2024 Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix, Day 1—Positive Reactions
With rain pouring down on the pits at the Sarasota Grand Prix offshore powerboat race, owner/driver Reese Langheim and throttleman Julian Maldonado, made a last-minute call on the setup of their 32-foot Victory catamaran, Jackhammer.
With its victory yesterday at the Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix, the Jackhammer team moved one step closer to cementing a Super Stock-class national championship. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
The crane was lifting the boat into the water and the duo leading the national points chase for the Super Stock class decided to make a pretty drastic change.
“We adjusted our weight and did some other stuff right at the last minute,” said Langheim. “We went in a lot heavier than we normally do.”
It turned out to the be the right call because the duo needed about a half of a lap to move to the lead in the 11-boat Super Stock race. Once Langheim and Maldonado had the lead, the veteran team checked out and pulled away from the other boats in the class to claim a dominant win.
“We got right back on track and it was really good,” said the owner of one of the most dominant teams in the recent history of the class. “We ain’t shutting it off. We’re going to keep rolling along.”
At the 40th anniversary of an offshore powerboat race in Sarasota, the 2024 edition welcomed the largest fleet of raceboats this season with 64 teams answering roll call. The Montlick Injury Attorneys team also made a last-minute setup call to claim a dominant win in Factory Stock class and in pole-position qualifying for Class 1, owner/driver Mike Falco and throttleman Billy Moore needed only one lap to claim the coveted inside lane for Sunday’s race.
For all teams yesterday, big-air moments were unescapable.
Luck of the Draw
The weekend started with five Class 1 boats vying for the pole position for the race that will start the day’s action on Sunday. Class 1 boats compete for lanes by running solo in pole-position qualifying. The fastest lap would give a team the coveted inside lane on Sunday.
The Monster Energy/M CON team of owner/throttleman Tyler Miller and driver Myrick Coil took to the six-mile course in the Gulf of Mexico first, but they were running at a disadvantage from the start. They had gone out earlier in the day to test and tossed a blade off one of their propellers. Miller told the livestream broadcast team that the team didn’t have a suitable replacement, which explained why he and Coil logged a time that was nearly 10 seconds slower than the pole position.
After dominating at the previous race in Sheboygan, Wis., owner/driver Mike Falco and throttleman Billy Moore in their 45-foot Victory, Team DeFalco, took to the course next. They continued their dominance of pole-position qualifying, completing the six-mile course in 3:21.08 before shutting down with a transmission issue.
“It was pretty fast,” said Moore. “It’s sneaky water out there. It’s hard to explain but you don’t see the roller and then you’re running along and you hit it and it doesn’t launch you high, but you fly a long way.” The team is going to replace both of the boat’s transmissions before Sunday’s competition.
The third boat to run was the 50-foot Mystic, df Young/Good Boy Vodka, which should have had an advantage in the day’s roughening conditions because it was the biggest entry in the class. Instead, owner/throttleman Rich Wyatt and driver Alex Pratt battled not only the conditions but guardian issues with their boat’s Mercury Racing 1,100-hp engines. “It happened a few times,” said Wyatt. “I had to come all the way off the throttle.”
The 48-foot MTI, XINSURANCE, with throttleman Brit Lilly and driver Randy Kent, underwent extensive testing leading into Sarasota and the boat made significant strides. The team qualified third out of the five boats despite Lilly having to deal with guardian-mode issues. “I definitely feel really good,” said Lilly. “I was getting faster and more comfortable every lap. The setup was good.”
The final boat to take to the course was the 48-foot Victory, Morpheus 8, which many saw as a potential spoiler because of the in-boat crew, driver Carlos de Quesada and throttling legend John Tomlinson. The boat started its qualifying run and then pulled off the course early into its first lap. The boat’s port engine had mechanical difficulties.
