Thrills at high speed: 20-year-old
hydroplane racer making a splash, placed tops in national points standings last
year
http://videos.missoulian.com/p/video?id=2009975
By ELIZABETH L. HARRISON for
the Missoulian
POLSON - Kayleigh Perkins admits she enjoys a good
adrenaline rush.
But only when slicing through water at speeds of 140 mph
while nestled inside the cockpit of her 1,000-horsepower hydroplane boat.
“I'm terrified of heights,” said the 20-year-old Perkins,
perched atop her fiery Miss Boat Electric before Saturday's Radio Waves Regatta
on the
And in a sport typically dominated by older male
competitors, Perkins has the right - and it turns out, winning - attitude.
The young woman has met plenty of opposition.
“The first year was hard in this class because no one was
really impressed that I was coming in,” Perkins said. “They just kind of
thought I was going to get in the way.”
Instead, she became the first female to claim the Unlimited
Light Hydroplane Racing Association points championship, and walked away with
rookie of the year honors.
“I definitely surprised a few people. Everybody's now
taking me seriously as a driver and knows that I'm competition and somebody to
look out for,” she said, and added with a smile, “I'm no longer under the
radar.”
Watching her older brother, Brian, now 23, receive similar
recognition helped pique Perkins' interest in the sport as a teenager in
After spending summers watching racing veterans zoom around
the Seafair course from the family's 35-foot Bayliner yacht, Brian Perkins got
involved in small races around the area.
His sister would tag along to help; watching Brian's
success nurtured a desire to check out the sport for herself.
“I saw all the recognition he was getting and how much fun
he was having, and I said, ‘All right, I want a piece of that,' ” she said, and
added that at first she wasn't sure if it was possible.
“I was like, ‘I've never seen other girls do this, can I?'
And (Brian) said, ‘Yeah, you can.' So I went out and tested, and I just fell in
love with the sport.”
With the sun glinting off the Flathead River and the
Temperatures reaching 80 degrees and cloudless skies drew a
crowd in the thousands and backed up traffic for miles along Highway 93 with
spectators eager to see for themselves the automotive-based racing boats that
can range from 20 to 26 feet in length.
At the center of attention, yellow, white and red racecrafts
lining the riverbank with open cockpits and crews grooming and feeding the
high-compression motors with 114 octane racing gas.
Two cranes waiting to lower the boats into the water at
race time loomed over the crowd, its members watching from lawn chairs and
beach towels.
“I want autographs!” said Dylan McLeod, 9, lounging on a
beach towel next to his cousin. Dylan's mom, Melodie McLeod of Kalispell, sat
in a lawn chair behind her son. She and her husband brought the family to see
the race because they had never seen anything like it.
Sonia Cubero, who brought her husband and grandchildren
down, shared the same motive. Cubero was particularly excited to watch Perkins.
“I think it's great,” she said. “Women can do whatever men
can do Š well, almost!”
Perkins' main competition, Gregg Hopp, who raced in the old
Copper Cup Regatta in Polson 26 years ago at age 14, would agree.
“It doesn't really make a difference to me who I'm racing
against,” he said, standing beside the yellow unlimited light boat he races
with his father, Jerry. “It's really about the competition, so I'm not going to
cut her any breaks, she's not going to cut me any. She already didn't cut me
any last week.”
Perkins sped ahead of Hopp to a first-place win last week
at the Pepsi Racing Power Cup Challenge in
Such wins have gained Perkins considerable respect,
according to Joe Frauenhein, president of the racing association and an owner
of Miss Boat Electric.
“The unusual thing about her is, everybody looks at her and
says, ‘Oh, yeah she's just a young girl with a pretty face that smiles and
that's why she gets all the attention,' but really it's not. When you come down
to it, she's extremely talented.”
At the racers' meeting, Perkins looked more like one of the
racers' daughters as she poked fun at her brother Brian, who also raced in the
unlimited lights class Saturday. But when she raised her hand to ask about the
course layout, everyone knew Perkins wasn't just a bystander.
“For her age, to be that good, and not only that, but she's
a female; not many 20-year-olds are doing it that well, and not many females
are doing it that well,” said Brian Perkins. “So it's kind of cool to see her
kind of come into her own and do well the way she's been doing.”
Perkins proved herself again Saturday after taking first in
her heat. On Sunday, competitors will have another heat draw, and whoever has
the most points will go on to the finals.
With the way things have been going, fans will probably see
Perkins there.
And it doesn't look like she plans to give her competitors
a break anytime soon.
“As long as I'm able to drive, I'm going to,” Perkins said.
“If not, I'm just going to be involved in the sport somehow, because that's how
much I love it.”
Copyright © 2008 Missoulian