XINSURANCE/Good Boy Vodka Enters The Endurance Racing Realm
Early next month at the Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix in Southwest Florida, XINSURNANCE/Good Boy Vodka will debut its new Class 1 raceboat, a 42-foot MTI that formerly ran under the Abu Dhabi team banner in the Class 1 ranks. The Sarasota event is the second of five races in the Union Internationale Motonautique Class 1 World Championships Series, which is being produced by the United Kingdom-based Powerboat P1 organization.
Earlier this month, Rob Lockyer and Scott Younger took top honors in the Around the Island Race. Photos courtesy/copyright United Kingdom Offshore Powerboat Racing Association.
But come August, Class 1 XINSURNANCE/Good Boy Vodka team-member also Alex Pratt will embark in something substantially longer than the upcoming 60-mile contest. Pratt will join Rob Lockyer, who owns a canopied Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats SV 52 V-bottom powered by twin Mercury Racing 1100 engines, in the 211-mile Cowes-Torquay-Cowes endurance race off the coast of England.
Reversing his role as a Class 1 throttleman, Pratt will drive the 52-footer. Lockyer will throttle.
As a tune-up to the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes race, Lockyer, who hails from the U.K. but lives in South Florida, teamed up with British driver Scott Younger to enter the 50-mile Round The Island Race, which circumnavigates the Isle of Wight and is sanctioned and produced by the United Kingdom Offshore Powerboat Racing Association. The team averaged 86.40 mph on its way victory with a total running time of 41 minutes 23 seconds.
Second place went to Miles Jennings and Drew Langdon in another canopied Outerlimits V-bottom. Jennings actually drives the Class 1 XINSURNANCE/Good Boy Vodka Class raceboat alongside, Pratt who the throttles of the cat.
In a role reversal for Pratt, he will be behind the wheel Lockyer’s Outerlimits in the Cowes event. Lockyer will throttle
“There’s no better test than being in a race,” he said. “Now the hard work begins. We have a lot of changes to make before Cowes.”
Pratt is a lifelong performance-boat enthusiast and former motorcycle racer from Michigan who entered the Class 1 ranks last season. Among his current “pleasure boats” is a turbine engine-powered 50-foot Mystic Powerboats catamaran that he uses to promote the Good Boy Vodka and XINSURANCE brands at various go-fast boating events around the country.
Competing in the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes contest is a dream come true for the ambitious offshore racer.
“It’s the most famous powerboat race in the world,” he said. “How cool is that? Why wouldn’t you want to do it.”
Next up for the XINSURNANCE/Good Boy Vodka team is the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes endurance race in August.
Editor’s note: A United Kingdom-based reporter, Sarah Donohue contributed to this story. In September 2022, Donohue authored “Inside The Cowes Classic, Offshore Powerboating’s Toughest Endurance Race” for speedonthewater.com
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