USSBA Race Recap

Through hell and/or high water...Planes, trains and automobiles

Weather and circumstance tries hard to dampen raceday - FAIL!

By Jim DeFord

USSBA Race Recap

Thrills, spills and chills at The Slough!

Webb's Slough delivers again!

By Jim DeFord

Photos by Jim and Mary Deford

Webb's Slough never fails to deliver and this weekend–oh my–yes she did ever deliver one of the most exciting, breathtaking races this sport has seen in years to what looked to be a record crowd.

First off a huge bucket of kudos to Chris Bowman, head of USSBA Safety, and the Slough Crew for their hard work on Saturday. They were kept very busy as we has many crashes, rollovers and two boats (one driver - two boats) stuck into the catch-fencing. Their response was immediate in every case. And when I say immediate, I mean immediate!

At The Slough, when a boat crashes, the Slough Crew, under Chris' direction, are moving before the boat stops moving. It's an amazing thing to watch and a comfort to everyone in the sport, knowing they will be there if and when a crash occurs. Amazing work! Thank you for being there. No one was hurt today.

Secondly, another huge bucket of kudos to Matt and Amanda Webb for their detailed maintenance, upkeep and upgrading of Webb's Slough. The teams love The Slough and the fans love The Slough! And a special thanks for that awesome catch fence that did the job it was designed for! Twice!

It was quite an amazing race day at Webb's Slough this past Father's Day Eve. The track rotation was a 34-turn marathon that had both tight-n-twisties and a super fast finish. Many were skeptical about the 8/13 transition, but it ended up being the 6/12/10 turns that would cause the most angst among the drivers with Cory Johnson stuffing both his Super-Modified boat and his Super Boat into the fence on the west side of the track coming out of those corners.

Cory and Gary did come back to win the Super-Mod class over Scott Ackerman. They were not so lucky with the Super Boat as he also grazed one of the large wooden poles that help form the catch fencing around this awesome facility. The Super Boat will need some serious work. The Super-Mod boat just has a few scratches from the fencing and safety cables as the boat try to burrow unsuccessfully under the fence. Large hay bales were installed as an extra safety measure in that corner.

Wicked Racing's Doug Hendrickson christened the hay bales late in qualifying as Hannah Macke & Doug slid sideways off the course, through the mud and into the bales. The navigator side was pushed in a bit, but not enough to slow them down as they went on to win the Group A-400 class.

Tsunami Racing's Benson Atkinson battled an ill handing boat all day and popped onto the shore a few times. Cayle Johnson and Lindsey Kuchmak performed a super-slow-motion slide and a 90-degree lean and was done after two qualifying attempts. The #13 Fat Buddy boat of Scott Saxton and Frank Farrand spent the day with its nose in the air or its hull in the mud and on their finale, the driver's side buried in the water and never could make it past qualifying.

Wicked Racing's Dan Morrison, in the biggest horsepower boat in the series, had a near miss when attempting to take the 6/12/10 through the center of the course. Running full power, he hesitated, thought twice and then went straight at the last second. That could have been a very ugly crash.

Andy Gilder popped the 710S boat onto the island in an uneventful DNF, but was also out after Q2 along with Cayle who share the Dream Chaser ride. Doug Olson in the 710 Dream Catcher submarined himself and Andy Gilder in the 8-cut and was on the trailer. Jack Bright semi-submarined Rock Chucker in the upper loop, but made it out to run against Hendrickson in the finals.

There were a few other spinouts and such but this just shows not only how tough the rotation was, but also how hard these guys are running these boats. And when the boats are run this hard it makes more work for the pit crews to clean out the run's mess, do whatever tuning or blade changing that needs to be done and get the boat back in the water.

When the course is 34 turns it puts incredible pressure on navigator to get the course memorized. Yes, the course must be memorized as the teams are not allowed to have a course map in the boat.

Super Boats

This played out to be a true head-to-head battle between Wicked Racing's Dan Morrison with Cara McGuire against comeback driver Dean Lautenschlager with Brian Goeckner in the Slipstream boat. The Slipstream was running AvGas as opposed to methonal normally run in Super Boats.

Cory and Gary were tweaking the 55M Super Boat as this was the first time it was in the water. The hull was built by Cory. Benson had his hands full with an oddly handling and running boat, and Darrin Hartwig was also battling engine issues in the return of Hi-Tech Redneck.

Todd Gary ran a 400-class boat under a waiver and finished on the podium. It will be a challenge to catch up in the points battle, but we have seen weirder things happen.

In the finals it was looking to be a classic battle between Dan and Dean, but in the 4-cut, Dan's starter shorted out and they could not make the 5-minute clock. That left Dean with the fastest time of the day of all boats at a smokin' hot 50.621 and a he ran one more hard run to claim the win in Super Boats.

A great comeback for Dean "The Machine" Lautenschlager in addition to showing the Slipstream hull will run head-to-head with the big boys.

Group A-400

Wicked Racing's Doug Hendrickson and Hannah Macke were dead on today. Every turn smooth as can be. No hopping or cavitating. This was turning out to be a perfect day. But, we have seen Doug do this before here at Webb's Slough and lose it in the finals.

Last year, his only win of a dismal 2009 season was here at Webb's Slough. He had a minor crash in Q4, but pulled off the win. And today was almost a mirror finish. Doug slid off the track and whacked a hay bale in Q4 and then went on to win the finals against Jack Bright.

Psycho Racing's Kyle Patrick was back after missing the first race due to engine issues. He ran good all day but could only manage 57's running flat-footed and finishing fourth. Look for the 151 boat to be fully tuned and super fast at the Albany event next month.

Not even Jack and Cody Bright could catch up to Hendrickson and Macke. Jack and Cody claimed second place today in a hard fought run. Lee Rice and Travis Tiechert ran a respectable race today finishing fifth.

TNT Racing's Paul and Josh Gahr ran what I feel is their best race ever. Rarely did they put foot wrong as they claimed the bottom step of the podium. Olson and Saxton finished sixth and seventh respectively due to their problems mentioned earlier.

Super-Modified

Scott Ackerman and Mike Hall were on a great buzz after what was the best run for Scott in the Shotgun Sprint hull and what this writer feels was his best in his Sprint Boat career. And now they were at their home track and ready to rock and roll!

Ackerman and Johnson went back and forth all day with fast times. In the 8-cut, Cory ran a 54.2 and Scott a 56.3, but right behind them was Robert Cox with a surprising 55.5, Tim Cummings with a 56.6, Dennis Hughes with a 58.7 with Larry Hines at 59.4 and Eric Werner running a 60.4.

In the 4-cut Cory ran a 55.4 and then Ackerman pulled out the stops, and ripped of a 55.125. Tim Cummings DNF'd and Robert Cox missed the finals by a hair at a 56.095.

Cory came out in the finals and ripped off a 54.060. Ackerman then came out and stuck it into the mud rounding turn 5. A disappointing end to an incredible day of racing. The 54.060 was the fastest time of the day in the Super-Mod class! All that after earlier stuffing Liquid Addiction into the catch fencing!

So yes folks, it was quite an incredible day of racing in front of what looked to be a record crowd at Webb's Slough.

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