Local racers flies checker flag

Dave Belles from Spangle and Cheney's Jason Perkins first got the notion to go sprint boat racing simply as faces in the crowd at Webb's Slough in St. John three years ago.

"Halfway through, they said this boat was for sale," Belles recalled. "We looked at each other and were like, we're gonna' buy it."

While the seller wanted $20,000 for the operation, Belles said his number was closer to 12K and the pair returned for more spectating. "I'm gonna' go back down, see if I can get him down a little bit," Belles said.

They came to terms at $17,000, "So we split the price and then that's how we started," Belles explained. The name was the idea of Belles' wife who offered her opinion of the purchase with the play on words.

The newly christened "Pour Decision" boat promptly went out and won its first two races with a pair of rookies - driver Perkins and Belles' son Kyle as navigator - at the controls.

Winning like they did at the start, put "Pour Decisions" into a rare club. "I heard that only three people have accomplished that," Perkins said.

The beginners' luck faded a bit last year with a pair of third places in the 400 Class, but they are hooked on this rare and radical form of motorsports.

Another bit of that luck was tarnished last year when they blew a motor but with a new powerplant, the team landed yet another third place in the June race at Webb's.

Teams run the braided and shallow course one at a time and seek the lowest elapsed time. A typical run for "Pour Decisions" will be in the 40 second range, perhaps 50 seconds in a larger course.

For Belles sprint boating expanded his interest in motorsports, which had been, before now, limited to riding in the "Desert 100" off road race that has taken place in Odessa, Wash. for a half-century.

Jetsprinting, or sprint boating, originated in New Zealand in 1981, and events were originally held naturally braided rivers. But soon artificial courses, like that in the field belonging to Matt and Amanda Webb, began the new phase.

The Webbs staged their first race in 2007 and as of 2003 had run 50 events to a packed venue twice a year in June and August.

The only other remaining Northwest venue for the sport is in Port Angeles, Wash. after the closure of courses in Marsing, Idaho near Boise and the Tri-Cities at Horn Rapids ORV Park.

Belles strategy for success amongst a field of about a dozen entries in their class is to "Keep it upright," he said following seeing the boat upside-down last year at Marsing.

Perkins has vivid memories of the wreck, but still had a chuckle, recounting, "That was no fun."

Knowing they were going over, Perkins was able to take what he described as "Half or three quarters of a breath." But it took he and his navigator just seconds to slide out of their safety harnesses to freedom.

"I was out of the boat before the track crew even showed up," Perkins said.

Just as the team was new to the sport, so was Perkins. His day job is that of a heavy equipment operator and he rides dirt bikes for fun.

"I had never driven a race boat, okay, but you know it seemed like kind of the same idea as a as a jet ski," he explained.

He likens trying to control the 13-foot race boat with a beefy 550 horsepower engine to that of driving sometimes wildly erratic short wheel-based drag racing vehicles like funny cars or altereds.

"If I put my foot in it too hard at this at the start, it'll literally jump itself out of the water so I gotta' be kind of careful about how much throttle I give it right off the gate," Perkins said.

Being smooth is the key to a successful run.

"You don't want to be too choppy because if you're choppy you can cavitate which of course, equates to lost time," Perkins explained. Cavitating means the prop and boat lose contact with the water.

The race itself consists of a predefined course through the channels with 25 to 30 changes of direction. Following qualifying, the competitors each run the course with the fastest qualifiers running last. Boats then take part in an elimination-style bracket that is reduced in half each round to the fastest three.