Riggins 2007

When the Salmon is at 5,000 cfs, like in 2005, you are pretty restricted in where you can run. You get to see quite a bit of Idaho hard rock real estate poking up here and there, and Tight Squeeze really gets to be a tight squeeze. At 24,000 cubic feet per second plus, like in 2006, you begin to see the monster side of the Salmon. Monster as in: big hairy monster waiting to stamp you flat if you end up in the wrong place at the wrong speed. At those flows the river just looms, you begin to feel sort of like a bug in a blender. At 11,000 cubic feet per second, the Salmon it is expected to be just about perfect for racing and it's been within a couple hundred feet of 11,000 CFS for the last week.
 

Twenty boats were originally signed up to race, but one had to drop out because of last minute head machining problems. Nineteen boats is a great turnout. Three boats are down from Canada, Dale Whiteside and James Laughlin (Xerophobic) are here with a full tunnel Eagle SBFX, 140 AirTime. Kerry Crawford (Itsworthit) and Wendy McMichael are here with a Sport Jet as are Richard and Elaine Grant with the ever popular #24 Thunderstruck. They sure put on a good show last year! Also in Sportjet all the way from Grand Junction, Colorado is Kirt and Pam Jewkes.
Riggins goes way out of it’s way to welcome racers, this year at the boat show and tech in they treated everyone to a couple of roast pigs. The boat show and BBQ was on the lawn at the Salmon Rapids Lodge and was well attended, the weather was accomodating too.

Starters:
A-class
277 Unpredictable, Paul Bagshaw & Rob Soule
211 Riptear, Terry O’Keefe & Russ Hoisington
234 Fluid Drive, Guy Anderson & Keith Kendall
169A Liquifire, Brodie Miller & Randy Sloan

B-class
163 Tuff-N-Nuff , Duane Labrum & Gary Labrum (South Idaho Duane and Gary)
169B Liquifire, Dwaine Longfellow & Gary Longfellow (North Idaho Dwaine & Gary)

BBFX
69 Addicted, Sam Heath & Chris Dyer
42 Thunderbolt, Jeff Bradley & Matt Tilley
55 Revelation, Duane Carmont & Scott Donaldson

SBFX
07 Hasta La Vista Baby, Greg Boice & Norm Schaeffer
19 Redbird, Mike Egbers & Eric Hamburg
140 Air Time II, Dale Whiteside & James Laughlin
15 Footloose, Ron Pabst & Ed Drew
16 Wocket, Dave Provost & Lynn Mouser

SJ
05 Totally Wicked, George Edwards & Tad Bell
08 Baby Bud, Gary Weaver & Tony Scott
24 Thunderstruck, Richard Grant & Elaine Grant
63 Itsworthit, Kerry Crawford and Wendy McMichael
17 Xtreme, Kirt Jewkes and Pam Jewkes
 

Saturday Racing
The first run down Saturday went nominally faultless. Duane Carmont BBFX 55 did put to use some of his heavy equipment operator skills and dropped the blade to widen the slick spot just below Glass Wave. He only spent a little while at it, but it did look quite a bit better after he continued on.
On the next leg up, Duane Longfellow B169 took the long way around Glass Wave, thereby missing all the bumps and green rollers. Jeff Bradley BBFX42 used the same line, but he has to do it out of self-defense.   Thunderbolt has this feature built into it that turns a green lump in the water into a Dukes of Hazzard style jump. Good move.
A couple of boats didn’t make it even this far. Dave Provost rolled SBFX 16 Wocket in Time Zone and BBFX 55 Duane Carmont attacked a really big rock at Race Creek. Both boats sank. Nobody was injured in either accident although Dave Provost and Lynn Mouser, team “Wocket”, had to be picked up by rescue boats. Duane and Scott managed to chug and paddle “Revelation” to the far side of the river before it sank on a sandy beach.
Dale Whiteside and James Laughlin SBFX 140 “Air Time II” sadly, were having mediocre runs. Some of this was due to their straight off the crate ZZ4 that has 4 seasons on it and some was due to a super light tunnel, really good at top speed blasts, not quite so good at big bumpy water. An interesting comparison is that this is the exact same motor Dale had in the step-tech he won the Idaho Cup with least year. The cup is awarded to the boat with the best times for the entire weekend. My guess is that Dale was having to do a lot more calculated driving this year to be safe than he did actually winning the Idaho Cup last year. Along the way the red rocket shed both canards. Something was said about filling them with foam next time so that they would float.

By the end of Saturday here is what I think I saw for leaders:
A-class: Terry O’Keefe #211 “Riptear” had opened a lead on #277 Paul Bagshaw after “Unpredictable“ broke a rocker arm on the last leg up. A169 Brodie Miller “Liquifire” was right there with them on the first leg but from there fell further behind.  #234, Guy Anderson was out with non-contiguous piston function.

