Peter Ward regular season ladies slo-pitch champs
Peterborough's Brent Valois will race in the Lake Racer drag division at the Peterborough Power Boats Races at Del Crary Park on Saturday and Sunday. The Ontario Power Boat Racing Association event is the first boat races on Little Lake since 1992.
Peterborough was once the epicentre of Canadian boat racing with crowds as large as 10,000 lining the shores of LIttle Lake.
The sport virtually died in the 1990s but has returned with the formation of the Ontario Power Boat Racing Association. Their inaugural season will conclude this weekend with the first races on Little Lake since 1992. The Peterborough Power Boat Races, the second and final stop on the initial OPBRA season, will feature drag and oval races directly in front of the Del Crary Park shoreline with no admission fee for spectators.
“This is the 25 year anniversary of the last races in Peterborough and OPBRA is very pleased and honoured to bring it back,” said Peterborough resident Brent Valois, an OPBRA board member and a racer in the Lake Racer division.
For about a 20-year period from the mid 1960s to 1980s, the city was the hub of boat racing in Canada with most of the boats powered by motors built locally at Outboard Marine Corporation, said Valois, who found newspaper clippings that estimated crowds as high as 10,000 watching oval races.
Valois, 50, said an economic downturn in the 1990’s caused many racers to give up the sport.
“We were in a recession and when that happens the first thing to go are toys,” Valois said.
In recent years a small dedicated group of racers started drag racing through a Toronto club which does another type of racing. It grew bigger than the Toronto club could accommodate so the OPBRA was formed last year and held its inaugural races at Rideau Ferry near Smiths Falls on Aug. 19 and 20.
“Our very first drag racing event in 2009 there were a total of seven or eight boats which showed up at a demonstration just to show people what racing in a boat is. That quickly grow to over 30 boats in about five years. That’s where the roots of OPBRA formed.”
This weekend, Valois expects 45 boats to enter five racing classes which will begin races each day at 10 a.m. with the final class expected to start around 4 p.m.
The three drag classes will race an 800-foot stretch of water while the two oval classes will run a course just shy of a mile.
The entry drag class is Formula; commercially available pleasure boats with a maximum 225-horsepower motor with no modifications. The Lake Racer division is the most popular and features similar boats to Formula but with modifications allowed to the interior and the motor with a minimum post-race weight requirement of 1,550 pounds. The Outlaw division boats have no weight or horsepower restrictions.
“These vessels are amazing feats of engineering,” Valois said. “Those boats, roughly 20 feet long, weigh about 320 pounds. They are very, very lightweight. The composition of materials used to manufacture the boat are super strength with lightweight capabilities. We’re getting into aerospace engineering that bolt on engines with excess of 400-horsepower. Within 800 feet they are hitting 110 miles per hour with the engine spinning at 10,000 to 12,000 rpm.”
The oval divisions feature T750 and T850 boats.
“These are boats you might potentially see in your cottage waters,” Valois said. “The T750 is just over 13 feet long all V bottom with two- and three-cylinder outboard engines. The T850’s are more powerful engines and longer boats with more experienced drivers.”
All classes will run each day. Valois said about half the entries are from the Kawartha Lakes area. The team sponsored by Peter Ward is the regular season champion for the Peterborough Senior Ladies Slo-Pitch League. Playoffs begin on Friday. Team members include (front l-r) Rose Anne Sheehan, Bev Hatfield, Laurie McPhee, Wendy Dunits, Brenda McGrath. (Back l-r) Debbie Smith, Carol Mahoney, Sandy McManus, Wava Brown, Heather Wooldridge, Gaylene Carl, Marina Wheeler, Rab Hill, Linda Kamron. Absent is Marlene Watts. The following are results of Peterborough Senior Ladies Slo-pItch League games on Wednesday. Emporium Hair Studio 15: Nancy Sharpe 3 for 4 (3 singles), Pat Williams 3 for 4 (3 singles), Linda Berry 3 for 4 (1 single, 2 doubles). Crossman Excavating 4: Helen McFadden 2 for 3 (2 singles), Marlene Fitzgerald 2 for 3 (1 single, 1 double). Peter Ward 13: Gaylene Carr 2 for 3 (2 singles), Heather Wooldridge 3 for 3 (2 singles, 1 home run), Wendy Dunits 3 for 3 (2 singles, 1 double). Vinnies 11: Linda Murney 3 for 3 (3 singles), Faye Andrews 3 for 3 (1 single, 1 double, 1 triple), Maureen Lewis 3 for 3 (3 singles). Remax 16: Heather Godson 3 for 3 (3 singles), Beth Germond 3 for 3 (2 singles, 1 triple), Audrey Lakien 3 for 3 (2 singles, 1 double), Karen Butler 3 for 3 (2 singles, 1 double). Lambasters 12: Wendy Archibald 3 for 4 (1 single, 1 double, 1 triple), Sherri Williams 4 for 4 (4 singles), Shirley Lang 3 for 4 (1 single, 2 doubles). Peter Ward claims regular season first place title. Playoffs begin Friday.