Thunder On Cocoa Beach, Day 2—Extreme Multi-Tasking
In offshore racing, a competitor who competes in more than one boat in the same weekend is said to be pulling “double duty.” Rarely a competitor, usually a throttleman, logs triple duty, controlling the speed and trim of boats in three different classes.
At the 2024 edition of Thunder On Cocoa Beach, veteran throttleman John Tomlinson showed why so many fans of the sport and fellow competitors rank him among the best the sport has seen when he throttled three different boats to two first-place finishes and one runner-up
On the second day of the Thunder On The Beach offshore powerboat race, John Tomlinson won two races and took second in another, leading the way for competitors who competed in more than one boat. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
“It all went great—I couldn’t ask for it to be any better,” Tomlinson said after racing in the Atlantic Ocean wrapped up on May 18. “Every boat finished.”
After he and driver Brit Lilly finished second in the Class 1 race in the 47-foot Victory, Morpheus 8, to start the day, Tomlinson joined Taylor Scism in the 39-foot MTI, TS Motorsports, to claim a wire-to-wire win in the Factory Stock class race that ran at 1 p.m. Then Tomlinson strapped into the cockpit of the Skater 388, M CON/Monster Energy, with driver Myrick Coil and ran to a hard fought victory to cap off the weekend in the Super Cat race.
The weekend wasn’t without some drama because when Tomlinson and Coil were in the milling area waiting to start the Super Cat race, the veteran throttleman smelled something burning. He saw smoke coming from a small circle in the SeaDek foam decking in the cockpit near the boat’s escape hatch.
“We’re in the milling area, and I said, ‘Do you smell that something’s burning,” Tomlinson said. “It was melting the SeaDek in a 1” circle and it smelled like an electrical fire. I turned the blowers back on and the boat ran fine, but we stunk when we got out of the boat after the race.”
For the 15th annual edition of Thunder on Cocoa Beach in the shadow of Florida’s Cape Canaveral, 58 teams attended the race that was sponsored by firearms manufacturer KelTec. Temperatures soared into the 90s on Saturday but mercifully cooled for Sunday’s action.
Starting Strong
Doing some rough math, Tomlinson likely logged just under 190 miles on the Atlantic Ocean at speeds exceeding 100 mph on Sunday alone. That didn’t include the testing on Saturday that he said was actually more taxing physically and mentally.
The Class 1 duo of Rich Wyatt and driver Alex Pratt took home the checkered flag in the dfYoung/Good Boy Vodka Mystic .
“We ran faster on Saturday,” he said. “In the Factory Stock boat, we ran 109, I saw 125 in Class 1 and 118 in Super Cat. (Saturday) was more of a mental day because I’m trying to get all the testing done and don’t want to have a problem with testing one boat carry over to another.”
Tomlinson is 61 years old and works out six days a week, so the physical element of racing three times on Sunday wasn’t an issue. “I went through it better than I thought I would,” he said on Sunday. “I don’t feel any different now than when I run one race.
Two of the boats he ran, Morpheus 8 and TS Motorsports, have shock mitigating seats and those in the MTI catamaran were built in collaboration with Hendrick Motorsports. On the Class 1 boat, the throttle controls and a pistol grip that lets him adjust the drive trim and tunnel tab and scroll through the monitoring screens, are integrated into the seat so they move with him.
Asked which of the boats he prefers, Tomlinson said “I like them all. They’re different and they’re all similar.”
In qualifying for the Class 1 race, Morpheus 8 was second fastest, about five seconds behind pole position winners throttleman Billy Moore and owner/driver Mike Falco in the 45-foot Victory, Team DeFalco. Third went to driver Coil and throttleman Steve Curtis in the 43-foot Skater, Monster Energy/M CON. Owner/throttleman Rich Wyatt and driver Alex Pratt rounded out the field in their 50-foot Mystic, dfYoung/Good Boy Vodka.
The fastest team in Saturday’s Class 1 qualifying round, DeFalco. struggled in Sunday’s race.
“I knew Billy would be fast,” said Tomlinson after qualifying. “But I didn’t think it would be five seconds.
When the green flag waved to start the Class 1 race, Team DeFalco flew to the lead. Morpheus 8 moved into second with Tomlinson paired with Lilly for the first time while dfYoung ran third and Monster Energy/M CON rounded out the fleet.
Unlike the other categories of offshore racing that run a designated number of laps, Class 1 races for 30 minutes plus one lap. The running order remained the same until dfYoung/Good Boy Vodka pulled around Morpheus 8 and Wyatt and Pratt set their sights on the lead boat. DfYoung/ Good Boy Vodka is the biggest boat in the Class 1 fleet and Wyatt said the conditions off Cocoa Beach were “perfect for his boat.”
