SPRINT BOATS: PA navigator called to help circuit’s top 400 driver

Published 1:30 am Thursday, July 23, 2026

PORT ANGELES — When the American Sprint Boat Racing Association boats return to the Extreme Sports Park this weekend, there will be somewhat of a changing of the guard, with champs from different teams joining up.

This weekend’s races also serve the beginning of the buildup toward the 2027 world championships, which will be shared by Yakima and ESP.

The festivities will begin Friday night with the Show and Shine event at the Lower Elwha Food and Fuel from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. during which people can check out the boats and meet the teams.

One of the top teams this year at ESP will be Preventing Insanity, driven by Leighton Lillie of Lewiston, Idaho.

Lillie, the world champion, is leading the ASBR standings in the 400 class. He will have a new navigator at the ESP races, Sami Gustafson of Port Angeles.

Gustafson was the navigator for three years for Dan Morrison, co-owner of the ESP and head of the Wicked Racing Team of Port Angeles. Morrison retired as a driver, leaving Gustafson without a team.

“I was going to kind of retire, too, and Leighton Lillie called and I couldn’t say no,” Gustafson said.

Gustafson said one of the reasons Lillie wanted her as navigator was because of her small frame. “It really has a lot of to do with weight,” she said. “He called me and asked me, ‘How much do you weigh?’ Not in a misogynistic way.”

Beyond her weight, the navigator has a crucial job to do which is to help assist the driver as a backup on which way to go on the constantly changing and complicated racing channels, using hand signals or an earpiece.

Gustafson has navigated once so far for Lillie at Webb’s Slough in St. John. She said Lillie and Morrison are similar kind of drivers — aggressive yet very calculating. One big difference is Lillie has a specially modified boat.

Several years ago, Lillie was a motocross racer and crashed and sustained spinal injuries, leaving him a paraplegic. He got back into racing via the sprint boats, but he doesn’t have any foot controls in his boat. All of the acceleration controls are on his steering wheel.

“It’s really cool, actually,” Gustafson said.

Gustafson said that when she first got into navigating, she felt like she had no idea what she was doing and that everything happened just too fast for her to absorb it.

“They told me if I did it enough, it will start to feel slower,” she said.

And she discovered they were right. One of the biggest tricks to her job is keeping it consistent.

“I have to make sure I’m giving the signal at exactly the same time, every time,” she said.

Gustafson not only got back on a racing team, but arguably the top racing team in sprint boats. Lillie is a world champion in Jet Boat Racing and comes in to this weekend leading the 400 class after winning both races earlier this summer in Yakima and Lewiston. She said it was a real compliment when Lillie approached her out of all the navigators in sprint boat racing.

“I feel very blessed to have even been asked,” she said.

Racing weekend

Gates open for Saturday’s qualifying races at 8:30 a.m. with racing scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Gates also open at 8:30 a.m. Sunday with racing scheduled for 10 a.m.

An adult weekend pass is $68 and $37 for kids 6 to 12. Kids younger than 5 get in free. A one-day ticket is $47 for adults and $26 for kids. Members of the military get a discount. People can buy tickets online at https://tinyurl.com/ESP2026tickets. There will also be live music Saturday night.

The races will be livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/@ASBR-PRO-RACING-SERIES.

Reigning UIM Jet Sprint World Champion Australian Phonsy Mullen will be in attendance at the races in order to get a feel for the track ahead of the 2027 World Championships.

Mullen is a 12-time Australian champion and two-time New Zealand champion Super Boat driver.

Port Angeles and ESP will host the first round of the UIM Jet Sprint World Championships Aug. 7-8, 2027, with the second round following the next weekend in Yakima.

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Sports editor Pierre LaBossiere can be contacted at sports@peninsuladailynews.com.