Greg Keating says after the first time he took off in a Power Boat, he was hooked.
“The advice I was given was to stand on it, go straight and scream like a girl, that’s it,” said Keating, who has been racing competitively for about a decade.
Keating is one of more than 40 racers expected to take part in the first annual North Bay Power Boat Races which will take place near the shores of Lake Nipissing on July 13 and 14.
Local organizers connected with Brent Valois, who is the secretary and a founder of the Ontario Power Boat Racing Association. The organization then sent some staff members to scout out the North Bay waterfront.
“We looked at two or three areas around North Bay and we just cannot get past the beauty of this particular area, even the spectator area, everything here is conducive to it,” said Valois after a Friday morning press conference at the waterfront.
The event will be headquartered at the North Bay Waterfront and will feature oval track/drag racing, vintage displays, vendors and kid’s entertainment.
Boaters will even have the opportunity to watch the action from the water.
Valois says their tour makes three Canadian stops in the summer and last year an event in Peterborough that had very little fanfare brought in more than 10,000 spectators for the weekend.
He believes announcing this event seven weeks in advance will be a huge benefit.
“This is the exposure we are looking for to get the people out,” said Valois noting the event will be free.
“We are hoping a huge crowd comes out in North Bay to watch this because it is extremely entertaining and we put on an event not just a race.”
