PORT ANGELES — A full day of thrills and spills at the American Sprint Boat Racing Association races at Extreme Sports Park ended with a bummer for one area team.
The Port Angeles-based Wicked Racing No. 10 boat of Dan Morrison and Cara McGuire, ended up derailed by a persistent problem with its starter and unable to compete in the final lap of Saturday’s Unlimited class race.
Canadians Cory Johnson and Gary McNeil in the No. 55 boat nabbed the checkered flag with the second-fastest time of the day, 44.517 seconds.
“We call it Leighton Minnell,” McNeil said of the team’s strategy to only open up their boat so much before the finals.
“He’s an old sprint boat veteran down in New Zealand, and we went down for the world [championships] and we were pretty fresh.
“And he said, ‘Just go as hard as you need to.’ And he’s right. You can crash, you can wreck [equipment], there’s a million things can go wrong.”
Johnson was quick to point out the strategy’s effectiveness.
“Look at the eliminations,” Johnson said. “Two of the boats ran themselves out of it before they could get a shot at it.”
He was referring to the No. 907 boat driven by Eric and Rhonda Werner, which did not finish in the quarterfinals, and Morrison and McGuire’s troubled starter that gave them grief earlier in qualifying.
Johnson and McNeil credited their crew’s engine specialist, Alex Haxby, for the victory.
“We were out here late last night using flashlights to get everything in order,” McNeil said.
“I’m not sure if Cory and I were convinced it was ready, but Alex was confident.
“He was right.”
With the win, Johnson and McNeil vaulted into first place in the overall national finals race and lead the race for the world championship, which would earn them an extra $10,000 payday.
“We’re in a good spot,” Johnson said.
“If we can keep it clean at St. John we’ll be happy.”
With less than a week to prepare for the final race of the season, in St. John, repairs already were beginning Saturday for Morrison and the Wicked Racing crew.
“We really wanted to get out there and go,” Morrison said.
“They put up such a great time to chase, we really wanted to let her loose.
“I held off a bit in some of the laps today, but I had plenty of juice left to win.
“And we put up the fastest time of the day [43.9530 seconds].”
The results weren’t all disappointing for Wicked Racing.
The No. 1 boat, driven by Doug Hendrickson and Nichole Heaton-Muller, overcame some early trouble navigating the course to win in the 400 class with a time of 48.936 seconds.
The Bandit Racing No. 76 team of Brian and Aubrey Swindahl came in second in 50.319 seconds.
“We were having a tough time making it through in the qualifying,” Hendrickson said after his boat picked up Did Not Finishes on its first two passes.
“My navigator Nichole missed a turn and I missed one, but we got it together and got the boat dialed in and put up a good time.
“It feels good to get back up on top of the podium.”
Sequim’s Paul and Josh Gahr finished third in the TNT Live Wire No. 2, the team’s best result on the summer.
The Gahr’s were edged out by just under two seconds in the semifinals.
Fat Buddy Racing’s youngest competitors, college student Jesse Miller and recent high school graduate Logan Evans in the No. 9 boat, put together a clean day of racing to win the Modified class.
They laid down a time of 47.966 seconds to edge Dennis Hughes and Matia Haskey in the Overkill No. 69 (48.327 seconds).
It was Miller’s first-ever win in four years of sprint boat racing.
“It’s been a long journey here, but it feels really good that it’s finally come,” Miller said.
“Most people seemed to have a hard time with the rotation today, but we had it down pat from the start and we took it and ran with it.”
Evans, the team’s navigator, enjoyed the chaos caused by the track rotation.
Teams had trouble navigating a straightaway that transitioned into a turn at the No. 7 spot on the course.
An edge of an island sticks out in the channel making it tough going for boats that try to cut the corner tightly.
That spot caused two boats to flip earlier in the day, much to the crowd’s delight.
McNeil, was navigating aboard one of those boats, the Fat Buddy No. 13, when it bumped the island, bounced upside down and ended up submerged in the finish channel.
“A little woozy there for a second, sure, but those roll cages are designed to take the brunt of it,” McNeil said.
The No. 9 boat steered clear of trouble all day.
“It was nice to be able to go out there take the corners smoothly and run the course the way it was supposed to be ran,” Evans said.
Despite a strong day of racing, Sequim’s Dillon Cummings and Teri Cummings and their TNT Jeepers Creepers No. 99 boat were knocked out by less than fourth-tenths of a second in the Modified quarterfinals.
The last race of the season can be seen online through Livestream at tinyurl.com/PDN-SprintRace. Racing starts at Webb’s Slough in St. John at 10 a.m.
Viewers will need to create a Livestream account or login with a Facebook account.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