While other competitors who were pulling double duty for the weekend seemed to have luck on their side, for Team DeFalco throttleman Moore the luck was all bad. Just after dfYoung/Good Boy Vodka passed for the lead, Team DeFalco pulled into the middle of the course with an engine problem. A drain plug for one of the exhaust manifolds on the boat’s port engine dislodged and started filling the engine compartment with water.
In addition to finishing second, Morpheus 8 had the second-fastest time in qualifying.
For the final 10 minutes of the race, dfYoung/Good Boy Vodka settled into cruise control and held the lead until the checkered flag waved. Morpheus 8 finished second and Monster Energy/M CON ran third.
Wyatt said that he doesn’t go into qualifying with the plan to run that hard. “I’d rather start in fourth,” he explained. “We never go out and make a hard hit on qualifying.”
But that doesn’t mean he and Pratt weren’t going to run hard on Sunday. “The water was perfect today,” he said of the conditions on the 6.9-mile course. “It was real reminiscent of Sheboygan. We hit the boat like it owed us money.’’
He was also pleased with his new driver after pairing with Pratt for the first time. “He’s sharp and he’s really aware,” said Wyatt.
Wyatt bought the Mystic catamaran in 2008, and ran it as Cintron and then dfYoung with myriad power configurations. Some seasons he would only make a race or two and then he committed to Class 1 in the 2023 season having veteran crew chief Herb Stotler convert to the twin Mercury Racing 1,100-hp engines that are the spec power for the class.
“There was a time when I didn’t know how the boat would feel, but now it’s back to the way it used to feel with the other motors,” said Wyatt. “You roll on the power with this boat in a turn and it will put you back in the seat. These motors are so strong.”
With new drives putting power to the water, the Monster Energy/M CON team is still in learning-curve mode.
With owner/throttleman Tyler Miller sidelined while recovering from back surgery, Curtis filled in on the sticks and used the Cocoa Beach race to learn how Coil drives and for the pair to get to know each other. “The last three laps, it all came together with the two of us in the boat,” said Curtis. “I didn’t lift at all. I just adjusted the trim of the drives a little.”
Some were surprised to learn that Tomlinson and Lilly had not been in the same cockpit with one another before Thunder On Cocoa Beach.
“As soon as I got in the boat with Brit, the same thing happened when I got in the boat with Travis. I knew he could drive,” said Tomlinson.
He said he knew he didn’t have a first place boat in Class 1, but attrition is part of the sport.
Picking Up Where They Left Off
While the Class 1 boats started the action on Sunday, the seven entries in Super Cat capped it off in exciting fashion. Understandably, most fans of the sport expected Tomlinson and Coil in the 38-foot Skater, M CON/Monster Energy and the 38-foot Skater, Dirty Money with Lilly driving and Bill Pyburn throttling to lead the charge. But Moore and owner/driver Chris Grant in their 38-foot Skater, C.J. Grant/Graydel, had their own plans and they drew the coveted inside lane. They announced their arrival in the class at the 2022 Cocoa Beach race with a resounding win.
Though Graydel led early, its Super Cat-class ship didn’t come in
Driver Rob Unnerstal celebrated his birthday by strapping into the cockpit of his 38-foot Skater, CR Racing, with throttleman Casey Boaz, while owner/driver Billy Mauff and throttleman Jay Muller are always a threat in the 40-foot Skater, WHM Motorsports. Chase and Jax Muller continue to get experience in their 40-foot Motion, Wicked. Rounding out the fleet were driver Christian McCauley and Anthony Smith in the 40-foot MTI, Team Farnsworth/Hancock Claims Consultants.
For the last race of the day, the winds picked up a little and the seas built when the green flag flew. Graydel took the early lead with M CON, Dirty Money and CR Racing pushing hard. The teams would need to complete nine circuits of the course that had them running clockwise and dealing with a hard left-hand dogleg on the back straightaway.
By the end of the first lap, Tomlinson and Coil, who won back-to-back national championships when they raced together for the Performance Boat Center team, had moved into second place and had Moore and Grant in their sights. Dirty Money ran third with WHM and CR Racing battling for fourth,
The only team running Goodwin Competition power, the Dirty Money team had another strong outing,
On the fifth lap, the conditions in turn at the southern end of the course played a key role when Graydel took a couple of big flyers that caused the team to have take the corner much wider than they wanted to. Coil and Tomlinson moved to the lead with Lilly and Pyburn in second. Graydel remained in third, but the boat couldn’t regain its early pace.
