Father, Son to Compete in Power Boat Nationals

Powerboat racing has become a tradition in the Miskerik family. And now a member of the latest generation is starting to get his feet wet. 

Nik Miskerik, 10, will be competing in his first American Power Boat Association National Championships this week on Sunday Lake in Wakefield, a small community that's near the westernmost point in the Upper Peninsula off U.S. 2.

“I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time,” said Nik, who finished the fourth grade at in June. “I’m hoping to accomplish what I’ve been working on.”

Nik’s father, Mark, is guiding his son, who is in his first full season of racing.  

“Two falls ago, a couple days before his ninth birthday, we took him over to Grass Lake for his first ride in a boat,” Mark said. “It kind of wet his appetite for over the winter. Then, last summer he started racing in June. He’s taking a liking to it, like I did.”

In the APBA, junior classes begin at 9 for hydroplanes and runabouts. At 12, racers can move up to slightly faster hydroplanes and runabouts. At 16, racers begin competing in adult categories. 

A runabout has a V-shaped bottom and cuts through the water, while a hydroplane runs over the top of the water.

Nik competes in both classes, but has participated in mostly hydroplane races so far this season. He has competed in 11 races and is ranked sixth in the APBA standings in that category. He won his first race on May 29 in Franklin, PA.

“I like almost all of it,” Nik said. “It’s all really fun.”

The APBA Nationals is an open-invitation event. Racers will compete in elimination heats beginning Tuesday and the entire event lasts through Saturday. 

“Nik is running pretty good,” Mark said. “He’s up against some tough competition every week in the Midwest and he’s doing a good job driving.”

While Nik has only been competing since last summer, he’s been to his share of races. The first when he was still an infant.

“About three weeks after he was born, the wife wanted to get out of the house, so we drove down to a race in Kentucky,” Mark said. 

Mark has only missed three APBA National Championships in the last 28 years and that was one of them. Nik was due in August, the same time the race is always held. 

Mark’s dad, Butch, and his uncle, Harvey, both got into power boat racing in 1958.

“My grandfather owned a Harley-Davidson dealership for about 10 or 12 years in the '50s and '60s,” Mark said. “So my dad and uncle grew up riding motorcycles. Well, my grandfather wanted something safer for them to do.”

Mark said his grandfather bought a Mercury outboard motor and helped the boys build a boat and the rest is history.

“I went to my first race when I was three or four months old,” Mark said. “It’s really a family-oriented sport. We logged tens of thousands of miles driving to races. You get to spend a lot of quality time in the car talking.”

Mark began racing at age 11 and has won 11 national titles in stock outboard and six in modified outboard.

“It’s been good to me over the years,” he joked. 

Mark competes mostly in stock outboard these days and is ranked second in the APBA CSH class, which is the largest of any division in the stock outboard category with 98 racers.

Mark is the president of the Michigan Hydroplane Racing Association, which holds several races throughout the state and also offers lessons in outboard racing. 

“For people who don’t know, I liken it to the Richard Petty Driving Experience,” Mark said. “If someone is interested in racing, they can spend $50 and they’ll get about an hour of classroom instruction. Then they’ll do about 15 to 20 laps by themselves and then they get to race one of the instructors.”