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View Full Version : Boat racing has deep, wild history in Detroit Lakes



Serious News
06-09-2016, 11:51 PM
Detroit Lakes’ Holiday Inn will be a boater’s paradise on the weekend of June 18-19, with an antique and classic boat show in the west parking lot on Saturday and powerboat races on the lake both Saturday and Sunday.

The second annual Detroit Lakes Antique and Classic Boat Show is scheduled for Saturday, June 18 in the parking lot by the Holiday Inn, from noon to 4 p.m.

Also starting at noon on Saturday, June 18 is the Jerry Simison Memorial Quake the Lake Powerboat Races, which will continue on Sunday, June 19. Six different categories of boats will be raced on the waters of Big Detroit, with both days to include hot laps at noon and race heats starting at 1 p.m.

Though this will be the 10th annual event hosted by the Twin City Powerboat Association, the races were renamed this year in honor of the late Karl “Jerry” Simison, a legendary powerboat racer who lived in the Detroit Lakes area for many years.

His son Todd Simison, owner and proprietor of TS Dock & Lift in Detroit Lakes, says that Jerry raced multiple times on the waters of both Big Detroit and Pelican Lake, where they spent their summers during the majority of Jerry’s 20-year racing career.

“My dad raced boats for (motor sports legend) Roger Penske,” Simison said. “He raced all over the United States and several places overseas.”

Born in 1942, Jerry Simison began powerboat racing in his high school years. Over 20 years of racing, he and his Team Frustration crew won hundreds of races, earning more than 30 national and world championships. His accomplishments include being chosen for the All-American Racing Team; being named to the American Power Boat Association Hall of Champions in 1974; being chosen to be in the Gulf Marine Racing Hall of Fame in 1966; racing for Johnny Cash, who sponsored Marshall Grant’s (bass guitarist for Cash) boat; and being a longtime member of the Mercury Motor factory race team racing on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, Gulf of Mexico, and the Seine River in France, where he drove Penske’s 40-foot cigarette boat in a six hour race. His most memorable accomplishment was being chosen as the main driver for Penske Sunoco DX Ocean Racing Team.

Jerry Simison lived in Detroit Lakes in his later years, until his death in 2014. His son Todd recalls traveling with his mom to see his dad race until he was about 12 years old. Jerry’s power boat racing enabled Todd to visit several states, including Illinois, Florida, Washington, Colorado, Arkansas, Louisiana, Arizona, Georgia, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

“Back when my dad raced, it was a lot more dangerous,” Todd Simison said. “Driver deaths were high because they didn’t have safety capsules on the boats.”

The drivers also weren’t belted in, so when the ultra-light boats would flip over in high winds — something which still happens with alarming frequency – the drivers would be ejected from the boat at speeds well in excess of 100 miles per hour.

“Two of his best friends were killed, and my dad broke his hip,” Simison recalled, adding that his dad once had to watch one of his friends die right in front of his eyes during a race.

Today, drivers are not only belted in, he added, but the boat cockpits are enclosed in safety capsules that minimize the risks somewhat, although accidents still occur.

“Some of the capsules are equipped with oxygen tanks; some are not,” says Quake the Lake Racing Director Donny Lick.

“When you’re in a bad accident and can’t get out of the boat, if there’s no oxygen in there, it’s not going to go well for you,” he added.

So far, Lick noted, a total of 35 racers have committed to take part in the event across all six classes, “and we’ll probably have more before we’re done.”

Participants can range in age from 12 to 70, and encompass both sexes, he added; spectators who want to check out the racing boats that will be used can usually find them parked in the Holiday Inn lot starting on Friday night, when check-in begins, he added.

Simison said that one of the best things about the Quake the Lake races is that there is no cost to spectators.

“It’s free,” he added, “so even if you’re not that into racing, you can drive, bike, rollerblade or even boat over there to watch.”

In between racing classes, spectators might also want to check out the boat show in the hotel’s west parking lot. Like the races, it’s free, says event coordinator Cleone Stewart of the Detroit Lakes Chamber of Commerce.

“We’ll have both antique (vintage 1942 and older) and classic boats (built between 1943-1991) on display,” she said.

Boat owners may register their boats free of charge. In accordance with the Antique and Classic Boat Society’s rules, boats from 1991 and earlier are eligible for showing. Boats may be in original or restored condition and may be runabouts, utilities and row boats constructed of wood, aluminum or fiberglass.

Added this year is a Classic Glass fiberglass division so boaters are invited to bring out those beauties from the 1970s and 1980s, Stewart noted.

Though there is no cost to register for the boat show, participants are encouraged to sign up in advance so that there will be enough space to encompass all the entries, she added.

At last year’s inaugural antique and classic boat show, boats were represented from three Detroit Lakes area boat builders from the 1900s including an Ole Lind, 1948 Lund runabout and Noeske cedar strip bow boat.

The public was treated to several Chris Craft, Garwood, Larson and Falls Flyer models on display. Peter Waldon’s 1947 Century Seamaid won the People’s Choice award while Bill O’Keefe’s 1948 Chris Craft Deluxe grabbed the Skipper’s Choice award.

“The public and boaters alike are invited to vote for their favorite boat in each division,” Stewart said.

For updates on the races and registration information for the boat show, see the web page at visitdetroitlakes.com/events/boat-races-and-show, or call the Chamber at 218-847-9202.

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