Saturday, Jul. 28, 2007

Perkins, U-21 get conservative water time

By Jody Moore, hydro.commentator

Rookie driver Brian Perkins knows he's fighting an uphill battle. His ride, the U-21 Meyers Auto Tech, is brand new. And while the team is working to sort out the bugs on an all-new boat, Perkins is trying to get used to driving something that big. And he couldn't be happier.

Perkins steps up to the Unlimited class after a season in the UL-40 Miss Red Dot unlimited light. If you think the name sounds familiar, it might be because he won that team's first race in Issaquah, Wash. last year. Or it might be that sister Kayleigh Perkins is driving the UL-72 Miss Boat Electric this year. Either way, it's been a fun transition.

"It's pretty exciting. (The boat is) really big and it's a handful, but it's something I've got to get comfortable with," he said.

Perkins took his first laps in the boat early in the morning session, and circled the course at a barely registering 115 mph lap before shutting the boat down when the gearbox oil pressure dropped.

"Rather than take a chance and burn up some equipment, we shut the boat off and saved the gearbox," he said. "Just taking precautions."

Perkins took over for Kevin Aylesworth, who bowed out of the drivers' seat after a devastating fire in Seattle burned the team's old boat to ashes. The cause of that accident was believed to be a gearbox oil-related issue, with the oil feeding the blaze even while Seattle Fire boats pounded the wreckage with retardant foam.

After making the jump to the unlimited class, Perkins is taking his time trying to get his feet wet the right way. He also said the team is trying to bide its time and have a decent showing at their hometown race in San Diego in September. They missed that race completely last year because of the fire.

"We don't want to go and break anything this weekend. We want to have something to go play with in San Diego," he said. "It's going to take a little while for everybody to get used to this boat and get warmed up to it. Everybody on this crew including myself is brand new to it."

Perkins ran a 137.186 lap later on in the day to get the boat qualified but still needs a number of laps to get himself qualified as a driver. He must run a minimum of 15, and most of those need to be at or over 130 mph. If Perkins is unable to qualify as a driver, Aylesworth is ready in the wings as backup driver, and will take over the cockpit for the weekend.

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