Henderson battles weather for third place

Bill Henderson had his worst race of the season at Thunder on the Bay in Pisgah Bay this past weekend. But the worst race for Henderson means a third-place finish, which would be a landmark achievement for most racers.

Henderson’s loss on Sunday came to the eventual race winner.

“In our third round we got paired against a guy that beat me in St. Louis a few weeks ago,” Henderson said. “So there was a little bit of a grudge match going on.”

On this particular race weekend though, Henderson’s rival was just a tad better.

“We figured my boat got there about three-eighths of an inch too early,” Henderson said. “I screwed up, but it is what it is.”

It’s hard for Henderson to feel too bad about a third-place finish, especially when the two racers closest to him in the points standings were eliminated in the first two rounds.

Henderson holds the points lead in both the Kentucky Drag Boat Association and the International Hot Boat Association.

In the St. Louis Drag Boat Association, Henderson holds second place in the points standings, but only because the leader, Greg Carr with 1386 points, has run one more race than Henderson, who trails by only 46 points.

“If the guy that knocks you out is the guy that wins the race, what do you do,” Henderson said. “It was our worst running of the year and we still got third. We’re very happy with that.”

Henderson and the other racers at Thunder on the Bay waited until 3 p.m. Saturday to take their first qualifying runs after battling rain all day. Qualifying went on until 8 p.m. that night, with Henderson qualifying second.

“Those guys up there did a great job of getting everything moving so we could get in three rounds Saturday,” Henderson said.

Henderson and the team were especially ecstatic to get the third-place finish in Kentucky because of the team’s current under-funding.

“We are under-funded something fierce,” Henderson said. “There are about 10 boats there that have way more funding than we do, but we still manage to beat them. We were really excited about that.”

Henderson said he hopes the team got its down week out of its system in Kentucky, especially with a big race this weekend in Augusta, Ga.

“This Augusta race coming up for us is a big, big deal,” Henderson said. “We’re really looking forward to it this weekend.”