Local Racers Offer Takes On Upcoming Milestone Sarasota Event, Date Change And More
Long-known for producing notable offshore racers such as the late Joey Gratton and Billy Glueck, Sarasota, Fla., will take center stage next month when the American Power Boat Association Offshore National Championship Series resumes. The Sarasota Powerboat Grand is set for September 13-15 and will celebrate its 40th anniversary this time around.
Led by executive director Lucy Nicandri, Suncoast Charities for Children guided the Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix—then known as the Suncoast Sarasota Grand Prix Powerboat Festival—and produced the event for 30 years as part of its annual fundraising efforts. But the nonprofit organization announced it was parting ways with the event at the end of 2020. (Like most offshore races, the Sarasota event was canceled during the pandemic year.)
According to a press release from the outfit at the time, Suncoast Charities for Children’s board of directors stepped away “as part of a restructuring strategy, necessitated by the onset of COVID-19, to align with the fundraising mission of providing support to children, teens, and adults with special needs.”
With two weeks and change before the first green flag flies for the 40th annual Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix, the event already has 45 registered boats. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix
The APBA continued to sanction the event and Powerboat P1, which like Race World Offshore is an APBA member-organization, took on the production and marketing roles for the races. For the next three years, the races continued with their traditional late-June/early July dates.
Now the event is set for next month. A host of factors—from July 4-week scheduling conflicts, available space and costs associated with the host venue to Powerboat P1’s own schedule needs—prompted the date change. Some racers bristled at the move. Others embraced it.
Regardless, in a testimony to the drawing-power of storied event, 45 teams have registered so far. The Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix could end up fielding the largest fleet of this year’s APBA series.
To gain a bit of “local knowledge” about the event’s milestone anniversary, new dates and more, we turned to five of Sarasota’s best-known offshore racers—all registered to compete in the 2024 Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix—and asked them about the significance and timing of this year’s event. Here’s what they had to say.
Ryan Beckley, Super Stock Class, Atlas/Professional Plumbing
Based on the schedule tightness created by the new Sarasota Grand Prix dates, the Super Stock class will not compete in the St. Petersburg Grand Prix.
“Usually, the St. Pete and Clearwater races are pretty close together timing-wise, but with the way that P1 moved the dates of those races our class was forced to make tough choices. So given that and that St Pete was moved to two weeks before Key West Worlds, St. Pete is not part of the Super Stock-class points schedule. It takes a ton of time and money to go to Key West for a week or more, and we’ve got to save our pennies for that. So a race two weeks prior is not optimal.
“The 40-year anniversary of the Sarasota race is amazing—it is one of the reasons I moved here from Key West. The towns of Sarasota and Bradenton wait all year for this event. I can’t believe they changed 39 years of July 4 holiday weekend tradition. But it seems like the city and county make it tougher and tougher every year. It originally started as a charity event to help special needs people and that was the driving force for many years, but Suncoast Charities For Children gave up on the race-event a few years ago when costs outweighed benefits.”
Grant Bruggemann, 450R Factory Stock Class, GC Racing
Grant Bruggemann was pleased to have the July 4 holiday weekend off the offshore racing schedule.
“I think it’s awesome for an event to have run so long. Sarasota obviously is a great venue and always has a large turnout. As for the date change, we like it because it gives all of us involved in racing a chance to enjoy the July 4 holiday weekend. But if you’re not prepared for Clearwater, it can be tricky as it comes up quickly. So we do everything possible to always be as ready as we can.
“We have every intention of running in the Clearwater and St. Pete races. It’s become one of our favorite venues. All of our assets are stored here in Florida so it makes it much more convenient for us.”
Billy Glueck, Bracket 200 Class, Olivieri Construction
Said Billy Glueck, “There is no perfect scheduling sometimes.”
“The Sarasota races are a great tradition that have managed to withstand the test of time. Throughout the years, there have been good and bad changes to the event, but I’m on the fence about the date change. It used to be such a cool week focused around the Fourth of July. They had so many fun things packed into one time. The good news is this year It might be just a little bit cooler in the boat in September (laughs).
“As far as timing of the Sarasota and Clearwater races goes, I personally will not have any issues dealing with that. However, I am sure that the people who are actually working on their boats and doing logistics are probably having a little bit of trouble. But that’s just something that must be dealt with in the world of offshore racing. There is no perfect scheduling sometimes.”
Stephen Kildahl, Mod V Class, Boatfloater.com/Scott Free Racing
The owner and throttleman of the Mod V-class Boatfloater.com team, Steve Kildahl hasn’t missed a date in the Sarasota event’s 40-year history.
“It’s awesome to have an event be able to carry on over the years through good and bad times. It’s even better that it’s a hometown race for us and has allowed the town of Sarasota to be educated on our sport and create followers. The fact that my dad (Steve Kildahl) is the only racer to compete in all 40 events makes it even more special to our team. Honestly, I was on the fence about the date change since it’s been on the July 4 weekend for so long. It’s just as hot in September as it is in July and now we are in peak hurricane season, which is a downfall. But it is nice to have the July 4 holiday off. We went on a Disney cruise this year during that week.
“Tight turnarounds are always tricky and it depends on what gets torn up during the race as to how they go. We are all stocked up on spare parts and will deal with whatever comes our way in Sarasota and be in Clearwater. We’ve done tight turnarounds before, so we’ll make it work. We will be in St. Pete as it is the final race of the Mod V money series. It’s a lot tighter turnaround than usual for Key West, but as I said before, we’ll plan ahead and have equipment and parts ready to make it. It’s really an awesome venue racing right in the heart of downtown St. Petersburg.”
Steve Miklos, Mod V Class, El Bandido Yankee Tequila/Sun Print
Steve Miklos competed in his first Sarasota event 34 years ago.
“The date change makes sense to me. A city like Sarasota will be packed on July 4 weekend with or without the boat races. Hopefully, this year’s September dates brings in some visitors who would not normally be in Sarasota. On the history side of the race, Sarasota is always special because this is where it all started for me. My first race here was in 1990 and I ran in the Sportsman B class. It was the only race where I was the driver in my racing career. We placed third—Art Lilly won and Peter Meyer finished second. I’d be happy with that result these days (laughs).
“Sarasota has been an elusive win for me lately and my driver, Steven Fehrmann, has never won it. We hope to be drinking El Bandido Yankee Tequila on the podium. As for the date change affecting our racing plans down the road, I think it will work out fine having Clearwater soon afterward. All of these are all local races for us.”
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