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Trevor Lefever and Ben Schlimmer are all smiles after they handily took first place in Saturday’s River Rat Race. Photo by Jared Robinson
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The New York duo paddled to the front from post-82 and left the field well behind on their way to victory. It was the second time in three years the team was victorious.
“It’s the first race of the year, but it’s definitely the most exciting race of the year. We’ve been amped up for a while and we got a clean start and we were almost away from the pack by the bridge. Usually something goes wrong, but we couldn’t have asked for a better start,” said Schlimmer.
The duo was perhaps the only team to have a good start as many of the top finishers complained about what became a messy situation back in Athol. Multiple boats tipped prior to the race which led to several trips up and down the river by the powerboats. Those trips led to a large number of waves that had yet to clear when the cannon sounded approximately five minutes later than the scheduled 1 p.m. start. That led to a mess for Dennis Carey and Dale Persons who finished seventh after drawing the top post position.
“Because so many people were flipping, the motorboats kept coming up and down,” said Carey. “They were telling us to back up, then move forward, then back up. Everybody was out of line and when the gun went off we had 20 boats already in front of us. They can’t keep going up and down in the motorboats. One time, that’s it.”
Tom Ellsworth shared Carey’s sentiment.
“The firemen really shouldn’t come up through at the start like that,” said Ellsworth. “They make chaos and they’re going to hurt somebody trying to help. Big waves two seconds before the cannon went off.”
Fortunately for the winners they were able to get through the mess and cruise to victory. Race runner-ups Matt Rudnitsky and Shane MacDowell (post-179) edged third place finishers Mike Schlimmer and Adam Gelinas (post-200) in a sprint to the finish. After starting well behind the race winners, the boats finally cleared the pack before racing each other for second. The two teams had a tough time dealing with the mess south of the bridge.
“Just below the bridge we t-boned a boat, got clear, then t-boned two more boats,” said Rudnitsky. “We saw all the fast teams behind us go by, so we knew we had a lot of work to do. It was a great time. We come out here for fun.”
The Rudnitsky and MacDowell boat spent much of the race pursuing Gelinas and Schlimmer for second. Once they caught up to them, they expected a two-boat race to the finish and worked together along the way.
“We took turns pulling to make sure no one caught us,” said Rudnitsky who noted his boat opened up their sprint a little early in an effort to lock up second place.
Matt King and Ellsworth placed fourth after starting at post-56. It was a great race for the duo.
“The paper mentioned the top three, but not us,” joked King of Saturday’s race preview. “We watched the leaders for the whole race.”
Ellsworth noted that their boat was positioned second for awhile before the power boats reeled them in.
“We feel great,” said Ellsworth of their effort. “We were hoping for something better, of course, but that’s what you always hope for.”
Peter Heed and Paul Facteau rounded out the top five with mixed winners Emma (Ross) Ellsworth and Jack Morse finishing sixth.
“I have to give a shout out to my new wife,” said (Tom) Ellsworth. “First in the mix again. She was trying to catch us, but there was no way (I was going to let that happen).”
It was the fifth straight River Rat Race in which Morse and Ellsworth have won the mixed division.
“We don’t think about mixed anymore,” said Morse. “We’re focused on catching these men’s teams.”
“We had a smooth start,” said Emma Ellsworth. “We collided a little bit with Chuck Baxter and Karen (Pleasant) and they let us go and told us good luck.”
Carey and Persons wound up seventh in what was a disappointing result for the 2006 champions.
“We were in 30th or 40th spot by Morton Meadows,” said Carey. “Very disappointing. It was just one of those days. We had speed, but we couldn’t get it together.”
Jason Lichtenberger and Jason Gauthier (post-50) finished eight with Al Shaver and Bob Zaveral (post-171) crossing ninth. Local paddlers John Berry (Petersham) and Brent Lyesiuk (Orange) rounded out the top-10. Berry and Lyesiuk, who started at post 229, passed 219 boats to win the Soucie-Forand Memorial Award.
“It seemed like it took forever for the cannon to go off,” said Lyesiuk. “But overall it was a good race.
“That was pretty painstaking,” said Berry. “Everybody was real congested this year and the boats weren’t lined up correctly. When the gun finally went off, we got jammed up more than usual and had our work cut out for us. Our goal was top 10 and we did that. If we didn’t get so jammed up, we might have done even better.”
Brothers Colin Fish and Zach Fish placed 17th overall. The high schoolers drew post-12 and were towards the front for much of the race.
Pam Fitzgerland and Vicki Cummings won the women’s division after finishing 33rd overall.
Chris Waslaske and Chris Waslaske Jr. won the James Canning Memorial Award as the top youth/adult boat. Source:
JOSH TALBOT ADN Sports Editor
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