'He's kind of a racer's racer'
—Courtesy photo Sagle hydroplane racer Rob Hall skims the water at more than 150 miles per hour at the 2015 Western Divisional race at Black Lake, Wash. Hall’s season ended when he wrecked his boast in a spectacular crash last August in the Tri-Cities.
—Courtesy photo Rob Hall, center, celebrates last year with crew chief Bruce Brown, right, and crew prop specialist Jeff Schneider, left, after finishing second in a race in Washington last year. The crew is seeking local sponsorship for upcoming races.
By ERIC PLUMMER
Sports editor
SANDPOINT — From drag racing to sprint cars, motorcycles to hydroplanes, if it has an engine, there’s a damn good chance Rob Hall has raced it.
The 64-year-old from Sagle got his first taste of racing when he was 9 years old, and he’s been putting the hammer down on the throttle ever since.
Sometimes perhaps a little too much, as he discovered last year while spinning through the air at roughly 160 miles per hour in a hydroplane crash at the Tri-Cities Water Follies. The wreck can be seen by doing a YouTube search for “Tri-Cities GP-74 Rob Hall Flip 2015.”
Hall doesn’t need to watch the video, he experienced the harrowing crash first-hand, a byproduct of a natural born racer pushing things to the limit.
“You’re trying to go as fast as you can and keep your boat on the water,” explains Hall, who thanks to a protective ballistic capsule jacket walked away from the crash with no injuries.
“It rang my bell, I can tell you that. Divers extracted me from the boat; they’re the greatest.”
Hall will be looking for a little redemption starting Friday, when he and crew chief Bruce Brown, also from Sagle, put the H-1 unlimited hydroplane back in the water for the first time this year at the hugely-popular Water Follies this weekend in the Tri-Cities.
Like all good racers, Hall will learn from his previous mistake, when he attacked a first heat with too much gumption and paid the price when the wind and chop sent him plummeting through the air.
“I should have gotten off the throttle, realized it was light. That was a bad day, for sure. The boat was brand new last year and it tore the whole left side of the boat completely off,” recalls Hall, who remembers the crash well. “There’s the standard expletive, ‘oh blank.’ You’re just hanging on for the ride then.”
Racing is a passion for Hall, and Brown as well, but it’s an expensive one. Competing in the upper echelon of Hydroplane racing isn’t cheap.
For instance, they’ll drop more than $500 in methanol fuel alone this weekend, used to power an engine that costs $75,000, weighs more than three tons and has shaft turbines from a Chinook helicopter.
When tearing up the Columbia River by way of 1.6-mile laps in front of nearly 100,000 spectators, the 1,400-horsepower engine will guzzle a whopping nine gallons of gas per minute.
“We call it ‘stupid expensive,’” concedes Hall. “A typical race weekend is between $5,000-10,000.”
Ah, but Hall can drive, and ever since taking up hydroplane racing 15 years ago, he’s made quite a name for himself in the sport, often referred to as NASCAR on water.
Except boats don’t have suspensions, like cars. And water isn’t smooth like asphalt. So the G-force is about four times that of a race car, prompting Hall to say “we turn incredibly hard.”
Brown, the crew chief, has a front row seat for the action, and calls Hall a well-respected, hard driver.
“When the boat’s running right, he thinks it should be full throttle from the start to the finish,” describes Brown of Hall. “I’ve been around racing since I was a little kid. He’s kind of a racer’s racer.”
Hall admits winning isn’t everything, that much of his interest lies in simply making the boat faster. But he’s still won two national titles, and since graduating to the big-boy Grand Prix class, is actively seeking a third.
So it goes when racing is in your blood. When asked what he loves most, Hall didn’t hesitate in answering the challenge.
“The thrill on the water is indescribable. It’s different every time,” says Hall, who will run five heats over three days this weekend. “You have to jockey for your lanes, it’s way harder than anything I’ve done. That’s why I love boat racing.”
The Water Follies, which will be televised on SWX locally, will be followed by the Seattle Seafair, which is seen by millions on television, and possibly other races this fall in San Diego and Washington.
Brown says the crew has always self-funded, but since they now compete at the highest level, are actively pursuing a corporate sponsor to help with costs. After winning national titles in 2007-08, the crew is hoping to nab another, and with Brown fine tuning the engine, anything is possible.
“I like the mechanical challenge of it. I love puzzles. How are we going to do this better than they are?” asks Brown, noting he’s always loved competition. “We have two national championships in smaller boats, we’re going for three.”
The cost to repair the boat was steep, so you can imagine how happy the crew will be when the starting flag flies for Friday Night’s Dash for cash. Heats will continue Saturday, before the finals on Sunday.
Bob Wright, marketing director for the Grand Prix hydroplanes, is hoping to see Hall bounce back with a strong showing after last year’s crash.
“It knocked him out for the whole season, there was a lot of damage to the boat. In Tri-Cities, you get this wind, and it’s unpredictable. He hit a bounce and wind at the same time,” remembers Wright. “He wants to redeem himself. He has no problem putting the hammer down on a boat.”
Hall, who calls himself a “regular working guy,” wished to thank his local sponsors 7B TV, Cascade Toboggan, Timbersled and Tamarack Aerospace, and noted the crew is currently seeking a corporate sponsor for future races.
To inquire about sponsorship opportunities, contact Brown at 1-818-298-9235.