The crew at Team Faith sent us an official update of their weekend racing in Utah.
What an eventful week the Team Faith crew had going into Round 4 of the Pro Watercross Tour. The red sand beaches of Sand Hollow State Park in Hurricane, UT welcomed all the racers, but so did the heat! Temps in the 100+ range were the norm for the entire week. The Team Faith rig traveled to Lake Havasu City, AZ to tune and test the week before, and it’s a good thing we did. Lake Havasu City is the PWC capital of the world and the site of the World Finals of watercraft racing. We started the week with a near catastrophe, having broken a motor side drive coupler. Thanks to Chris Hyslop overnighting a new one, and Team Scream’s Chuck Quenzler for all the long hard hours in the heat trying to dial in Dawson’s and Kelly’s skis. The fun had just begun when we realized Kelly Smith mistakenly booked the wrong flight into the next round, and if all went perfect he would end up barely making his first moto in Sport GP. Fortunately, the Pro Watercross Tour officials put the Sport GP race last on Friday and Kelly made it to the race site with 10 minutes to spare! As only he can do with his God given talents, Kelly was given a courtesy site lap and then jumped on the ski to race. He got a great start and railed defending World Champion Billy Dearman and taking the 2nd position. Points leader Sam Nehme bolted out of the gate taking the holeshot, the lead and eventually the race win. Kelly rode to a 2nd in moto 1. Special thanks to all the Sport GP racers for agreeing to allow Kelly to at least get a site lap since he was late and did not get to learn the course in practice. Dawson Newby Amateur Ski Stock, Chuckie got his ski running so good that Dawson just about holeshotted both motos, but he wound up crashing sweeping around the first buoy. Dawson got some valuable “seat time” as it were… But spent a bunch of time getting up out of the tray from crashing through out his motos. But time is his friend and he will continue to get better.
Words from Team Manager/founder Brian O’Rourke.
Image: Greg Barnhart