The show must go on

The tremendous efforts it took to bring the hydroplane races to Trout Creek over the weekend were almost for naught as the races had to be cancelled Saturday due to dangerous debris floating in the water that can wreak havoc on the hydro boats.

The tremendous efforts it took to bring the hydroplane races to Trout Creek over the weekend were almost for naught as the races had to be cancelled Saturday due to dangerous debris floating in the water that can wreak havoc on the hydro boats.

Despite the cancellation that came about after a hydro boat was punctured by a stick in the waters, crews still gave hundreds of spectators a boat show Saturday afternoon and began clearing the waters early Sunday morning to successfully put on day-long boat races for the first ever Trout Creek Regatta.

Although John Harris, member of the Trout Creek Community Improvement Association (TCCIA), called it the first hydroplane race in Trout Creek, it is actually a recurring event. It used to be held in Trout Creek some 50 years ago and has been something the TCCIA has been trying to bring back as an annual event.

The hydroplane races were once a thing of the past, that is until Mike Phillips came along.

Teresa and Mike Phillips moved to Thompson Falls eight years ago from Boeing, Wash. When Phillips was young, he would watch boat races with his dad when they lived in Mercer Island and he was immediately taken with the sport.

"I saved up all of my paper route money to build a boat with my dad, but I never could afford to buy the motor," said Phillips.

It was a wish that was only granted years later following an unfortunate incident. In 2007 Phillips suffered a life-threatening heart attack. Teresa had to give him CPR for 25 minutes followed by five minutes of CPR by his daughter before the Thompson Falls Ambulance Service arrived and shocked his heart back to life.

After a stint was put in Phillips heart at St. Patrick's Hospital in Missoula and seeing the movie The Bucket List, which centers around two men fulfilling their life-long goals while they still can, Phillips decided it was time for he too to fulfill his personal ambitions.

"You never know what can happen and you don't put off things you've always wanted to do. Now I can afford the motors and stuff so I built three of those boats and we are currently building a fourth," said Phillips who also built two hydroplane boats for other people in Seattle.

Even though there is no money to be gained from boat racing or building hydro boats from scratch, Phillips has not only fulfilled one of his childhood dreams, but has also found tremendous success in the sport.

It has been a mere three years since Phillips built his first running hydroplane boat and entered his first race and he has already won the honors of National Champion for class one racers.

Hydroplane boats are divided into various classes based on style and speed. In each race, drivers are given a number of points depending on which place they finished in the race. Winners are decided based on an accumulation of points a driver gets from each race they compete throughout the year. Whoever gets the mostpoints, sanctioned by the American Outboard Federation, is given a trophy, which Phillips has already managed to win.

After traveling to races in Idaho and Washington with the Stateline Outboard Racing Association (SLORA), the organization decided to work in conjunction with the TCCIA to bring the races to Trout Creek.

Although the debris held up the races on Saturday, SLORA was still dedicated to giving curious spectators a taste of what the races are all about by putting on a boat show.

"We can't race today, but we will put on a fabulous boat show," said Cassandra Rutherford Eckberg from Rutherford Racing as she determinedly rounded up the boats to be pulled from the dock to the grounds of the Lakeside Motel.

Drivers were as disappointed by the cancellation as the eager spectators were because the racing course was unique, unlike any course most of the drivers had ever seen before.

"Normally the course is half of this, this is a mile course, usually they do a half-mile track, but with the water we have available and the spectators spread out so much, we thought we could set up for a bigger course because we wanted to give them as much as we could," said Harris.

Around 40 drivers were finally able to race the unique course Sunday as the races went on as planned. There were three racing categories, each with individual classes that raced on Sunday. The Stock Outboard, Mod Outboard and Nostalgia Flatbottoms were three boats seen hitting speeds as fast as 100 miles per hour on Sunday.

Tyler Surfus, who came from Wash. to participate in the race, has been a driver for six years. Like most drivers, Surfus built his boat by hand. The entire project took three months. Surfus said, in order to build a hydroplane boat, all there really needs to be is an entire structural support system, meaning a frame and a deck. His boat was mostly made out of sitka spruce, which is a really hard wood. Hydroplane boats only turn left with throttles that are powered by hand.

"They are made to fly above the water not into the water and when you turn you dig into the water and that slows the boat, but this is such a big race course too that we will go fast," said Surfus.

Harris and Phillips both said they will try and bring the races back to Trout Creek this August when the waters will most likely be clear and free of any debris.

Harris also said it is the goal of TCCIA to make the boat races an annual event.

"They really want to come back at the end of August and they've been told the water is much better then," said Phillips. "We thought this year there would be no problem because of the low snow pack, but all of the debris came down."