B-class was Labrums #163 “Tuff-N-Nuff” leading Dwayne Longfellow #169B “Liquifire”. On Longfellows 4th leg, an up leg, the boat got away from them at the top of Time Zone. The right hand bank at that point is just big rocks piled to keep the river from washing the road away. They sideswiped the right hand bank, kind of slid the rear up and along the rocks for about twenty feet, the nose digging into the river.
 Dwayne had it pegged and the first little bit of water that reached the pump shot them back out where it was safe. Safer, anyway. The boat would not tip over, could have been full of water or maybe stuff in the grate, but there they were stuck in the flat above Time Zone and not getting away.  They held there, trying this and that until they finally got it to tip over and go. This took at least a couple of minutes but it was a real crowd pleaser.

BBFX has Sam Heath #69 “Addicted” leading both Jeff Bradley #42 “Thunderbolt” and Duane Carmont #55 “Revelation” who was on the beach.

SBFX sees Mike Egbers  #19 “Redbird” leading with Greg Boice #07 “Hasta La Vista Baby” and Ron Pabst #15 “Footloose” close behind.

SJ: The wiley Canadian team of Crawford & McMichael in #63 “Itsworthit” through risky lines and fearless driving, had pulled a lead on both George Edwards #05 “Totally Wicked” and Gary Weaver #08 “Baby Bud”.

Both the sunken boats were recovered, the 55 boat towed to the ramp afloat after having been horsed up onto the bank by main force, sliding it on slippery logs. They then bailed it out with a borrowed trash pump. The team had done a temporary patch on the leaks with stuff, stuff being defined as whatever would keep the river out. The boat was then towed to the town boat ramp and onto the trailer. They were only able to do this because of Duane and Scotts quick thinking and even more energetic paddling to get to the beach before they lost it out in swift water.
 The 16 boat was settled on a rock ledge under the Time Zone bridge. After much deliberation and some exploratory tugs by Rich Friend with his big Salmon River twin, Mark Hollon parked his tow truck on the bridge and lowered two cables with straps. The hook was made to the rollbar by Ryan Ringer (who was courageously standing in the sunken boat) and they slowly lifted the gunnels just above the water. This allowed manual bailing with 5 gallon buckets by Ryan and an as yet unidentified cowboy who was missing the top of his hat. When the boat was finally bailed enough that it would rock back on the stern, they hooked up a power pack to the electrical system and let the boat finish bailing itself with the bilge pumps. In the process they found an 8-inch steelie swimming around in the bottom of the boat. The steelie was released to the wild and this incident gives lie to the myth that you can’t catch fish with a race boat. Once floating again, Rich pulled the nose around to point upriver, and Ryan, who was still in the boat, unhooked the straps. There was a tense moment when the overhead straps came tight and the river tried to roll the boat again but Mark slacked the lines and it turned out ok. 16 was towed down through Tight Squeeze to the Ladder Creek boat ramp. The owner (me) was very glad to see it again and put it on the trailer. A very big thanks to Rich, Mark, Ryan, Dave and all those guys who I don’t know yet for saving my boat. The way they went about it tells me they have lots of experience recovering lost things from the Salmon. Also, truly a great place to put a bridge!

Sunday Racing
This morning we are down to 13 boats. #24 is out, motor suspect, #234 is out, it’s in four cylinder mode, #55 is out, sunk, #16 is out, sunk, #42 is out, wrecked grate, #08 is out, bent and unmanageable. 277 is running again after a rocker arm change. 169B is running also in spite of clobbering the bank at Time Zone.

Everyone finished the first down leg, 169A’s times where off, not sure what happened. On the second up leg, Miller 169A “Liquifire” took a bad hop and spun out right below the motel. Wrecked the hull, the nose bent up like a duck bill and the side flattened. This finished their run at Riggins for this year.

Leg three, a down. The Labrums, #163 “Tuff-N-Nuff” were going very slowly and their motor was trying to quit all the way down. This was there last leg run and they came back to town on the trailer. The Jewkes, #17 Xtreme, hit something in Time Zone, finished and took the flag, but sunk shortly thereafter. They got wet, but were safe otherwise. The boat has not been recovered as of a week later.
Leg four, the last one and an up leg saw eleven starters and eleven finishers.

Out of 19 starters, 10 boats actually took that last flag. Over the weekend 4 boats suffered mechanical failures and dropped out and 5 boats were parked due to mishaps. One of those is still parked on the bottom of the Salmon.

In no particular order:
Duane Carmont found his own special Idaho rock, holed the boat but managed to beach it with about 30% sticking out. They got it out of the river and onto the beach on Saturday using a borrowed trash pump and some strategically placed slippery logs. It was recovered onto the trailer Sunday afternoon. I love these guys attitude about racing, they are having a great time, they take it all in stride and they go at it in a very workmanlike manner. Well done I say.

