County Claims Change in Boat-Race Course Was Unauthorized

The operators of an Irvine Lake drag-boat race which cost the life of a 9-year-old girl may have their permit revoked because of what the county contends was an unauthorized change in the race course.

“They went ahead and reversed the doggone direction of the race,” said Supervisor Bruce Nestande, who on Monday had called for a ban on further races. He said he will call for revocation of the permit for future racing dates at today’s Board of Supervisors meeting.

Nestande aide Ernie Schneider said the terms of a five-year permit granted to race operators Douglas Elliot and Bill Andrews specify that the course must run in a northerly direction, toward the middle of the lake. While race officials are allowed to make some changes for water level, they must stick to a generally northerly course, he said.

The way the race course was set up last Sunday, Schneider said, the boats “would be headed right for the crowd.”

“I would categorically deny that,” said Peter Doyle, an attorney representing the National Drag Boat Assn. (NDBA). Doyle said the racers were headed toward mud flats, not spectators.

He said the permit gives race officials the flexibility to decide the course layout. “They’ve run the course that way on several occasions. You have to run according to the water level,” he said. “If we’d run to the north Sunday, you would have had racers headed into a wall--it’s called a dam.”

He said the boats are an equal distance from the crowd in either configuration, although the racers head out to the center of the lake after the finish on the northerly course.

Doyle said the course, following a straight line, has been run in both directions in past races, adding that he feels the reversed course was, in fact, safer. He noted that a spectator injury in a 1982 crash occurred when the racers were speeding in the other direction.

“The more shallow the water, the less rollers you have,” he said, explaining that rollers are the return wave from a boat’s wake hitting the shore. Such rollers, which can cause a boat to become airborne, are more pronounced in deeper water, whereas they dissipate quickly at shallow levels. The race course used Sunday finished in shallower water.

The lake contained about 8,000 acre feet of water Sunday; its capacity is about 25,000 acre feet. “It’s about as low as I think it can go,” said Irvine Lake spokesman Bob Brown.

Brandy Branchflower of Burbank was killed instantly Sunday when the steering failed in a boat driven by James Lange of Simi Valley, sending the craft careening at about 45 m.p.h. into a shoreline crowd about 400 yards past the finish line.

Doyle said the steering failure is extremely rare and added his belief that the spectators weren’t sitting in a dangerous area.

“I would say about 99.9% of the accidents happen during the race and not after the boat passes the finish line,” Doyle said. “Nobody in the NDBA or at Irvine Lake ever conceived that there could be an incident in this part of the race. You just take all the precautions you can to prevent that 99.9%, but there’s always going to be that .1% that you can’t guard against.”

Doyle said the permit allows for last-minute changes in the course, such as those made Sunday.

Nestande said the key passage in the permit allows changes only when taken through proper channels, something he says Irvine Lake operators failed to do. The passage reads, “Any relocation, alteration or addition of any structure or use not specifically approved will nullify” the permit.

Tim Neely, head of the county’s planning agency, which processed the permit application, said Monday that “because of fluctuating water level, trajectory of the race course was to be established by NDBA representatives at each race based on wind and water conditions.”

Neely could not be reached for comment Tuesday. But Schneider said, “My interpretation of that is you could maybe move the start and finish line . . . but not to change the actual location. When you turn that around, you basically wipe out the safety we tried to write in.”

If the county doesn’t revoke the permit, race operators may still be blocked from holding more drag races on the lake, according to a spokesman for the Irvine Co., which owns the surrounding land and leases the property to the two men.

Decision Due in 2 Weeks

Company representatives will discuss the incident with Elliot and Andrews, said company spokesman Jerry Collins, and a decision will be made within two weeks whether to continue the races (another event is scheduled for June 21). “Under our agreement with the operators, we can unilaterally cancel any races 45 days in advance,” Collins added.

Neither Elliot nor Andrews was available for comment Tuesday.

Ralph Brown, a spokesman for the American Power Boat Assn., which includes some drag boats but mostly ocean racers and slower “circle” boats which participated Sunday at Irvine, said the accident may halt racing in other areas.

“If the Board of Supervisors outlaws drag boat racing down there in Orange County, the next thing you know, L.A. County will do the same thing,” he said.

Patty Van Winkle, wife of racer Ken Van Winkle and a part-time racer herself, said the sport’s violent image stems as much from such accidents as from the advertising that accompanies races. “The ads never mention any speed record attempt,” she said. “All you see are the crashes.”

She added that she is starting a fund-raising drive among the approximately 300 NDBA members for the Branchflower family or whatever charity the family might designate.