Guessing Right
The first race of the weekend featured six boats in the Factory Stock class and three in Super V. The relatively new in-boat team of throttleman Giovanni Carpitella and 19-year-old driver Logan Adan started in lane two in their 38-foot Doug Wright, Montlick Injury Attorneys. Owner/throttleman Edwin Scheer and driver Coby Harrison were in the inside line in their 38-foot Doug Wright, Hank’s Saloon. The balance of the fleet was made up of 39-foot MTI catamarans including throttleman Nick Imprescia and driver Ian Morgan in 151 Express, throttleman Tomlinson and driver Taylor Scism in TS Motorsports, throttleman Grant Bruggemann and driver Willie Cabeza in GC Racing and throttleman Shaun Torrente and driver Caleb Mead in Mead Family Racing.
The Montlick Injury Attorneys team continued its dominant 450R Factory Stock season with a checkered flag in Sarasota.
With the seas running about 2’-to 4-foot with wind-blown chop on top, the elements added to the challenge on the six-mile course in the Gulf of Mexico. When the green flag flew, Carpitella and Adan moved to the early lead. TS Motorsports and 151 Express battled for second with GC Racing just behind.
For the first half of the nine-lap race, the three MTI sister boats battled each other and the conditions with 151 Express getting sideways a couple of times and TS Motorsports taking a flier on lap five that had fans watching on the livestream holding their collective breath until the boat righted itself and the team continued. Morgan and Imprescia pulled ahead to hold second place and GC got around TS Motorsports to claim third. Mead Family Racing was off the pace and livestream announcer Mike Yowaiski said the boat was taking on water.
The MTI trio put on a show in the 450R Factory Stock class.
Attrition took a heavy toll in the race with GC Racing pulling off first with mechanical problems. Tomlinson said TS Motorsports broke motor mount bolts and one engine started overheating so he had to pull the boat to the inside of the course. Montlick Attorneys had a strong outing with Carpitella nailing the setup and keeping the boat flying level en route to a convincing win.
Imprescia and Morgan were forced to drop out when one of the team’s Mercury Racing 450R outboards broke a supercharger belt and the throttle body was stuck open.
This moved Hank’s Saloon, which was not running the same pace as the other boats into second place. Because 151 Express was the last MTI entry to pull off with problems, the team was credited with third.
All results are, of course, unofficial until P1 Offshore posts on its website.
With a checkered flag last the Midwest Challenge last month and a runner-up finish in Sarasota, Hank’s Saloon team is on a roll.
The 40th anniversary of the Sarasota race with the second for Adan and Carpitella and the driver was ecstatic with the result. The two went out early Saturday morning and tested, which gave the veteran throttleman Carpitella the information he needed to know how to set up the boat for the race.
“He understands how motors work and he takes the initiative of finding out what the motor likes and doesn’t like,” said Adan. “We both like running the same way, on the edge as much as possible. He knows I’m comfortable going through a turn flat out.”
Because so many boats were dropping out, Adan said he got confused about who was giving chase and how close they were. He also said the conditions were challenging, but that’s what Adan, who also has experience in auto racing, likes about offshore competition. “I just like how you can’t predict everything as much as you can in a car race,” he said. “It’s more challenging with the boats because you can’t feel what you can in a car.”
Scheer said he knew from the start that he had too much propeller once he saw the conditions. “It was a washing machine,” he said of the confused seas. The veteran throttleman decided on the third lap to put the boat in cruise control and let attrition play its role. It was a savvy move that kept the boat and engines in one piece and put Hank’s Saloon in second place when the checkers flew.
Despite the mechanical issues, Imprescia was happy with third place. “We had an excellent boat,” he said, adding that he could get into a rhythm reading the waves, but called the crests “super sharp.” The 151 Express team is planning to forego the final two races of the season so it can focus on getting the boat ready for the Race World Offshore world championships in Key West in November.
Team Farnsworth took home a well-earned checkered flag in the Super V class.
In the Super V race, throttleman Anthony Smith joined driver Elijah Kingery in the cockpit of the 40-foot Fountain, Team Farnsworth/Hancock Claims. For Smith, it was the first time he ran a Fountain with Arneson surface drives. Owner/throttleman Bill McComb and driver Ed Wendt ran their 39-foot Skater, Race Winning Brands, and throttleman Kirk Britto and driver Zachary Gerzeny were in the 40-foot Fountain, Cortez Cove/Fountain Racing.
