Lilly Sells Spates-Built 29 Extreme Raceboat—And A New Era Begins
If an annual award for the most emotional offshore racing pre-season existed, this year’s honor would go to Brit Lilly. A little more than a week after his father, Art Lilly—a legend in the sport—died at age 77, the Class 1 XINSURANCE team announced the Marylander would throttle its raceboat for the 2024 season.
And now Lilly has parted ways with 29-foot Extreme that carried him to multiple Mod- and Stock-V world championships. A week ago, he sold the boat originally dubbed LSB/Hurricane of Awesomeness to first-season race Mike Flammia of Key West.
Now the property of Key West-based Mike Flammia, Lilly’s 29-foot LSB/Hurricane of Awesomeness raceboat won multiple world titles. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
“With five world championships, it is the most winning spec-class single-engine V-bottom out there,” he said of the 29-footer built by the late Mark Spates, who founded the Extreme brand. “I won two with Ron Umlandt in it, two with Kevin Smith and one with my dad.
“It last ran as Twisted Tea with my friend Travis Pastrana behind the wheel,” he added.
Flammia and Jeniec met with Lilly (center) at his shop in Arnold, Md.
An electrical contractor originally from the Fairfax, Va. area—his business is still there—where he owned a 36-foot Cigarette V-bottom, Flammia and his wife, Jen, moved to Key West four years ago. But as a diehard offshore racing fan, the 55-year-old has been coming to Key West for 25 years to catch the annual world championships hosted by the city.
Flammia eventually came to know members of the Super Cat-class WHM Motorsports team and few of their most ardent fans including Rick and Katheryn Theisen. Hanging out with them each year during the Key West Worlds piqued his interest. Now Flammia plans to enter the sport in the Bracket 400 class this season, and will throttle his first race, the 7 Mile Offshore Grand Prix in Marathon, Fla., April 26-28 alongside driver and fellow rookie John Jeniec.
Said Flammia (right), who tested the 29-footer with Jeniec before buying the boat, “We almost feel like we are part of the LSB team.”
The plan for the team, which will be sponsored by the famed Key West-based Hog’s Breath Saloon and dubbed Framed Offshore Racing in supportive nod to Jen Flammia’s art gallery business in the city, is to compete for the entire regular season in Bracket 400. If offshore racing engine-builder Tyler Crockett has a new Mod-V powerplant completed in time, Framed Offshore Racing will move into the Mod-V class for the 2024 Race World Offshore Key West World Championships.
If not, Flammia and Jeniec will wait until 2025 to make their move to Mod-V ranks.
“We’ll have to play it by ear with that one, but whatever we do I think we are going to have a good year,” said Flammia. “This boat has a lot of history and a lot of success, and Brit trusts us with it—he knows we’re not ‘chopping it up’ or anything like that. We had to the chance to go to the Lilly Sport Boats shop, and last year we worked with his Mod-V team in Key West. We tested with him in Maryland, and though we don’t have racing experience he also don’t have any bad habits. We almost feel like we are part of the LSB team.
In its most-recent iteration, the 29 Extreme raceboat formerly owned by Lilly ran as Twisted Tea with motorsports legend Travis Pastrana behind the wheel.
“The back half of the sides of the boat will even have, ‘LSB Racing—In Honor of Art Lilly’ on them,” he added.
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