and Peterson since.

Also in Super-Mod is the #99 Jeepers Creepers boat of Tim Cummings and Mike Fuller, just a couple of points behind the Ackermans. Doug Olson and Andy Gilder in the #710 Dream Catcher boat are also looking to pop onto at least the third step of the 2008 USSBA Super Modified championship racing series.

Dave Pfeiler’s weekend looked to be a breeze as Rice and Root were no-shows for the weekend, but Dave never rests on his laurels…Let’s go racing!

Super Modified Series – Qualifying
The #10 K&N Wicked Racing machine of Morrison/McGuire came off the trailer smokin’ hot setting the bar with the fastest qualifying lap of the day in all three classes at 39.325. The Peterson’s and Ackerman’s followed second and third respectively neck-and-neck at just under 41 (seconds).

Cummings/Fuller, literally operating on a mere couple of hours sleep after thrashing to install Tim’s son’s brand-new engine, were a tick over 41 and in fourth. Dillan and his navigator/Mom struggled with engine tuning and would not qualify, but the engine shows great promise.

In qualifying round #3 John Gray and Tom Bailey clipped a corner and flipped the #611 Pat’s Diamond boat. Both were okay, but in Q5 John discovered the boat was damaged enough not to turn properly and was placed on the trailer.

Longfellow/Sinclair qualified fifth, Olson/Gilder sixth, Hampl/Edwards seventh and Canadian rookie sensation Johnson/McNeal eighth.

A-400 Series – Qualifying
Jack “Webb Master” Bright and son set the bar high in the A-400 class with a 39.382. Kyle Patrick and Theresa Gibb were a tick off at 39.662 with the #01 K&N Wicked Racing boat of Doug Hendrickson and Hanna y less than a tenth off at 39.739. Paul Gahr and Mark Gold, were at 43-plus and fourth. Todd Gary and Randy Myra ventured into the A-400 class from Super-Mod and popped a 50.252.

Rock Lake faves Don Smith and Jeff Zimmerman were not even supposed to race this weekend, but American Slipstream showed up with an almost-ready to race boat Friday night. Don, Jeff and the American Slipstream technicians thrashed into the evening installing a new seat for Don so they could race-test the boat that had not yet even seen water.

Due to engine difficulties the boat never made a decent qualifying lap, but Don and Jeff persisted into the finals.

SuperBoats – Qualifying
Dave Pfeiler and navigator Amanda Vestal pulled consistently faster laps throughout the qualifying sessions. Dave’s awesome looking boat and aggressive driving style is always a crowd pleaser as thousands cheered him on. Much is in store for this class in 2009. Yup, I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you...

Super Modified – Eliminations
The MackCraft hull and the #10 K&N Wicked Racing Team have melded like Mom’s apple pie and ice cream. Near perfection.

As Trevor and Loren Peterson learn their new hull, new motor and latest generation Scott Pump it’s evident that things are gettin’-better-all-the-time. They finished within a tenth of Dan and Cara’s winning time and could possibly clip them at the National Finals in Albany on September 6th.

The Ackerman’s crashed very hard at the loop at the top of the track. Lori sustained a compressed knee injury and would be seeking medical attention this week. More on Lori’s condition as it is available. She was in very good spirits and signing autographs from a line of fans at the paddock after the race.

Lori said that her injury came when they first hit the upper loop island, causing her feet to come off the rest. When they hit the shore, very hard, on the other side, her knee compressed.

The boat sustained extreme damage to the driver’s side and the bottom. The transom was also tweaked and there was some minor damage to the navigator’s side. But, as always, the Ackerman’s we’re all smiles saying: See you at Albany!

Tim Cummings finished third after his Red Bull night of thrashing and dashing from Sequim to St. John in the wee-hours. Konrad Scott also spent some time with Tim and his crew over the weekend.

Fourth was Olson/Gilder who have shown amazing aggression this year. Doug’s driving, along with Andy’s very animated navigating technique have caught the eye of many in the Super-Mod class. Watch out at the National Finals and be aware of this team in 2009.

Longfellow/Sinclair finished fifth, followed very closely by the newest USSBA rookies, Johnson/McNeal. Pat Hampl and Talitha Edwards struggled all day long with a nasty engine problem and finished seventh. Every time they came off the start, the engine bogged for ¼ lap and then picked up. At times it would load-up again and then open up. Time for some engine thrashing for the Steel Erection team.

A-400 – Eliminations
Local favorite Don Smith and Jeff Zimmerman persisted with the brand-spanking-new American Slipstream hull, but with some engine issues, it was never able to show its colors. They spun out on round 1. Great effort and the hull shows promise. Look for more of this hull racing in 2009.

Gary/Myra finished fifth in their first venture into A400 land. Gahr/Gold finished fourth several seconds off the frantic pace of the Bright/Patrick/Hendrickson battle.

In round one the Bright’s laid down a 39.3. Patrick/Gibb could only muster a 39.4 and Hendrickson/y a 39.6.

Round two, Wicked Racing Hendrickson/y pulled out all the stops and ripped off the first 38 of the day in the A-400 class with a 38.9. Note the writer said first.

Patrick/Gibb followed with a 38.6 and yet again, Jack n’ Jack smoked a blazing 38.591. Amazingly, that left Hendrickson/Macke with their boat on the trailer back to the paddock.

In round three it (only) took a 38.6 for Jack to clip Kyle’s 38.7 as he took the A-400 trophy and fastest lap of the day home. Quite a feat considering that he races against the best Sprint Boat drivers in the United States!

SuperBoats – Eliminations
Dave and Amanda put on an awesome show in the SuperBoat class. As this class is being rebuilt for 2009, lookout for what will be the fastest jet sprint boats in the world, in this class. The crowd cheered Dave and Amanda on as they will more than likely claim the 2008 USSBA SuperBoat Championship.

FINI
As the United States Sprint Boat Association’s Racing Series heads to Albany’s Field of Dreams for the National Finals, the competition will be close and hot! There are many surprises yet to be announced for the Nationals. STAY TUNED!!!