The big V-bottoms also ran nine laps with Team Farnsworth jumping out to an early lead the team would not relinquish. Race Winning Brands pulled off with issues and Cortez Cove continued to improve, completing the laps to take second.
“It was a lot rougher than we expected,” said Kingery after yet another victory. “Anthony went out and tested right before we went out and when we were headed out, he said, it got bigger.”
A hometown favorite, Cortez Cove/Fountain Racing took home second-place honors.
Smith has lots of seat time in big twin-engine Fountains including the boat that currently runs as Knucklehead Racing and the hull that he and his father, Ed “Smitty” Smith campaign in Offshore Powerboat Association events. “Anthony has a lot of seat time in these boats,” said Kingery. “I figured at a minimum I would learn something.”
Back in Front
The final race on Saturday featured the largest fleet of the weekend with 11 entries in Super Stock. Starting positions were determined by how the boats finished in the previous race. That put owner/driver Daren Kittredge and throttleman Casey Boaz in the 32-foot Doug Wright, Northwing Offshore, in lane one with owner/driver Chris Hopgood and throttleman Jay Muller in the 32-foot Doug Wright, CELSIUS, in lane two and Ricky and Ricardo Maldonado in the 32-foot Fazza, Steele Racing, in lane three. Throttleman Torrente and driver Sean Conner were in the fourth slot in their 32-foot S2 Powerboat/Allied Construction.
When the green flag waved, Northwing got out to the early lead with Jackhammer giving chase. The two quickly separated themselves from the pack and when they passed the finish boat to end the first lap, Langheim and Maldonado made their move to take the lead.
Owner/driver Cole Leibel and throttleman Gary Ballough made a last minute propeller change and moved weight in their 32-foot Victory, Big East Construction. They were running third just ahead of Allied Construction with Steele having its best showing of the season in fifth.
S2 Powerboat/Allied Construction had a high-flying moment.
The conditions started to play a role when the lowest-profile boat in the fleet, Allied Construction, took a flier and came down hard on the starboard side, knocking the water diverter off the back of the boat. Then Northwing pulled off with mechanical problems at the north end of the course.
Local favorite Ryan Beckley was on the throttles of the 32-foot Doug Wright, Atlas/Professional Plumbing with driver Connor Toomey and then moved up to third place with the only boat in the fleet powered by two-stroke Mercury Racing outboards.
By the sixth lap out of nine, Jackhammer was comfortably in the lead with Big East holding second place and Professional Plumbing battling for third. Making a charge for the podium were owner/throttleman Bill Allen and driver Randy Keys in their new 32-foot Doug Wright, Team Allen Lawncare and Landscaping. Torrente and Conner slowed with problems and as the race went on, Steele got lighter and was getting flighty so the Maldonados had to slow down.
David Selley and Steven Bridges in their 32-foot Doug Wright, Team Bermuda, were also making a late charge, but when the spray settled and the checkered flag waved, Jackhammer claimed the hard-fought win, with Big East in second and Altas/Professional Plumbing third. Team Allen wound up fourth. All results are pending technical inspection.
The Big East team prepared well for the sneaky-rough water of Sarasota.
Leibel hasn’t had the best luck in Sarasota, having flipped at the start two years ago, so he knew they had to set up for rough conditions.
“I knew it was going to be bigger in Sarasota,” he said. “It’s always bigger and it always catches us here.”
For Beckley, who has a business and a museum dedicated to offshore racing in nearby Bradenton, Fla., called the race a “doozy.”
“We went out this morning and were capable of running 106,” he said. “We watched the earlier races and it was getting rougher and rougher. We put on the smallest props we had and moved weight forward.”
He said that he and Toomey “clicked” at the race in Sheboygan, Wis., earlier this season.
“There was a point where we said it’s really good. The boat runs really different from the four-stroke boats and it runs really well the way it is.”
For Saraota’s Ryan Beckley, making the podium was particularly sweet in front of his hometown fans.
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