Speed On The Water Stories Of The Year 2022: Part IV of IV
When this story goes live, 2023 will be less than 24 hours away. In the meantime, a savvy group of performance boat owners and their friends from across the country have been making the best of what’s left of the current year in Southwest Florida. Yesterday’s lunch run to St. Petersburg and today’s planned fun run around Longboat Key—both captured by speedonthewater.com chief photographer Pete Boden—are the casual lead-in events to tomorrow’s Joey Gratton Memorial New Year’s Day Fun Run.
Of course, we’re covering all of it. Producing and publishing daily news is the foundation of everything we do. Without it, producing the annual Year In Review issue, which is out of our hands and at the printer, wouldn’t be possible.
There are busy news days and there are slow ones, but all 365 of them are still news days. And we’re looking forward to reporting on the next 365 days in the performance-boating world.
But before we go there, we still need to complete our look back at the top stories of 2022. As always, it’s been a fun series to produce and we hope you’ve enjoyed reading it.
You’re almost done.
DCB Scores A 10
Of the 17 M37R Widebody catamarans DCB Performance Boats has completed since the model was introduced in 2021, 10 of them were delivered this year. The 2022 DCB M37R parade began in February, when Greg Harris and Yvonne Aleman took delivery of Mad Props during the Miami International Boat Show. It finished this month when DCB’s Tony Chiaramonte and Jeff Johnston brought Canadian Brad Macaulay his second 37-footer—Macaulay had hull No. 2 of what has quickly become the El Cajon, Calif., builder’s most popular model. It is the British Columbia resident’s fourth new DCB creation. “They gave me exactly what I wanted,” Macaulay said, then laughed, during the delivery in Lake Havasu City, Ariz. “The boys at DCB, they treat me pretty good.”
In The Lead Video Series Raises The Bar—Again
How does a documentary-style video series we produced make this story list, other than the obviously self-serving reason? Because “In The Lead” series, which tells the tales of top-notch individuals in the go-fast boating world and will enter its third season next year, is simply excellent. The series kicked off in 2021 with Grant Bruggemann of Grant’s Signature Racing and finished its second season this year with Bob Teague of Teague Custom Marine—with 13 episodes focused on the likes of Skater Powerboats founder Peter Hledin, John Tomlinson of TNT Custom Marine and more in between. The secret to its success isn’t complicated. Like speedonthewater.com itself, it’s about storytelling. And you’re going to love what’s coming next year with “In The Lead” and more video offerings from Speed On The Water.
Torrente Nails The Trifecta
No form of powerboat racing is more demanding than professional tunnel-boat racing on the international level. The competition is ferocious. The race-team pockets are deep, the talent next-level. Earning just one Union Internationale Motonautique F1H2O world title is the achievement of a lifetime. But three of them? Well, you’d have to ask our friend and colleague Shaun Torrente what that feels like, because the Florida-based tunnel-boat super star did just that earlier this month for Team Abu Dhabi at the Grand Prix of the Middle East in Sharjah, UAE.
Midnight Express Outdoes Itself—Again
Long before traditional go-fast V-bottom and catamaran embraced the center console segment, Miami-based Midnight Express was crushing it. The company has been designing and building high-performance center console for decades and is always looking to outdo itself. Case in point is its new 52’ Vitesse model, which pretty much stole the in-water display at the 2022 Miami International Boat Show. Powered by six Mercury Racing 450R outboard engines, the 52-foot beauty can run well above 80 mph, no slouch for a 23,500-pounder, and also proved to be a show-stealer at the Florida Powerboat Club Key West Poker Run. “The first 52 Vitesse performs beyond expectations,” said Eric Glaser, owner of Midnight Express. “It is the largest, yet still the fastest of any 50-ish-foot center consoles.”
Eliminator Goes Ilmor
Though Ilmor Marine is mostly gone from the high-performance marine engine game, a stunning exception was on display during the Street Party at the Desert Storm Poker Run in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., in April. That’s where the teams from Eliminator Boats and Ilmor Marine proudly showcased a new 255 Speedster powered by an Ilmor Marine MV8 570 engine coupled with an Ilmor One-Drive system featuring a two-inch-shorter lower unit. The boat, which is owned by Eliminator sales manager Mark Baker, received a lot of attention during the event and at the early August Big Cat Poker Run in Northern California.
Photos courtesy/copyright Tom Leigh/Tommy Gun Images, Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix, Simon Palfrader and Midnight Express.
Related stories
Speed On The Water Stories Of The Year 2022: Part III Of IV
Speed On The Water Stories Of The Year 2022: Part II Of IV
Speed On The Water Stories Of The Year 2022: Part I Of IV
Fourth Time Another Charm With DCB M37R Delivery No. 2 For Canadian Client
Chiappe Victorious As Torrente Secures Third World Title In Dramatic F1H2O Season Finale
Midnight Express Boats Debuts New Six-Engine 52 Vitesse At Miami Show
Eliminator Boats Unveils 255 Speedster With Ilmor Engine And Drive At Desert Storm Street Party
Coverage Of The 2022 Lake Of The Ozarks Shootout
Scisms Set New Dam Challenge Record
Racing To Rebuild-Themed 2022 Key West Bash Raises $105,000 For Charities
Waves And Wheels Receives First Doug Wright 36 Carbon Cat
Outboard-Powered Skater 388 No. 1 Works ‘Perfectly’ In First Season
Norway-Based Sudrheim Offshore Racing Team Coming To Class 1
Monster Energy Backing Class 1 M CON Racing Team
Record Shattered! Lake Of The Ozarks Shootout Donates $625,000
The Full-Circle Journey Of Joel Begin
Top 10 Go-Fast Boating Stories Of The Year, Part II—In The Lead Video Series Blazes Trails, Mercury Marine Adds V-12 Outboard And More
Top 10 Go-Fast Boating Stories Of The Year, Part I—Cigarette Sells, GEICO Bails And More
Top Stories Of 2020, Part I
Top Stories Of 2020, Part II
Top 10 Stories Of 2019, Part I
Top 10 Stories Of 2019, Part II
.
