St. Petersburg Grand Prix Gets The Green Light

With the late-September Race World Offshore Clearwater Nationals canceled on September 24 while Hurricane Helene was still heading for Southwest Florida and the Powerboat P1 Monster Energy St. Petersburg Grand Prix in jeopardy because of significant damage from the devastating storm when it reached landfall, back-to-back race cancelations threatened to mark the end of the offshore racing regular season.

Scheduled for October 18-20, the St. Pete Powerboat Grand Prix will move forward as planned. Photo from the 2024 Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

“We can’t wait for another great weekend of racing as we host the final round of the 2024 series at the Monster Energy St. Pete Powerboat Grand Prix, presented by Visit St. Pete Clearwater,” said Covington. “In light of the challenges our community has faced following Hurricane Helene, it’s a great opportunity to give the community something positive to look forward to after the weeks of recovery and rebuilding. We are especially grateful to be able to proceed with this event.”

But the October 18-20 St. Petersburg event, the final contest of both the American Power Boat Association Offshore National Championship Series and Union Motonautique Class 1 World Championship, will move forward as planned. Though clean-up is still ongoing, the city approved the upcoming event today.

P1 Offshore representative Thomas Covington confirmed that he had been informed of the city’s decision and that the St. Pete Powerboat Grand Prix will go on as planned. Current registration stands at 19 boats, but that number is sure to grow as many teams had been waiting for today’s outcome to sign up.

Also affecting registration to date, the race was not part of the Super Stock-class points series per the vote of team owners in the category.