SEATTLE – Winning is nothing foreign to David Bryant.
He’d just like to get reacquainted with it.
Bryant, 42, of Mesa, Ariz., is a rookie driver for the Miss Hoss Mortgage Investors U-10 unlimited hydroplane, owned by Kim and Debbie Gregory of Las Vegas.
But he is a rookie in name only. Bryant has raced boats for 10 years, having won a national championship in the Super Stock Racing Association and a Pro Stock National Championship in 2006, along with Super Stock Rookie of the Year in 1997.
Now in his first year in unlimited hydroplanes, Bryant’s learning curve is nearly vertical.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Bryant said. “You just have to trust the boat.”
Yeah, sure. Trust a boat that can whip down the straightaways at 200 mph. Trust a boat that bounces and jumps along the water’s surface like a ping-pong ball in an air popper. Trust a boat you’ve seen all the film on, including the clips that show it catch air underneath, lift off, flip six times and dive underwater.
Yeah. Trust the boat.
Like you trust the other drivers.
But trust entails respect, and Bryant has raced boats long enough that respect comes easily.
It helps that the Gregorys recognize that this is a rebuilding year. Ownership would love to stick with a driver as it did with George Stratton, who showed great promise in 2000 until he died from injuries he sustained in a crash while testing in San Diego.
Bryant may be the one.
“David is the closest to George I’ve seen,” Kim Gregory said.
It’s been an interesting season. Bryant’s first experience with driving a hydroplane came in the first race of the season, June 29 at the Evansville (Ind.) Freedom Festival. He finished fifth.
The next week in Madison, Ind., Bryant hit some debris in the Ohio River, broke a prop and caused such damage to the shaft, deck and gearbox, the team had to skip the Gold Cup race in Detroit to finish repairs.
“That wasn’t David’s fault,” Gregory said. “He should have more time in the boat than he has. Four weeks into this and he’s only had two races. The propeller we broke really screwed us up.”
Since then, Bryant has shown signs of getting it. He finished third in Tri-Cities and qualified second at Seafair at 154.119 mph Saturday.
“The boat’s good,” Bryant said. “The boat is as competitive as the top three out there. But I’m still not sticking my nose in there. If there’s an opening in Lane 1, I’m comfortable. The boat down low, when everybody’s playing their fighting game, it gets the windshield all wet and I can’t see. I’m just not ready to shoot in when I can’t see in front of me.”
Gregory is patient. He won’t push Bryant to do something he’s not comfortable with. He applies no pressure on his driver. He largely leaves Bryant alone.
“It’s not my (keister) in the cockpit,” he said.
When he’s not racing boats, Bryant owns Aircraft Interior Designs, Inc., which reupholsters aircraft interiors from single-engine Cessnas to Gulf Stream IV jets. His seat covers have buttressed the bottoms of the last three U.S. Presidents in their official aircraft.
“We started with George Bush Sr., and the seats were brown,” Bryant said. “They were blue when the Clintons got into office and they’re still blue.”
Then there are his obligations with his more familiar racing. Following Seafair, Bryant will fly home, then fly to Long Beach, Calif., for a K Boat Series race.
” (My wife Leanna and I) are not big vacation-takers,” he said. “The biggest vacation we ever took was two weeks. We went to Australia. It was for a boat race.”
Sports columnist John Sleeper: sleeper@heraldnet.com
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