Resident racer

If a painter were to dedicate a work of art to the life of Brent Harnack, the canvas would either have to be quite large or very crowded. That’s because the 54-year-old Spokane Valley resident’s life is jammed full of accomplishments, and people who are very important to him.

He’s a record-setting outboard hydroplane racer and a dedicated family man. And he’s always ready for new challenges.

This weekend he’ll drive a flat-bottom nostalgia class boat at Tastin’ ‘N Racin’ on Lake Sammamish near Seattle. And later this summer he hopes to set an American Powerboat Association national mile record. In preliminary testing, Harnack shattered the mark by a full 10 mph.

Harnack owes much of his success in life and racing to his grandfather, Lawrence Reichert.

“He was my mentor,” said Harnack. Reichert was also a father figure for Harnack who said his biological father was never a part of his life.

Reichert was a pioneer boat racer who got Harnack into boat racing nearly 50 years ago. Reichert gave Harnack his first boat at age 6, a Johnson-powered 12-foot outboard. Harnack raced at places like Hauser Lake and Newport.

And even when Harnack wasn’t able to race, his granddad was watching over his best interests. When Harnack went into the Army in 1967 and was shipped off to Vietnam, he wouldn’t lose ground in the national points, because Reichert, at 67, took over racing the boat and won the championship.

When he returned from the service in 1971, Harnack purchased a 13-foot Ron Jones cab-over. It turned out to be a short season.

Harnack took his new boat to a race in Ione, Wash. A sheriff’s boat was coming upriver from Box Canyon Dam. The boat created a series of rollers that were nothing unusual for normal powerboats, but for the small hydroplanes speeding along at nearly 100 mph, it was the recipe for disaster.

Harnack remembers he could have slowed and “stuffed the boat in a wave,” or sped up and jumped over them. He chose the latter and struck the third wave, crashed and destroyed the boat and landed in the hospital for two weeks with a cracked neck.

The following season, Harnack was back on the horse that bucked him. He found a replacement boat in Texas.

Harnack and “The Chief” as his grandfather was known, went to test on the Pend Oreille River. They couldn’t get the boat to run right no matter what. So on a hunch, Reichert discovered the piston was in backward. When the problem was corrected the boat was nearly unstoppable and won four straight Region 10 championships.

Harnack began racing “kneeler” boats, where the driver kneels to drive. In a kneeler boat the vibration and shaking was often so severe that your eyes would cross and you couldn’t see, Harnack said.

Later the technology evolved into “lay-downs” where drivers were sprawled on their stomach in the slender cockpit. “You’re basically laying on a piece of 3/8-inch plywood, inches above the water and traveling at over 100 miles per hour.”

After an unsuccessful run at a national record in 1995 that was derailed by mechanical problems, Harnack retired from driving for four years.

Fearful that area boat racing might be dying, Harnack and Roy Mackey helped form a new promotional group, Northwest Water Competition. They brought American Outboard Federation racing to the region, and it rekindled Harnack’s racing spirit.

Time on the beach never seemed to affect Harnack’s keen competition abilities. He went on to win AOF high point titles in three consecutive years plus a national short-course speed record.

The rewards of a long boat racing career are very simple for Harnack. “There’s no money (in it), but it’s great therapy. It tests your mind.”

Away from racing, a place where Harnack rarely finds himself, he operates H&S Marine, which he founded 14 years ago. He started the enterprise with an investment of just $500 and now does business in the low six figure range.

The business, originally located in the Spokane Valley on Indiana, ironically, has now relocated to the North Side in the same building where Harnack first worked in the business, the former Dahl Marine.

Harnack is married to Robin, and is the father of Josh, 21, and Nikki, 20. All of the family participates in racing in some way. Josh stepped out of being quarterback for East Valley High’s football team and into his racing clothes. And he’s done it quite successfully.

In 2003, Josh got his first boat. The new driver, was, as his dad said, “putting a whipping on ‘em!” Like his dad, the younger Harnack set a 3/4-mile course record and was within two-tenths of a second of breaking the mile mark.

Brent Harnack is not so sure he’d ever want to drive an unlimited hydroplane, but if the offer came to pilot one of the unlimited lights he’d jump at the chance.

For now he’ll take on the challenge of running a class of racing boat that is new to him, the Nostalgic Flat Bottoms.

Even though he’s a rookie in the class, Harnack will call on experience and tricks from his hydro racing days to get a leg up on the veterans.

“I’m a good starter,” Harnack said. He’ll monitor the traditional blackout clock that kicks into motion one minute before the start of the race and slowly turns from bright orange to black.

“I like the outside of the course,” Harnack explained. “If I get in trouble I have a way out.” These 18-foot boats can be a handful as they reach speeds of 90 to 95 mph.

This is a new experience for Harnack. Hydros are made to turn left. “I can drive a hydro into a corner at 120 miles per hour,” Harnack said. On the other hand, flat bottoms were originally designed as drag boats made to go straight.

Harnack was approached by Boyd Schnell to drive a third boat for Schnell who has helped build the flat bottom class for Northwest Water Competition.

Schnell’s wife, Robin, drives in the class as well and offers motivation for Harnack in his debut in the Ski Class. “I can’t get beat by a girl,” Harnack said.