When the checkers flew, Tomlinson and Coil took the victory followed by Lilly and Pyburn and CR Racing took third. Graydel broke its starboard engine and Moore and Grant could only watch from the inside of the course as the rest of the fleet passed.
“When I jumped in with Myrick, it was like we never stopped running together,” Tomlinson said after claiming his first victory and second podium of the weekend.
Also claiming his second podium of the event, Coil said, “Johnny and I are in a boat that’s so similar to what we ran as back-to-back champions. You give him a little better boat than he had and the same driver, he’s going to do good. There’s a reason a lot of people think he’s the GOAT.”
Coil and Tomlinson displayed the same winning form that brought them back-to-back Super Cat world titles in 2017 and 2017.
Brit Lilly and Pyburn said they over-propped Dirty Money a little for the conditions, but they still ran well enough to take second place in their third race together.
“I gotta give it to Bill Pyburn for what he did today,” said Lilly. “We were over-propped and he kept us competitive with the less-than-ideal setup.”
Added Pyburn, “At the end of the day, this is still one year racing for us and I felt like if we were in front of M CON and you realize unless they break, we’re not going to get in front of them.”
Boaz was the third member of the Super Cat fleet to pull double duty, finishing second in the Super Stock race on Saturday in Northwing Offshore, and third in Super Cat on Sunday.
Comparing the lightweight outboard-powered boat in Super Stock to the larger inboard-powered boat in Super Cat, Boaz said, “You’re on a Honda 125 in Super Stock and you’re on a Ducati on the Super Cat. You feel the weight and horsepower difference.”
But when it comes to pulling double duty, he said, “Going out on the course and being able to do it twice makes it that much better.”
Team Effort
For the past two years, the 450R Factory Stock class has become one of the most competitive in the sport with two manufacturers, Marine Technology Inc., and Doug Wright Powerboats battling for supremacy.
TS Motorsports led from start to finish in 450R Factory Stock,
Doug Wright looked to have an advantage after its new 38-footer, Montlick Injury Attorneys/Doug Wright Powerboats, with throttleman Ricky Maldonado and driver Logan Aidan, took a convincing win at the season opener in Marathon, Fla.
Heading into Thunder On Cocoa Beach, MTI founder Randy Scism rallied his troops. Tomlinson and driver Taylor Scism and their TS Motorsports team and throttleman Grant Bruggemann and owner/driver Willy Cabeza took GC Racing crew took their boats to Mercury’s Lake X facility to do some serious testing before Cocoa Beach. Shaun Torrente was pulling double duty in the 39-foot MTI, Mead Family Racing, with driver Caleb Mead.
Though they didn’t have to multi-task, Nick Imprescia’s and Ian Morgan’s third-place finish was their best 450R Factory Stock result to date.
After missing the season opener, throttleman Nick Imprescia and driver Ian Morgan had their 39-foot MTI, 151 Express, ready to run in Cocoa Beach. So did owner/throttleman Michel Karsenti and driver Ervin Grant in their 38-foot Doug Wright, Gladiator Canados and owner Ed Scheer and driver Nelson Sawyer were entered in their 38-foot Doug Wright, Hank’s Saloon.
From the start, Tomlinson and Scism took the lead with GC Racing in second, 151 Express in third and Mead Family Racing in fourth. Gladiator Canados was the lead Doug Wright in fifth, while Montlick Injury Attorneys was running off the pace with electrical issues.
The Factory Stock boats ran six laps and the biggest battle looked to be for second as TS Motorsports held the lead and defended the inside lane for the duration of the race. Tomlinson took what was actually his first win of the day because the race was held before the Super Cat competition. GC Racing finished second closely followed by 151 Express.
“Everybody did their homework and it paid off for most of them,” Randy Scism.
Added Taylor Scism, “We tested at Lake X and tested yesterday and relied on what our data said.”
GC Racing’s Willy Cabeza took a strong finish alongside Tomlinson,
Cabeza was happy to finish second to an MTI teammate, saying “We work with each other on a bunch of stuff. When we go race, we’re always going to race against each other.”
He continued, “We’re very careful that we race very clean and we leave lanes for people and try to race as clean as possible.”
Willy Cabeza and Tomlinson continue to mess in the cockpit of their 450R Factory Stock MTI catamaran,
The 151 Express team does its own maintenance and preparation and Imprescia knew what to expect coming into Cocoa Beach. “It was a dogfight for sure from the start to the end,” he said. “We didn’t try anything extraordinary. We knew what we had coming in and stayed consistent.”
