KENNEWICK -- Ted Porter, who owns three boats in this weekend's fleet -- the U-5 Graham Trucking, the U-7 Valken.com and the U-57 Formulaboats.com -- loves his new rookie driver, Scott Liddycoat.
"You wouldn’t know that he’d never driven an unlimited hydroplane," Porter said of Liddycoat, who drives the U-7. "He’s got a great attitude. He’ll try anything. He’s confident but not reckless."
Porter went through a long process trying to find a new driver for the team.
"I looked at the outboard guys, the flat-bottom guys and the 5-litre guys," he said. "You absolutely have to get along with a bunch of guys in team racing."
The list was pared down to six guys with resumes.
"I narrowed it down to three and wanted to get (main driver) Jeff (Bernard) involved," Porter said. "But they were all friends of Jeff’s so he didn’t want to do that. So he left it to me. I chose Scott. I looked at his track record. He’s had a lot of seat time."
