PORT ANGELES — Saturday’s sprint boat races at Extreme Sports Park, just west of Port Angeles, marks the midway point in the six-race season.
Last year the new Extreme Sports Park opened with a bang by hosting the USSBA national championships where several area drivers either won national titles or finished in the top two or three.
The year’s first race Saturday is the fourth of the season and is called a USSBA Series Points Race, which means drivers, navigators and their teams will be earning points that go toward the national title.
And those national titles will be determined during the second race in Port Angeles, the National Championship event set for Sept. 8.
Both racing boats of Wicked Racing of Port Angeles are vying for national crowns once again.
Driver Doug Hendrickson and navigator Nichole Heaton, the two-time defending national champions in the A-400 division (the second most powerful of sprint boats), are currently in second place, only 66 points behind first place midway through the season.
The duo, 12-year veterans of the sport, have 1,286 points as of the last race July 28. They will be in boat No. 01.
Driver Dan Morrison of Port Angeles, co-owner of Extreme Sports Park and Wicked Racing, is the driver of boat No. 10 while his daughter, Cara McGuire, is the navigator.
Morrison and McGuire, defending national champions, currently are in second place in Super Boats (the most powerful category) with 1,324 points.
The two are a mere 34 points behind first going into Saturday’s races.
Another area boat racing in the A-400 category is Twisted Motorsports’ No. 18, driven by Wayne Brown and navigated by his daughter, Nicole Brown.
Both are Port Angeles residents.
Wayne Brown, the store manager of Sunset Do It Best Hardware in Port Angeles, is a former stock-car racer.
Nicole Brown, 20, is receiving clerk at Sunset Do It Best Hardware.
The two, racing only one year, are in seventh place with 1,008 points.
Two boats from Sequim’s TNT Racing both compete in the Super Modified category.
Actually, the two teams share the same boat, Jeepers Creepers or No. 99.
In fourth place in the standings are driver Dillon Cummings and navigator Teri Cummings, Dillon’s stepmother.
They are just ahead of driver Tim Cummings — Dillon’s father and Teri’s husband — and navigator Brian Beard, who sit in fifth place with three more race dates ahead.
Dillon and Teri Cummings, who were the 2010 overall national champions, have 1,244 points while Tim Cummings and Beard have 1,164 points.
The two teams are tag-teaming with the same boat because they sold TNT’s other boat, MIP No. 66. Tim Cummings is in the process of building a Super Boat, and when that is done Dillon Cummings will be the sole driver of Jeepers Creepers.
Gates open at 8 a.m. Saturday with warm-up runs at 9:30 a.m. and races beginning at 10 a.m.
The races are expected to last until 5 p.m.
