Speedboats a spectacle at Buckhorn Reservoir

[

Wilson County residents went out to Buckhorn Reservoir over the weekend to watch about 50 competitors from up and down the East Coast compete in outboard motor boat races.

The Fall Wilson Shootout, organized by the Carolina Virginia Racing Association, included competitors from age 9 to 70 driving hydroplanes and runabout at speeds from 45 to 85 mph.

“I had no idea about it,” said Jerry Bissette, from the Rock Ridge community, who took his wife, Alice, out to watch the races. “It’s alright. I can’t imagine riding on your knees.”

Alice Bissette said it was her first time seeing such a thing.

“It is just interesting how little they are and how fast they are going,” she said.

Shawn Breisacher, commodore of the Carolina Virginia Racing Association, the CBRA, and stock outboard chairman for American Power Boat Association stock outboard category, said this is the 15th year that this fall racing event has been held at Buckhorn Reservoir.

“This is one of the greatest sites I come to to be honest with you,” Breisacher said. “The fact that the lake is pretty secluded, there’s not a lot of people to worry about in terms of upsetting people if the engines are too loud, knowing the fact that we have the whole lake to ourselves, it allows us to do different things. We can move the course if we need to because of the weather. We ran a marathon yesterday, which is a different kind of boat similar to what we race in closed course, but the marathons we set out buoys everywhere so there probably eight of 10 of us yesterday doing the marathon running all over this lake.”

The event was scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

“On Friday we were going to have our driver school. We invite new people to take a ride,” Breisacher said. “Unfortunately, we had that weather move through, so we postponed it to Saturday morning. It really went well. We had five people come through. We had a guy from Myrtle Beach, two guys from Australia, another lady from New Hampshire and then one from Florida.”

Breisacher said boat drivers came from Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia.

“New Hampshire is probably our farthest one, and you have everywhere in between,” Breisacher said.

Edwin Castro of Wilson went out to watch the races with friend and fellow mechanic Joseph Colon.

“We’re just trying to watch something new out here in Wilson.  It’s my first time being here. It’s the perfect place,” Castro said. “I’ve got boats, jets skis and stuff like that. That’s why I’m here watching them. I’ve seen some nice little two stroke engines, so they got to be fast, those two engines. I’m a mechanic. That’s the main reason why I am here. Anything that has an engine or anything that races we’re out trying to watch it.”

Jerry Bissette said he would have liked to try driving one of the boats in his younger years.

But Colon felt differently.

“I think this is awesome, but me personally, I wouldn’t do it,’ Colon said. “I like to stay on the land.”

The post Speedboats a spectacle at Buckhorn Reservoir first appeared on Restoration NewsMedia .