When you’re driving a 16-foot boat 115 miles per hour with the river as your race course, there are bound to be times when you end up upside down, underwater and strapped into a small cockpit. That would most certainly incite panic in many people, but that’s what safety drills are for.
Mark Jakob, who lives near Kankakee, drives a Formula 2 Class powerboat. It’s a 16-foot craft with a V6 engine that glides across the water at incredible speeds. Jakob said it’s the competition that got him hooked to the sport in 2003.
“It’s not so much the speed — it’s like anything you’re trying to race, you’re always wishing it would go faster,†he said. “It’s the closeness of the competition and the way (the boats) take a corner.  Details