Brodie Miller got caught up in a spectacular spinning maneuver with a flying bow plant that resulted in the nose of A169 mangled and the side walleyed. That was Sunday morning in the Motel rapid. He was awarded 10 points for the dismount. Things just have not been going right for the team, they are kind of in the barrel these days.

Gary Weaver put Baby Bud on the trailer and didn’t start on Sunday after sideswiping the rip-rap just above Time Zone on Saturday. The mishap wrecked his right hand trim tab, wafflized the right rear corner and marred the tasty red paint. Folks this is a tiny boat, 14 feet in its stocking feet. The rock-altered hull turned what was a marginal ride on the Salmon to begin with into a small red screaming bobber with a motor in it.

Dave Provost and Lynn Mouser in the SBFX Wocket took a freak hop, rolled and then were slam dunked upside down into Time Zone on their second leg on Saturday. Both got out ok, but they were wet and shaken. The silly boat floated down under the Time Zone bridge and parked, upright but sunk, on a rock ledge from where it was rescued Saturday afternoon

Kirt and Pam Jewkes, after several close calls and several spectacular recoveries during the weekend, took the flag on the third leg Sunday, slowed down and the boat promptly sank out from under them in about 20 feet of water.  Something had let go on the pump or that big seal around it and the boat took on a whole lot of water in a very big hurry.

The grate on Jeff Bradley's BBFX Thunderbolt came loose in the front, it bent down and became an instant speed brake. I only heard a little part of this story, seems there was a lurid spinout and slide up the bank involved. Ultimately it messed up enough of the intake that he could not fix it to make it Sunday.

Duane and Gary Labrum fought an electric fuel pump through three legs Sunday and after cycling the switch 20 times, hitting the switch, tearing the wires off and hotwiring it and hitting the bank twice because the motor died from lack of fuel, they decided to quit tempting fate. This was a hilarious story as Duane told it to me, wish I had gotten it on video.

Richard and Elaine Grant's Thunderstruck sucked a stick into the engine cooling water intake hole, the motor got hot and the computer said that's enough and shut it down. He did not want to take the chance of destroying it entirely and not having the means to really check it out, they decided to call it a weekend.

New racer Guy Anderson made the first leg start but half of his ignition system began taking its trigger signals from an overhead weather satellite or maybe a radio station in Lewiston and it burned holes in half of his pistons. He pulled in at the pits and that was it.

So that's three SJs out, two BBFX out, one SBFX out, two A-boats out and one B-boat out by  the last leg on Sunday.

This years prestegious Idaho Cup was won by the the O'Keefe/ Hoisington team in #211 "Rip-N-Tear". Congratulations guys!

Here are the final results:

 And here are the points so far:

2007  U.S. National Points
Riggins Race+Roseburg

     A-Class    Day 1  Day 2  Total  Roseburg Total

Bagshaw  #277  316.68  400    716.68  770.85  1487.53
O’Keefe  #211  333.34  300    633.34  604.17  1237.51
Miller   #169A 237.50  56.25  293.75  475      768.75

     B-Class

Labrum   #163  366.68  250    616.68  750     1366.68
Longfellw#169B 333.34  375    708.34  591.67  1300.01
Hanlin   #188                 0       133.34  133.34

     BBFX

Heath     #69  400     400    800     750    1550
Carmont   #55  37.50   -0-    37.50   606.25  643.75
Bradley   #42  150     -0-    150     231.25  381.25

     SBFX

Egbers    #19  366.68  375  741.68   715.11  1456.79
George    #13   -0-    -0-  -0-      641.67   641.67
Boice     #07  333.34  325  658.34   436.09  1094.43
Papst     #15  215.67  211  426.67   338.02   764.69
Marshall  #27   -0-    -0-  -0-      284.19   284.19
Laforest/
Provost   #16  37.50   -0-   37.50    90.35   127.50
Whiteside#140  162.02  183  345.02     -0-    345.02

Sport Jet
Edwards   #05   287.50 325   612.50  775    1387.50
Weaver    #08   199.34   0   199.34   625    824.34
Crawfor   #63   383.35 375   758.35  -0-     758.35
Jewkes    #17    93.84 112.5 206.34  -0-     206.34
Grant     #24    66.67  -0-   66.67  -0-      66.67

As usual, I am a great one for slamming the hell out of barn doors after the horse is gone. Here is what I think might be good ideas:
1. A lanyard between your belt latches.
2. Tubes in the bow.
3. Heavy duty bow ropes as opposed to light colorful ones. Also I think, the Chandler Rope in a Can setup.
4. And the best idea: Don't let your boat turn over.