PORT ANGELES — In the first of two races this summer at Extreme Sports Park, the Port Angeles-based Wicked Racing No. 10M team and crew rode an emotional wave to victory in the Unlimited Class.
Driver Dan Morrison and navigator Cara McGuire zoomed to the finish Saturday on a punishing, technical track, putting in the fastest lap of the day, 46.864 seconds.
It was a day of pressure, frustration, nervous anticipation, hope and finally exultation for the Wicked team, which dealt with a balky starter.
“Today was a total roller coaster,” Morrison said.
“I went to the bottom first. I had to get away from the boat just because I knew I had enough guys working on it who knew what they were doing.”
The problem first reared its head Friday, and Morrison spent the majority of the day trying to find an answer with crew members Dan “Buster” Konopaski, Martin Hammel and Cameron Thompson.
The starter stayed troublesome Saturday, rendering the team unable to race through the first three qualifying laps and forcing Morrison to call in reinforcements.
“We were going through parts and pieces as fast as we could find them,” Morrison said.
“So we called in Gaylord Warren, the old starter expert from Rudy’s Automotive [in Port Angeles], and he started to analyze exactly what was going on and he helped get things going.”
The team qualified for the elimination rounds on its last-chance lap.
“While they were fixing the boat I had to go get away and focus on what to do if it runs, what to do out on the course,” Morrison said.
“You can’t bring any other drama. At the speeds we are running, you have to stay focused or else it’s just not gonna happen out there.”
Simply getting out on the track in front of the hometown crowd was a win, but with a course layout that forced racers to double back through their own wake in a particularly tight section of the course, skill and speed had to rise to the occasion.
“The reality of the rotation was it created a lot of wakes out there going back through that far southeast corner, the No. 4 turn,” Morrison said.
“You go through that and you get a big cross wake through there, and that’s always a negative because you don’t want to get the boat out of the water.
“We kept it nozzled down a bit in there, and for that last lap we put it all together.”
The Wicked boat topped the runner-up No. 55M boat, driven by Cory Johnson with navigator Gary McNeil, by more than three seconds in the time-trial final .
“That last lap we put it all together,” Morrison said.
“It was fun to put it on the map like that when those guys [his crew] worked so hard to get me moving.”
Morrison said the day’s struggles and the final triumph capped one of the most exhilarating race days of his career.
“Absolutely,” Morrison said. “Winning is always fun, but the way we did it today, it took a little bit of drama to get there.
“To go from such a low to start, seeing some hope, and then to realize we finally put it all together and won it, that was huge.”
400 Class
The Fat Buddy No. 22 race team dominated the 400 Class, posting the fastest qualifying time of all classifications, 47.930 seconds, and consistently besting its competition by four to five seconds in each heat.
It was the second win on the season for driver Phil Miller and navigator Sharon Heuser, who also won in St. John.
The Sequim-based TNT Live Wire No. 2 team of driver Paul Gahr Jr. and his daughter and navigator Taylor Gahr thought it might challenge the Fat Buddy team in the elimination rounds after some work in the pits.
But Paul Gahr missed a turn in the quarterfinals, ending the day prematurely with a dreaded Did Not Finish, or DNF.
“We finally got the boat tuned and working right, and I blew it,” Paul Gahr said after the race.
“This was the type of track layout I love — technical, lots of old-school cornering instead of taking advantage of hull design, and hammering the throttle.
“I couldn’t believe it. We haven’t had a DNF in years. But that’s racing.”
Modified Class
Precautionary measures prematurely ended the day for the TNT Jeepers Creepers No. 99 team from Sequim.
Driver Dillon Brown and navigator Teri Cummings were forced to cut the day short when a particularly choppy run through that same difficult southeast corner allowed water to get in their engine’s oil.
“It’s either a blown gasket, a cracked head, a cracked motor. So we are calling it done,” Cummings said.
The class was won by the Obsession No. 49 boat driven by Robert Cox with navigator Liz Petring.
The Obsession boat turned in the fastest time of the day in the class in its first run of the day, a 48.889-second loop, and won by more than three seconds in the finals after posting a time of 49.436.
“It was an absolute bear,” Cox said of the day’s racing.
“You were crossing your wake a lot, and I’ve never been tossed around as much as I was today.”
Cox credited hull design as a major factor in the win.
The big difference is most everybody else in the class is running an old-style hull and ours is a newer style that really seems to cut the wake better,” Cox said.
“This hull just knifes on through it.”
It was the second win in two starts for the team, giving it a big lead heading into the first stage of the American Sprint Boat World Championships.
That first stage will be back in Port Angeles at Extreme Sports Park on Saturday, Aug. 22.
Tickets are available at www.extremesportspark.net.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
