New JS Racing Super Stock Team Of Strama And Evans Gets In First Test Session
After returning to the sport and getting a taste of the competitive Super Stock class last season as the driver of the Team Allen Lawn Care and Landscaping Doug Wright catamaran owned and throttled by Billy Allen, Florida’s John Strama said the itch came back immediately. In fact, the itch returned so much that Strama—who said the timing was perfect thanks to a couple of sponsors and a competitive boat at the right price—is going to be campaigning his own 32-foot Doug Wright in the class this season.
The new Super Stock-class JS Racing team of John Strama and Nick Evans is excited for the upcoming season following a day of testing in Marathon. Photos courtesy Nick Evans
Competing under the JS Racing banner, Strama and the driver he recently recruited to join the team after fellow Super Stock competitor Pete Bogino put them in touch, finished a day of testing in Marathon, Fla., yesterday and were ecstatic with how well they gelled in the 32-footer that formerly ran as LPC under the ownership of Missouri’s Loren Peters.
Strama and Indiana’s Nick Evans—yes the Nick Evans who owns the radical Recovered Money 50-foot Nor-Tech Hi-Performance Boats catamaran—spent a few hours in the boat on Thursday getting comfortable with each other and preparing it to race in the season-opening Race World Offshore-produced 7-Mile Offshore Grand Prix presented by Teasers and scheduled for April 26-28. While Evans is not going to make the team’s first race because his Nor-Tech is registered for one of his favorite events of the year, the Desert Storm Poker Run in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., he will be at the first race of the Super Stock class’ six-event national championship series in Cocoa Beach, Fla., May 17-19.
“The opening to drive for Billy last season came through the guys at TNT Custom Marine in Miami and I’m so glad it came together,” said Strama, who previously raced in early to mid-2000s in the American Power Boat Association P4 and P5 classes. “That opportunity opened the door for me to get into the sport again. Then after I got the itch and Loren’s boat came available, that was all it took. And thanks to my friend, Pete Bogino of the CoCo’s Monkey team, I connected with Nick and now we’re out here doing our thing. We hit it off right away and it seems like we’ve got a pretty good thing going already.
“Testing went well—there a lot of boat traffic out there but we just bobbed and weaved through it at 100 mph,” he added. “We have (29-inch propellers) on the boat, which is probably what we’ll run in Cocoa. They’re small props, but we ran a number with them today. We were going 106 with about three-percent slip so it doesn’t get any better. We didn’t set up a course, we just wanted to run the boat together for a little bit. It felt good having Nick in the boat. Communication is everything in the cockpit, as you know, when you’re out there racing and it seemed like Nick is comfortable with all of the back and forth already.”
The 32-foot Doug Wright should have its new graphics on it by the end of this weekend.
For next week’s race in Marathon, Strama was excited to announce that Connor Langheim—the son of Reese Langheim, who owns the formidable Super Stock-class Jackhammer team—is going to drive for the team.
He also said he already has two sponsors on board. One is TiT for TaT, a Texas-based business, and the other is Two Conchs out of Marathon. A rare team owner who will handle the team’s boat and engine repairs and service, Strama is the primary mechanic for Two Conchs Sportfishing, which has charter locations in Marathon, throughout Florida and North Carolina.
“I’m really looking forward to Cocoa Beach,” Evans said after meeting Strama and the boat for the first time Thursday. “I think everything went well in testing. I liked the feel of it—and nothing bothered me out there.”
Mr. Recovered Money, Nick Evans, and John Strama, aka Johnny Gold Chains, had a blast testing the JS Racing catamaran yesterday.
Evans, who owns a sunken boat recovery business and has raced cars and trucks in the past, is looking forward to lining up next month against a dozen or more teams in what’s arguably the most competitive class in offshore racing.
“I’ve been discussing racing, and maybe even doing my own thing, for a little while now, but then Pete called and told me he had some good news about a racer who was looking for a driver, so I called Johnny and here we are,” Evans said. “We spent about an hour on the phone and hit it off. And it was even better in the boat. This is going to be fun.”
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