Ready, set, go!
Ready, set, go!
Brad Bauer comes back for second Great Canoe Race victory with new team member
SOAP LAKE — Crossing the finish line as a member of the winning team for the second year in a row at the annual Great Canoe Race, Brad Bauer was feeling pretty good Saturday morning about the effort put forth by his two man team.
And Bauer should have as he and new race partner Steve Corlew completed the 17-and-a-half-mile race first in 2 hours 26 minutes, four minutes faster than last year when Bauer raced with his uncle Nick Bauer.
"We just wanted to go hard," Bauer said. "We get to train together and that makes a big difference."
The team's time did not beat the record for the race which was set in 1991 at 2 hours and 17 minutes.
Bauer has competed in races nationally on the East Coast and Corlew is a 2002 national champion.
Later this year the two will travel to Quebec for a 120 mile canoe race.
For their efforts the Bauer and Corlew team took home a $500 purse.
A total of 13 teams competed.
Minutes before the winning team approached shore, radio communication between check points indicated the No. 3 team was catching up to the Bauer and Corlew team.
Six minutes later the second place team of 8 people from the Soap Lake area, who took turns rowing, made a time of 2 hours 32 minutes.
Teams canoed through several lakes starting at Park Lake, carrying canoes as they ran over dry land on their way to the finish line in Soap Lake.
Sunny weather that was not unbearably hot made for favorable race conditions.
Kari Warner came to cheer on her team called the Irish National Racing Team.
Warner and roughly 40 family members had come for a family reunion, some traveling all the way from Oregon.
Waiting to give cheers of good luck right before start time Saturday, Warner wanted to make sure no more people from her team had any accidents like they did during practice the night before.
"Making sure they don't fall out," Warner said.
Sisters Chelsea and Liz Conklin out of Ephrata with team Prime Time were relaying portions of the race.
"Tipping over in the water in the middle of the lake," Chelsea said was her main worry.
A college crew team member, this was the first time Chelsea had competed in the Great Canoe Race.
Tipping over, however, was not a concern for one member of team Jo Mingus who came from Seattle to race.
"I'm not really nervous, just intrigued to see how tough it is," said Mark Erickson.
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