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In the News: In The Lead 2022 Season Wrapping Up With Bob Teague

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For many years, I sat alongside lead test driver Bob Teague as a co-pilot/data collector during Powerboat magazine’s annual Performance Trials, as did my longtime friend and speedonthewater.com co-publisher, Jason Johnson. For the most part, those 12-hour boat test days were uneventful, though each of us had at least one indelible moment with the founder of Teague Custom Marine, a famed high-performance marine engine-building, rigging, service and parts business in Valencia, Calif.

Speedonthewater.com co-publisher Jason Johnson (from left) corralled subject Bob Teague and his friends, Jeff Johnston of DCB Performance Boats and longtime offshore racing teammate Paul Whittier, for the final episode of the 2022 Speed On The Water “In The Lead” video series. Photos courtesy Brad DiMaggio/Scrapyard Media

For Johnson, that moment came in the cockpit of the canopied Aqua-Mania Mystic Powerboats catamaran when one of the turbine engine-powered 50-footer’s propellers threw a blade at 180-plus mph. For me, it was hitting 144 mph with Teague in a 25-foot open-cockpit Eliminator Boats catamaran—radar gun pointed at the river ahead, eyes closed for the last few seconds.

Would either of us care to repeat those experiences? No. At some point, you reach your tolerance for such inherently risky business. But if we had to, we’d choose Teague to be at the helm. Every day, as the saying goes, and twice on Sundays.

Because no one is better at it. His ability to focus on the task at hand without losing situational awareness is uncanny.

So when it came time to select a subject for the final episode of our second-year “In The Lead” documentary series, Teague was a natural. He’d been on the list since we kicked off the series with backing from Mercury Racing, Hamilton Marine Finance and MYCO Custom Trailers in 2021.

A combat veteran in Cambodia, fire captain in Los Angeles and multi-time world champion offshore racer, Teague is a living legend. Our video team of Brad DiMaggio and his wife, Katie, and Ryan Wenk wrapped up shooting in Southern and Northern California in late September and the video will air in mid-November.

After the video shoots were complete, Bob Teague and his wife, Andrea, hosted the Speed On The Water crew and a gaggle of friends and family at their second home in Discovery Bay, Calif.

For those who have enjoyed the past two seasons of “In The Lead,” we have great news: We are coming back with four new episodes in 2023. We had to pull back, just a bit, from the six episodes we produced this year as we’ll be producing a documentary video on the build of Tyler Miller’s new Class 1 Skater Powerboats catamaran, which will be powered by Mercury Racing 1100 Comp engines and rigged at Performance Boat Center, and a new series with the team at Mercury Racing.

Plus, we plan on producing several event-based videos, such as the one we produced for the 1,000 Islands Charity Poker Run, with a focus on true storytelling next year.

But that’s down the road a bit. In the meantime, stay tuned for the season’s final episode of “In The Lead” with Bob Teague—it’s going to be a gem.

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