Friday, August 16, 2024
PATEROS – The roar of racing hydros will once again echo across the waters of Lake Pateros when the annual Terry Troxell Memorial Regatta returns to Pateros on Saturday and Sunday, August 17-18.
The Pacific Northwest Boat Racing Association (PNBRA) event will begin at 10 a.m. on both days. The two-day event will include a meet-and-greet, vintage hydroplane exhibition, youth classes, and inboard hydros reaching speeds more than 100 miles per hour.
Pateros resident and hydro supporter George Pearson will host a meet-and-greet at 4 p.m., Friday, August 16, near the south entrance of Kodi’s Noon Saloon at 154 Pateros Mall with Pateros II driver, Kannon Cushing.
The future of the racing group is the corps of young drivers like Cushing coming up through the ranks. The Pateros races will feature many young drivers including a Canadian contingent piloting an assortment of J-Stock and AX Runabouts.
Cushing, 13, is the son of Brandon Cushing, the retired owner/driver of Miss Pateros. The younger Cushing is a fourth-generation driver who began racing in 2020 as a nine-year-old. He earned his initial first-place finish driving a J Runabout on Lake Lawrence in Yelm. Cushing missed the traditional dunking given to a driver celebrating his first win due to the lake’s toxic algae, so he had to settle for a hose soaking instead. He continued racing J class and K-Pro hydros around the Region 10 circuit in 2022 and 2023.
“Along the way, he had an opportunity to promote and build the Mod 125 class by commissioning motors and boats to help build the class in 2024,” Pearson said.
The Cushing’s traveled to Oroville, Calif., and the 2023 Run for the Records, where Kannon earned quarter mile and kilo records in a Mod 125 Runabout. He followed that achievement with the four-lap, five-mile Mod 125 record on Black Lake in Olympia.
Cushing entered his first nationals at the APBA Stock and Junior Nationals at Moses Lake last July 15-20. He earned second in both Mod 125 Hydro and AX Runabout. He will pilot the old Jo & Jack T boat, now named Pateros II, in the upcoming Troxell Regatta. It will be his first race in an inboard capsule race boat.
To qualify, Cushing will complete mandatory capsule training at the Pateros site. That will include being strapped inside a capsule and flipped upside down underwater, where highly trained Region 10 Rescue will monitor his breathing while Cushing frees himself from his safety harness and climbs out of the capsule unassisted.
This year’s PNBRA racing schedule started in May and included:
The remaining PNBRA race schedule will conclude with:
To learn more about the PNBRA visit its website at pnbra.org.
Mike Maltais: 360-333-8483 or michael@ward.media
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here