Schlotthauer, Yackel lead USA Jet River Racing Series
<p>Chad and Willie Burns won the Overall and Unlimited classes at the Race the Joe! jet river race in St. Maries recently.</p>
ST. MARIES - A local jet boat racing team still leads the 2014 USA 1 Jet River Racing Series standings heading into the final race of the season Aug. 22-24 at Lewiston.
Driver Ross Schlotthauer of Post Falls and navigator Chad Yackel of Spokane Valley are atop the standings.
The team finished fourth in the Unlimited Class and fourth overall at the Race the Joe! event May 23-25 in St. Maries. That followed a second-place finish overall at the World Jet Boat River Marathon Race in Mexico May 3-11.
At St. Maries, the team had a time of 2 hours, 3 minutes and two seconds. Teams raced four 25-mile legs each day from St. Maries to Calder for a total of 200 miles.
Twenty-six teams from three countries competed at the St. Maries race.
Race officials estimated the largest crowd ever for the event, with 7,000 to 10,000 people lining the riverbank to watch teams from Canada, New Zealand and the United States race at speeds up to 140 mph.
"We had more fans and more teams this year than when we were a part of the 2013 USA World Jet Boat Marathon Championship," Race Director Shirley Ackerman said.
Canadian driver Chad Burns of Peace River, Alberta and navigator Willie Burns of Grimshaw, Alberta won both the Overall and Unlimited classes, with a time of 1 hour, 59 minutes and 12 seconds. The son-father team are the Canadian Jet Boat Series 2013 champions. That series starts at Grande Prairie, Alberta, June 20-22.