Marsing Sprint Boat Races
Marsing, Idaho – The second sprint boat race of the 2008 season at the Marsing Sprint Boat track was run on Saturday August 9. This race was not part of the United States Sprint Boat Racing Association schedule but with the quality of the event and the large number of local drivers most of the fans did not notice the lack of a sanctioning body. The Tsunami team headed by Lee Rice and based in Rice’s home shop on Sunny Slope fielded eight of the 14 boats running at the event produced by Lexa Marketing of Boise.
Rookie driver and Marsing High School student, Amanda Freeman competed in her first event in a boat owned by Lee Rice but did not make it in to the Shoot out after the third round of qualifying.
Marsing resident, Benson Atkinson, and navigator Travis Teichert ran flawlessly all day but lost out in the first round of the shoot out against Bill Root and navigator Tom Potier. Atkinson recently changed from a carburetor to fuel injection and converted the fuel to methanol to be able to run in the faster class with Root and others but Root had more power and was finally able to put it to good use after struggling the entire season and blowing the engine during practice just days before the event. Root ran the fastest time of the day and took home the win and the bragging rights after winning the last round of the Shoot-out. After the last race was run fans had the opportunity to get a ride through the winding course at speeds approaching 70 miles per hour.
