By William Walti
BOAT AND MOTOR SPECIFICATIONS
Name and number: "In the Mood", P87
Hull: WRAP composite
Length: 15 ft. 6 in.
Top speed: 103 mpg
Weight empty: 1,700 pounds
Driver's weight: 280 pounds
Rider Bob Jones: 180 pounds
Prop size: 11.5"x16"
Motor: 314 cubic-inch SB Chevy
Horsepower: 600
Max rpm's: 9,800- 10,000
Compression ratio: 14.75:1
Fuel Octane: 118
Weight oil: 50 Redline Synthetic
Heads: Chapman, Salt Lake City, UT
Motor builder: Skip Govia Racing Engines, Hayward, Calif.
Power transmission: Direct drive, chain coupling
Sponsors: Redline Oil; Dales Speed Marine, Hesperia, CA
Racing club affiliation: California Speedboat Association
Cracker Box information: Jim Matthew — (760) 948-2869
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Many weekends, when Jim Matthew comes off his California-Oregon run, he climbs into his Cracker Box Racing Runabout and goes racing.
Often, he has no time to rest or sleep at his home in Hesperia, Calif., because he has a race in 8 to 10 hours in Copperopolis, Calif., Long Beach, Calif., Parker, Ariz., or some other racecourse location, hundreds of miles away.
Charged by his joy of boat racing and self-propelled on a chase after the High Points title, the lack of sleep doesn't bother 56-year-old Matthew.
Truckers are unlikely candidates to conduct a program dedicated to earning a national motor sports title. Being on daily long- haul means they generally lack the freedom and flexibility to pull it off. The scheduling, the expenses involved, the process of getting it done and the commitment to task, demands someone with a burning will. This is a story of a man who has managed his hectic trucker schedule and complicated race routine quite well.
The coupling of his racing hobby to his OTR schedule has caused Matthew some grief over the years. This trucker is a sleeper-driver for Roadway Express, Inc., on a double-loop run from Bloomington, Calif., to Portland, Ore. He leaves home base Tuesday at 6:30 am, makes two complete round trips to Portland, and returns to Bloomington, Saturday at 3 am, freeing the weekend for racing. Good thing he's single.
The job wasn't always this accommodating to his sport. Until a couple of years ago, he didn't have enough seniority to bid for open-weekend trips. Since the weekend is not enough time to get to distant races, Matthew drops his second loop to Portland.
Matthew competes in 20 boat races a year and most require him to head out as soon as he gets home, 56 miles from Bloomington. He pulls his 28-foot enclosed racing trailer through the early morning hours, arriving at the race site 2 to 3 hours before the boat goes into the water for its first heat. His crew gets the boat race-ready while he naps for an hour. The racing is worth all of the hassle.
Why does Matthew do it? "I race to do something different that I enjoy," he says. "On the weekend, it's something to do to let my nerves hang out after being cooped-up all week."
When Matthew describes what it feels like to race a Cracker Box, you see the fun of it all.
"Can you imagine a dragster coming off the line?" he says. "You bank around a corner-all turns are left turns-and stand on it. You're sitting behind 600 horses in a 16-foot boat. You feel huge G-forces on your body. Now you're going hard left, so you pull the wheel hard right. You press heavy on the gas pedal and again the boat veers left. This Cracker Box is like a sprint car on dirt. The zigzagging continues for about 25 feet down course. When you punch it on the straightaway, the torque slams you back into the beltless seat and the boat roars ahead."
As bouncy as a stone skipping across water, as eccentric as a squirrel darting constantly, and as waggly as a light plane in wind gusts, the Cracker Box delights and excites spectators.
Matthew began boat racing in 1969, at age 19. A friend bought a used B-Racing Runabout, a 14-foot boat with a fuel-injected Falcon inboard engine. "He didn't know how to do motors," Jim says, " so I started helping him." The next year Jim's friend bought a new one and sold the old one to Matthew. "I went out and beat him," he says. "That hooked me."
Following the "B" boat, he raced 280-cubic-inch Hydroplanes for a few years. Then in 1983 he bought a Cracker Box and has remained loyal to the class-even though it's expensive to race. Matthew estimates he spent $30,000-$32,000 to chase the title last year. "It's a hundred bucks alone for a tank of fuel for my 1-ton 'dually' pick-up."
His strategy for the 2004 High Points title was to show up to as many races as possible and place 1st and 2nd with a few 3rds. When the season ended in October, Matthew had more 1st and 2nd place finishes than any other Cracker Box racer in the country. He now owns the title: "2004, APBA Cracker Box High Points Champion."
Now Jim is ready to do it all over again. "I do it for the challenge," he says, "and because it is so much fun-I love it."
