Matt Hudson made his drag boat racing debut at Lake Ming in Bakersfield the weekend of March 19 and 20. Since it was his first race, all first time racers are required to make driver’s license passes in order to be able to continue racing. These passes consist of launching from the holding rope, making a half track run and then a full track (quarter-mile) pass. Once he acquired his license, he was ready for his qualifying passes.

Hudson’s first full run pass was posted at 9.34 seconds @ 91.46 mph and his second pass was posted at 9.04 seconds @ 101.69 mph. After looking at the racing footage and discussing the passes, a few changes were made to the boat and then he ran once more, recording a pass at 8.59 seconds @ 123.79 mph. Hudson won his first elimination race on Saturday with a pass of 8.62 seconds @ 125.69 mph.

On Sunday, he lost an elimination race by an eyelash with an ET of 8.70 seconds @ 125.34 mph. Then the boat was slowed down to compete in the 9 second bracket. He ran a 9.01 but had a foul (red light) on the start. The boat that he ran is a 1973 Sanger Shovel nose Hydro with a 540 cubic inch Chevrolet injected on methanol.

It was a great debut for Hudson and he and his dad plan to be back out racing at Lake Ming again on April 23 and 24.

Hudson is a 2010 EHS graduate and played all four years on the EHS Baseball team.