Thrills at high speed: 20-year-old hydroplane racer making a splash, placed tops in national points standings last year

By ELIZABETH L. HARRISON for the Missoulian

Watch a video of Kayleigh Perkins describing how she got into hydroplane racing.

POLSON - Kayleigh Perkins admits she enjoys a good adrenaline rush.

But only when slicing through water at speeds of 140 mph while nestled inside the cockpit of her 1,000-horsepower hydroplane boat.

“I'm terrified of heights,” said the 20-year-old Perkins, perched atop her fiery Miss Boat Electric before Saturday's Radio Waves Regatta on the Flathead River in Polson. “I'm terrified of large animals and being on them. I'm conservative when it comes to some sports, but not this one.”

And in a sport typically dominated by older male competitors, Perkins has the right - and it turns out, winning - attitude.

The young woman has met plenty of opposition.

“Everybody is taking me seriously as a driver and knows that I'm competition and somebody to look out for,” said 20-year-old Kayleigh Perkins on Saturday during a pause in the action at the Radio Waves Regatta in Polson. Perkins drove her 1,000-horsepower Miss Boat Electric to first place in the Unlimited Light Hydroplane Racing Association's points standings last year and was also named rookie of the year. “I'm no longer under the radar,” says Perkins.
Photo by MICHAEL GALLACHER/Missoulian

“The first year was hard in this class because no one was really impressed that I was coming in,” Perkins said. “They just kind of thought I was going to get in the way.”

Instead, she became the first female to claim the Unlimited Light Hydroplane Racing Association points championship, and walked away with rookie of the year honors.

“I definitely surprised a few people. Everybody's now taking me seriously as a driver and knows that I'm competition and somebody to look out for,” she said, and added with a smile, “I'm no longer under the radar.”

Watching her older brother, Brian, now 23, receive similar recognition helped pique Perkins' interest in the sport as a teenager in Seattle.

After spending summers watching racing veterans zoom around the Seafair course from the family's 35-foot Bayliner yacht, Brian Perkins got involved in small races around the area.

His sister would tag along to help; watching Brian's success nurtured a desire to check out the sport for herself.

“I saw all the recognition he was getting and how much fun he was having, and I said, ‘All right, I want a piece of that,' ” she said, and added that at first she wasn't sure if it was possible.

“I was like, ‘I've never seen other girls do this, can I?' And (Brian) said, ‘Yeah, you can.' So I went out and tested, and I just fell in love with the sport.”

With the sun glinting off the Flathead River and the Mission Mountains cradling a spectacular backdrop, it would have been difficult not to fall in love with hydroplane racing on Saturday.

Temperatures reaching 80 degrees and cloudless skies drew a crowd in the thousands and backed up traffic for miles along Highway 93 with spectators eager to see for themselves the automotive-based racing boats that can range from 20 to 26 feet in length.

At the center of attention, yellow, white and red racecrafts lining the riverbank with open cockpits and crews grooming and feeding the high-compression motors with 114 octane racing gas.

Two cranes waiting to lower the boats into the water at race time loomed over the crowd, its members watching from lawn chairs and beach towels.

“I want autographs!” said Dylan McLeod, 9, lounging on a beach towel next to his cousin. Dylan's mom, Melodie McLeod of Kalispell, sat in a lawn chair behind her son. She and her husband brought the family to see the race because they had never seen anything like it.

Sonia Cubero, who brought her husband and grandchildren down, shared the same motive. Cubero was particularly excited to watch Perkins.

“I think it's great,” she said. “Women can do whatever men can do ... well, almost!”

Perkins' main competition, Gregg Hopp, who raced in the old Copper Cup Regatta in Polson 26 years ago at age 14, would agree.

“It doesn't really make a difference to me who I'm racing against,” he said, standing beside the yellow unlimited light boat he races with his father, Jerry. “It's really about the competition, so I'm not going to cut her any breaks, she's not going to cut me any. She already didn't cut me any last week.”

Perkins sped ahead of Hopp to a first-place win last week at the Pepsi Racing Power Cup Challenge in Chamberlain-Oacoma, S.D.

Such wins have gained Perkins considerable respect, according to Joe Frauenhein, president of the racing association and an owner of Miss Boat Electric.

“The unusual thing about her is, everybody looks at her and says, ‘Oh, yeah she's just a young girl with a pretty face that smiles and that's why she gets all the attention,' but really it's not. When you come down to it, she's extremely talented.”

At the racers' meeting, Perkins looked more like one of the racers' daughters as she poked fun at her brother Brian, who also raced in the unlimited lights class Saturday. But when she raised her hand to ask about the course layout, everyone knew Perkins wasn't just a bystander.

“For her age, to be that good, and not only that, but she's a female; not many 20-year-olds are doing it that well, and not many females are doing it that well,” said Brian Perkins. “So it's kind of cool to see her kind of come into her own and do well the way she's been doing.”

Perkins proved herself again Saturday after taking first in her heat. On Sunday, competitors will have another heat draw, and whoever has the most points will go on to the finals.

With the way things have been going, fans will probably see Perkins there.

And it doesn't look like she plans to give her competitors a break anytime soon.

“As long as I'm able to drive, I'm going to,” Perkins said. “If not, I'm just going to be involved in the sport somehow, because that's how much I love it.”