PORT ANGELES — All three North Olympic Peninsula-based Sprint Boat racing teams failed to take home the top prize in the American Sprint Boat series’ second visit to Port Angeles this season.
The Wicked Racing No. 10 team of driver Dan Morrison and navigator Cara McGuire were edged out for the third straight race and second time at their Extreme Sports Park home track by the 15M Rum Runner boat piloted by Jerimy Brewer and navigated by his daughter Presley Lollar.
In the Unlimited final, the Rum Runner posted its third sub-41-second time of the day, 40.567 seconds.
The Wicked Racing boat wrapped the season with a 41.327 time in the finals.
“I know we gave it all we had,” Morrison said. “We made some adjustments but just didn’t have anything left in the boat today.”
Due to racing in all four series events, the Wicked Racing No. 10 team won the overall series points title.
Brewer and Lollar raced and won all three events they took part in, but missed the first race due to engine trouble.
The Wicked Racing team couldn’t crack the 41-second barrier in any of its seven laps around a rotation constructed to produce long, fast straightaways near the start and at the finish.
It was the Pasco-based Brewer’s final race aboard the Rum Runner; a series of back injuries not associated with Sprint Boat racing has taken their toll on his body and he is looking to sell the boat.
“Feels nice to go out on top in my last run,” Brewer said.
In the 400 class, the Sequim-based TNT Live Wire No. 2 team of father Paul and son Josh Gahr, saw their season wrap in disappointing fashion in quarterfinals.
A bump-filled start saw the No. 2 boat drop some time at the outset, followed by more bumping and shaking out on the course.
“We were bumping all day and I could keep a handle on it and knock the boat down,” Paul Gahr said.
“It just got away from me in that lap.”
Gahr took the big-picture view on the day’s races.
“It’s so much fun to race in front of friends and family and to help bring a big weekend to the area,” Gahr said.
The Fat Buddy North team of Jordi and Deb Cook won the 400 final in 46.61.
Dennis Hughes and Matia Haskey won the series’ 400 class points race after finishing second Saturday.
The TNT Jeepers Creepers No. 99, driven by Dillon Cummings and navigated by his stepmom Teri, reached the Modified class podium with a third-place finish.
The Sequim duo posted its fastest lap of the day, 45.583 seconds, in the semifinals.
“I don’t know where that lap came from,” Dillon Cummings said.
“We got everything out of the boat.”
Teri Cummings was just as pleased.
“We made the podium,” she said. “And watch out next year when we get that new pump, we want to climb up a spot [to first place].”
The Cummings crew is looking to install an 1½-inch larger pump in Jeepers Creepers.
Driver Phil Miller and navigator Allie Keith in the Fat Buddy No. 22 boat won the Modified class finals in 43.582 seconds.
They had the fastest boat all day in qualifying and the elimination rounds.
“[The course rotation] was a little too straight for me. I like it really tight and challenging,” Miller said.
“It was a fast rotation, but it was basically who had the cleanest lines today.
“You can’t complain too much with first place, though, right?”
The No. 69 Overkill boat driven by Hughes and piloted by Haskey, took the fourth corner wide and flipped their boat in the final, ending up upside down on a berm.
The response crew quickly signaled Hughes and Haskey were uninjured, and the boat was righted and driven back to the pits.
The win helped Miller and Keith take the Modified class points race.
Race boats are never perfect, so the three area Sprint Boat teams now enter the tinkering season.
Along with Jeepers Creepers getting a new pump, the Wicked Racing team will take a closer look at its hull’s construction, as will the Gahrs in the TNT Live Wire.
Extreme Sports Park will again host Sprint Boat racing next summer, including the inaugural ASB Series World Championship.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5152 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
