Brian Reinhart

Lee Reinhart tries to explain what drag-boat racing is all about – what it feels like to skim across the water at speeds of nearly 170 mph, hanging on so tight that you literally bend your steering wheel.

Reinhart has seen plenty of bent steering wheels in his day, and he plans to see many more this weekend at the High Desert Showdown drag-boat races on Haystack Reservoir near Culver.

”It’s a trip,” Reinhart says of drag-boat racing. ”That’s why we do it. If you’ve gone 40 miles an hour in a boat, you can imagine what 140 feels like.

”It’ll suck your cheeks back, boy.”

Reinhart, of Crooked River Ranch, is the main organizer of the High Desert Showdown, a Columbia Drag Boat Association (CDBA) event in its ninth year. The CDBA, which has about 150 members, is Division 6 of the International Hot Boat Association (IHBA), a sort of minor league of the IHBA.

The High Desert Showdown is one of eight races the CDBA stages each year in Oregon, California, and/or Arizona throughout the spring and summer.

Anyone with a drag boat is invited to compete at Haystack – entry fees range from $100 to $150 – and professional racers can compete as well. Racers are expected from Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Canada, including several Central Oregon competitors.

”Anybody can show up with their boat and race – we encourage that,” Reinhart says. ”It’s one big family. People will help them out.”

Timed qualifying – with one boat on the course at a time – will be held Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Head-to-head races will take place on Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The boats will race side by side for a distance of a quarter of a mile along Haystack Reservoir, just like car racing on a drag strip.

Racing classes range from 7-second Pro Modified to the 12- to 14-second River Racer (see box on this page).

Saturday’s qualifying will determine the race classes, and boats will race head to head on Sunday until eliminated. Racing usually includes about 10 boats per class, according to Reinhart.

Aside from being the race’s lead organizer, Reinhart is the crew chief for his son, driver Brian Reinhart of Redmond, and their boat, ”Untamed.”

The Reinharts have placed second in the 9-second Top Eliminator class in the last two CDBA events, and they’ve won their class in the High Desert Showdown three times.

”We’ve got a pretty good crew,” Brian Reinhart says. ”It takes a lot of people to make it work. If we win the next two races, we have a chance of winning the points championship (for 9-second class of CDBA).”

But aside from that, Brian, 29, just loves the feel of sizzling across the water at 120 mph, which is about as fast as his boat goes.

”It’s kind of like you’re in an airplane,” Brian says. ”The water looks like concrete.”

”Untamed” has about 800 to 900 horsepower, according to Lee Reinhart, who notes that some boats at this weekend’s event will boast up to 2,500 horsepower. He adds that boats have reached speeds as high as 218 mph on Haystack.

”These are basically hot rods on the water,” Lee Reinhart says, ”with a lot of custom paint jobs and a lot of big motors.”

Expected to compete on Saturday and Sunday is Shawn Reed of Redding, Calif., the top points holder in the 7-second Pro Modified class in the IHBA.

See Boats / D7

Also scheduled to race is Jay Brookhart of Longview, Wash., a two-time IHBA world champion in the Pro Modified class.

Less-competitive racers will also be allowed to race Jet Skis.

Lee Reinhart admits that drag-boat racing can be a dangerous sport, but he considers the CDBA rescue crew to be one of the top such crews in the United States.

”I’ve seen crashes, and those guys are on top of it,” Reinhart says.

There will also be an ambulance on site at the event, should it be needed.

The elder Reinhart notes that there were two crashes in the CDBA’s first event this year, the first such accidents in six years, he says. Racers were injured but have since recovered, according to Reinhart.

”It’s racing,” Reinhart says. ”You knock on wood. We feel confident in our safety and rescue squad.”

HIGH DESERT SHOWDOWN

What: Columbia Drag Boat Association race.

Where: Haystack Reservoir, west off U.S. Highway 97 near Culver, between Redmond and Madras.

When: Qualifying on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; head-to-head racing on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Cost for spectators: $10 on Saturday, $12 on Sunday; kids 12 and under are free.

Race Classes: 7-second Pro Modified; 8-second Pro Eliminator; 9-second Top Eliminator; 10-second Modified Eliminator; 11-second Stock Eliminator; 12-14-second River Racer.