Watercross: National titles on line at IJSBA regular season finale

After a three-year absence before last weekend's triumphant return to the Los Angeles area, the nation's top personal watercraft racers of the International Jet Sports Boating Association (IJSBA) will end their 2001 season this weekend as the IJSBA Moto Surf in Ventura.

Presented by 180 -- the new energy drink from Anheuser-Busch -- the IJSBA Moto Surf will be the final round of the eight-race 2001 Skat-Trak Pro Watercross Tour, celebrating the 20th year of IJSBA pro racing.

Featuring the McGraw Pro Freestyle Showdown during two full days of personal watercraft (PWC) racing along with the colorful Performance Alley, the IJSBA Moto Surf will be held Saturday and Sunday at San Buenaventura State Beach in Ventura with racing on the surf of the Pacific Ocean.

Qualifying heat races begin at 9:15 a.m. each day with finals at 1 p.m. Experts race Saturday and the high-flying Pros hit the water on Sunday.

Nearly 200 Pro and Expert riders will be competing on the unpredictable ocean surf in Ventura in 15 classes of high-speed PWC in the final race of the 2001 Skat-Trak Pro Watercross Tour. With sanction and rules from the IJSBA, PM Sports Marketing of Chesterfield, Mich., produces the series, and Tim Trombley's M3 Events of Anaheim, Calif. is co-producing the two Los Angeles area events. Twenty years of IJSBA pro racing will culminate in Ventura with the official crowning of the 2001 IJSBA National Champions.

IJSBA racing returns to Ventura for just the second time (1998 was the first) and the event will be the 228th race in the 20-year IJSBA national tour history.

As the 2001 national tour ends in Ventura after last week's stop in Long Beach and events in Georgia, Florida, Texas, New York and Michigan, several Southern California national tour regulars are leading or among the leaders in their respective classes. That group of racers are expected to be joined by nearly 30 other regional racers from Southern California who will compete in the last of two Los Angeles area stops, hoping to qualifying for the 20th Annual IJSBA Watercross World Championships, to be held Oct. 7-14 in Lake Havasu City, Ariz.

"Last weekend in Long Beach saw some incredible racing and the largest crowd of the year for the national tour," said Trombley. "The surf and sand in Ventura add a colorful dimension to the event, which will create an even more dramatic stage for the season finale. It's a great way to say 'happy 20th' to the IJSBA."

Southern California's Chris MacClugage (Canyon Lake), Jeff Jacobs (El Cajon), Victor Sheldon (Vista), Dustin Motzouris (Azusa), and Katie Jenkins (La Habra Heights) are among the top point leaders this season.

MacClugage, 27, the Team Kawasaki ace who clinched his eighth IJSBA National Championship last weekend (his third crown in Pro Ski), also leads the points in Pro Runabout 1200. He has seven wins so far this year, five in Pro Runabout 1200 and two in Pro Ski, giving him 100 in his IJSBA Pro career, third all-time. The 'Mac Attack' can become the first racer in IJSBA history to win two IJSBA Pro National Championships in the same year for the third time if he keeps his lead in Pro Runabout 1200. He also doubled in 1994 and 1999.

Racers Eric Malone, Tera Laho, Karine Paturel-Schacht are point leaders in their classes.

Jacobs is a seven-time IJSBA Pro Ski National Champion and the all-time winningest rider in IJSBA Pro racing history with 134 career victories. He is second so far this year in the Pro Ski standings.

Sheldon is third in Pro Ski points this season and his victory in Galveston, Texas (May 20) was the 47th in his IJSBA Pro career.

Team Kawasaki's Motzouris, who won the Pro Ski race in St. Petersburg, Fla. (May 13) and in Long Beach, is fourth in that class in points and is also fourth in Pro Runabout 1200. Jenkins is second in Pro Am Women Runabout points after earning her first Pro victory in Galveston on a Yamaha.

The other point leaders through Round 7 of the 2001 Skat-Trak Pro Watercross Tour are Malone, Duncansville, Pa., Stuart Rasmussen, Delray Beach, Fla., Laho, Lake Havasu City Ariz., France's Paturel-Schacht and Japan's Shunei Beniya.

Malone, with six wins, leads Pro Freestyle on a Yamaha while Rasmussen's three wins on a Sea-Doo have helped keep him on top of the Pro Runabout 785 standings. Malone now has 26 career IJSBA Pro victories.

The unstoppable Laho, who has won the qualifying heat races and main events in all seven races this year on a Yamaha, clinching an amazing seventh IJSBA Pro-Am Women Ski National Championship. She has won an incredible 24 consecutive national tour races in Pro-Am Women Ski and now has 74 wins in her storied IJSBA Pro career. She is also 10th in Pro Ski, where she is the only regular female racer.

Paturel-Schacht, with six wins, leads the Pro-Am Women Runabout class and is eighth as the only female racer in the featured Pro Runabout 1200 division. Paturel-Schacht races on Yamaha watercraft and has 54 IJSBA Pro career victories.

Beniya, who won his first IJSBA pro race last weekend in Long Beach, has moved to the top in the Pro-Am Sport standings on a Sea-Doo.

France's Nicolas Rius has three wins this season, 39 in his IJSBA Pro career, and is second in points and Pro Runabout 1200 and fifth in Pro Ski. Unfortunately, his tailbone was broken when he was hit by another boat during the Pro Ski race, and he is expected to be out for at least six weeks.

The entire 2001 Skat-Trak Pro Watercross Tour is being taped by Impact Sports Media to air a minimum of four times each on the Speedvision Network. Under the direction of veteran PWC TV producer Wayne Smith, the first airings of the Long Beach race will be Wednesday, August 22 at 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. (PDT).

Admission is free to both of these special events.

For more information on these events, visit their official website at M3 Events.