By KAREN PRICE
Tribune Live
The wind that helped make the day so pleasant for spectators at the Three Rivers Regatta created dangerous conditions for powerboat racing Friday on the Allegheny River.
However, despite two qualifying heats not running as scheduled in the afternoon, river conditions settled enough by evening to allow the North American Championships and F2 Superleague final races to go on.
Ashton Rinker, 29, of Riverview, Fla., won the North American Championship in the SST120 motor class, and his brother, Robert Rinker, 27, won the SST200 class as well as the F2 Superleague Final combining both classes. Each race was 10 laps.
“It was somewhat manageable,” Robert Rinker said of the conditions when racing finally started at 7 p.m. “It's still kind of a guessing game in those turns. You go in, look for the best lines and pray there isn't a roller just past it.
“We were able to kind of go low and slow once we got out front, keep the boat settled on the river so it doesn't pop and get crazy. It still did a couple times on me, but I think that's where we got it on the other guys — we were able to carry speed into the turns a little bit further without letting off the throttle and keeping the boat on the water.
