7 Mile Offshore Grand Prix Update: M CON Takes Pole, Pro Floors And LiquorSplit Scratch
There are good days and bad days, but there are no bad days—or so the saying goes—in the Florida Keys. Unless, of course you happen to be an offshore powerboat racer.
The M CON team earned the pole position this afternoon for tomorrow’s Super Cat race in Marathon, Fla. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
Just ask New Zealand’s Wayne Valder and Grant Bruggemann of Grant’s Signature Racing in Bradenton, Fla. Neither Valder, who came all the way from his home-base for this this weekend’s Race World Offshore-produced 7 Mile Offshore Grand Prix—the 2023 American Power Boat Association Offshore National Championship Series season-opener in Marathon, Fla.—and is the owner/driver of the Pro Floors Racing/Valder Yachts team, nor his throttleman/crew chief Grant Bruggemann of Grant’s Signature Racing, will run in Sunday’s main event.
An unconfirmed mechanical issue will keep Valder and Bruggemann on the sidelines for tomorrow’s contest, which is now scheduled to start a 1:30 p.m.
Said WHM Motorsports throttleman Jay Muller after qualifying today, “If we kept going straight we could have jumped the bridge.”
The same goes for the New York-based Super Cat cockpit duo of throttleman Jimmy McIntyre and owner/driver John Emmons of the LiquorSplit (a Race World Offshore sponsor) team. A drive-shaft problem has knocked them out of the running this weekend.
With those two scratches, the Super Cat fleet is down to seven boats in Marathon.
Tyler Miller, the owner and throttleman of the M CON offshore racing Super Cat team, and driver Myrick Coil, on the other hand, enjoyed a fine day in the Florida. The Midwest-based team took top honors in pole-position qualifying this afternoon with a time of 3:05.2 on the 5.6-mile, counter-clockwise-running course.
“Myrick had it set up just right,” Miller said, then chucked. “About 20 minutes before we went out to qualify, I thought about making a change and Myrick said, ‘I think we’re good.’”
Rookies to the Super Cat ranks, the KLOVAR Motorsports team of Randy Keys and Bill Allen made an impressive debut this afternoon.
The new-to-the-class KLOVAR Motorsports team claimed second in the qualifying round with a time of 3.08.7, followed by WHM Motorsports in third with a 3.10.1 lap time. Jay Muller, the longtime throttleman for the WHM team owned by driver Billy Mauff, said they would have been even faster on the course if not for some hefty unexpected wakes.
“We hit four rogue waves from a cruiser by the bridge and sent it to the moon,” he said. “We lost for sure a lot of time getting it back.
“If we kept going straight we could have jumped the bridge,” he added, then laughed.
Offshore racing fans got their first look at the Dirty Money Super Cat team, which will start in lane No. 7 tomorrow, in today’s qualifying round.
Tomorrow’s first race is set for 9:30 a.m. with the Mod V and Bracket 500 classes taking the green flag. Fans can catch all the action via livestream on the Race World Offshore Facebook page.
Speedonthewater.com offshore correspondent Eric Colby and chief photographer Pete Boden are on scene in Marathon covering this weekend’s Race World Offshore event presented by Performance Boat Center and M CON offshore racing.
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