He and Morgan were trying everything they could to make ground on GC Racing but were content with third. “We were trying like hell and they were trying like hell. It was a great offensive-defensive race and clean,” said Imprescia.
In Montlick Injury Attorneys, Maldonado said he was battling electrical and guardian-mode issues from the start of the race. “It never broke 100 mph and on lap five, turned off fully,” he said. “We finished the race to collect points.”
The Big Picture
In the Super V class, attrition was the theme of the day. The 42-foot Fountain, Farnsworth Motorsports/Hancock Claims Consultants, with Elijah Kingery driving and Jay Healy throttling took to the course to battle with driver Zachary Gerzeny and throttleman Kirk Britto in the 40-foot Fountain, Cortez Cove Fountain Racing.
Team Farnsworth took the early lead and Cortez Cove had problems early that slowed that team’s pace. It wasn’t long before Kingery and Healy had their own issues, but they stayed on plane to continue to complete laps and accumulate points.
With another victory, Farnsworth Motorsports/Hancock Claims Consultants continues to be the class of the Super V class.
Kingery was yet another competitor racing for a second time after taking second in Bracket 500 on Saturday. He and Healy were communicating with team owner Farnsworth who was on the beach.
“Win walked over to the owner of the other boat and he said he was going to try to keep running so Win said, ‘keep going for right now,’” Kingery said. “We were almost a lap ahead and the other boat fell off plane. I feel Win wants the national championship.”
Kingery and Healy took the win and the valuable points.
In the Mod-V class, the presumptive favorites both had problems, which opened the door for the team that finished third in Marathon, Safe Cash/XINSURANCE, to continue to improve. The juggernaut team of owner Steve Miklos and driver Steven Fehrman in the 29-foot Extreme, El Bandito Yankee Tequila/Sun Print, had the pole position and the 29-foot Extreme, XINSURANCE/Statement, with driver J.J. Turk and throttleman Nick Buis were looking to build off their momentum from Marathon and their win in Bracket 500 the previous day in Cocoa Beach.
Safe Cash/ XINSURANCE took the Mod V-class checkered flag.
Early in the Mod-V race, El Bandito/Sun Print was out with a blown drive and owner/driver Rick Raab and throttleman Scott Jobin move to the lead in their 32-foot Phantom, Safe Cash/ XINSURANCE. Buis and Turk battled with owner/driver Ken Bolinger and throttleman Forrest Riddle in the 30-foot Phantom, Fastboys Racing. Throttleman Steve Kildahl and driver Stephen Kildahl in the 29-foot Extreme, Boatfloater.com, ran fourth.
As Safe Cash/ XINSURANCE extended its lead, Fastboys got around XINSURANCE/Statement, which was slowing with unidentified mechanical problems, for second. The Kildahls wound up third.
Raab and Jobin moved up from Bracket 700 to Mod-V, purchasing the former Mr. Technology from Phantom Powerboats founder Will Smith. “We were pulling fast laps in Marathon,” said Raab. “We just had a bad start.
He said that he believes his boat’s extra length—32 feet overall—helped the team span the waves in Cocoa Beach. “I believe it was a big help and it just lays a little flatter,” said Raab.
After finishing second, Bolinger gave credit to the Safe Cash team. “Those guys were just faster,” said Bolinger who said his hull cracked during the race and was heading to the Phantom facility in Sarasota, Fla., for repairs.
In the Bracket 200 race, the OC Racing team of owner/driver Joey Olivieri and throttleman Billy Glueck and their 38-foot Phantom, appeared to continue its winning ways over throttleman Chad Woody and driver Billy Shipley in the 35-foot Fountain, Team Woody. The third entry, H20 Performance/Two Conchs Charters, pulled out of the race early with a problem.
For the Bracket 200 OC Racing, the win in Cocoa Beach was its second in as many races,
In Bracket 400, the 29-foot Extreme, Framed Offshore, with driver John Jeniec, Jr., and throttleman Michael Flammia, took its second straight win. Driver Cory Shantry and throttleman Larry Fontecha, finished second in their Phantom, Precious Vodka/SRQ Racing, while the Phantom, Trump 2024, with Jake Nicks and Mark Ferandes, wound up third.
Asked what happened to the XINSURANCE /Statement boat in Mod V, throttleman Nick Buis said, “It started running bad and just got worse. I hate gremlins.”
Perhaps no one other than Tomlinson knows just how high the highs and how low the lows can be in offshore racing. “Sometimes it’s your weekend,” he said. “Sometimes it’s not.”
Thunder on Cocoa Beach was definitely Tomlinson’s.
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