For the 2019 edition of the Tickfaw 200 Poker Run, participants were no longer confined to Louisiana. Some players went as far as Mississippi for a poker card this year.
Headquartered at Blood River Landing Marina, the event expanded its run into the Magnolia State for the first time, adding an extra day to the itinerary. In addition, the poker run added Shaggy’s Pass Harbor, home of the original Shaggy’s restaurant in scenic Pass Christian Harbor, as a stop. This year’s course encompassed a total 280 miles.
“It went really went smoothly,” co-organizer Casey Harrison said. “We had a little rain on Saturday, which slowed things down, but that’s kind of typical. Everybody seemed happy.”
Harrison said the expansion into Mississippi went extremely well, with one exception: “The marina over there said they would have enough 93 octane, and they didn’t. But we made it work out—luckily, a guy came through with a tank truck and helped us out.”
Most of the Tickfaw regulars were present and accounted for, including Kenny Armstrong, John Woodruff and Todd Campbell, and at least two boats were sold at the event, including a 35 Statement and a 42′ MTI.
Tickfaw 200 was scheduled within two consecutive weeks of Desert Storm in 2019, and Speedboat Magazine and Powerboat Nation’s editors attended both events to capture images of two of the largest and wildest events known to the performance boating world.
The wild and wooly Tickfaw 200 was formed in 1996 by “Crazy Charlie” 23 years ago. It’s easily one of the highest attended Poker Runs in the country. The appeal of this run, unlike most others, is the surprising lack of schedules. There are no start times, just as there are no end times. There is no specific order in which to hit the card stops, nor is there a mandate to hit them at all. The vibe is loose and casual, and that’s exactly how organizers Joey Fontenot and Casey Harrison prefer it.
That’s not to say that they don’t work hard in putting this event on. Quite the contrary. Both guys work year-round to assure that everyone that attends, enjoys their time there. There are the countless things that make the Tickfaw 200 unique. Like the many RVs that literally camp on the grounds of the Blood River Landing all week, the “Fun House” bar, which is an eclectic compound of cool and kooky collectibles, that stays well stocked exclusively for the thirsty fleet.
There’s also the imminent possibility that you may boat right past an alligator, which call the swampy waters their home. This year, boating super-enthusiast and personal friend John Woodruff of the famed MTI Windship brought along his personal friend, celebrity comedian Ron White of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour to Louisiana and the performance boating community. He was cool, comedic and cordial to all who recognized him–shaking hands, taking pictures and, if you were lucky enough, sharing his brand of Juan Tequila with him. He even agreed to judge the Powerboat Nation Party’s bikini contest at the waterfront establishment, Rum Buoys Bar & Grill.
Four full (or half-full) days of boating, long nights at the “Fun House,” and loads of memories encapsulate the “Tickfaw 280-2019.” Thanks to Joey Fontenot–who not only made us feel welcomed back in Louisiana, he made us feel like family. And to Casey Harrison, whose seemingly endless energy and enthusiasm keep this run worthy of “Crazy Charlie’s” legacy. He would be proud.
Be sure to look for Speedboat and Powerboat Nation at the 2020 edition of Tickfaw 200, which always encompasses the first full weekend in May. The 2020 dates are April 29 to May 2. Check out this gallery of photos from the 2019 Tickfaw 200!
It was the sophomore year for the “new generation” of Desert Storm’s organizers, Jim Nichols Jr. and Christina Crane-Nichols, to pull off the iconic Lake Havasu powerfest in 2019. And, for the second year in a row, the London Bridge Resort was the event’s official headquarters. Here were some of the highlights:
• Throngs of spectators and participants converged on Havasu from across the country to marvel at the wildly popular Street Party on Thursday, April 25. As per tradition, the city’s McCulloch Boulevard was teeming with muscleboats from coast to coast—DCBs, Nordics and Eliminators sharing the stage with MTIs, Mystics and Skaters. In addition to the boats, every conceivable high-performance products was on display as well, including big-horsepower wares showcased by the likes of Imco, Mercury Racing and Teague Custom Marine, with many other services and products vying for attention amid the go-fast products.
• A stellar poker run was the highlight on Friday, April 26. It was won by Daniel and Debbie Marchand, who snared a straight flush (5-9 of Spades) and took 35 percent of the purse ($7,980). In second place was Vern Gilbert of West Coast Drives (with another straight flush), and in third place was Chris Winter (full house).
Kings of the Desert Vern Gilbert and Gary Smith, Queen of the Desert Miranda Jones, and the 40′ Skater Predator 1.
• Coincidentally, Gilbert and Winter were among the big stars during the event’s main event: Saturday’s annual Shootout. Gilbert, driving his famous 40′ Skater Predator, went 185 mph in his second pass, clinching the coveted King of the Desert title. Miranda Jones, driving another 40′ Skater, was named Queen of the Desert for her 128-mph run. Meanwhile, Winter was first in his class driving his 27′ Eliminator at a speed of 104 mph. DCBs were out in full force, with Justin Bach winning the NC31M class in his 21′ DCB (124 mph), company co-owner Tony Chiaramonte winning MC35P and MC 290P classes driving an M35 (169 mph), and M29 (143 mph) respectively.
Be sure to catch the 2020 edition of Desert Storm, April 22-27. And check out the gallery of images from the 2019 event, many of which have never been seen before!
Devin Wozencraft, the founder of high-performance boat coverage firm Wozencraft Insurance, recently staged his third Customer Appreciation Event on the Parker Strip.
The tradition began two years ago, when Wozencraft’s good friend, helicopter pilot Fred Young, suggested that they invite several of his good customers to spend the day for a lunch, a photo shoot and some boating fun at the Fox’s floating dock bar in Parker, AZ. It was a very low-scale, non-advertised event. Among those attending were Greg and Heidi Pursley in their Schiada. “We ended up having a real blast,” he recalls. “We made a video of it, which is on our website.”
The event yielded so many great memories that a second Appreciation Day was scheduled for 2018. More people were invited this time, and Teague Custom Marine founder Bob Teague even made an appearance, as did racer Gary Hairabedian in his famous 21 Schiada River Cruiser. A video of what became the second annual event was also produced, with footage of Teague and Hairabedian making passes in their boats.
“So we decided to do it again this year,” Wozencraft says. “Historically, we do it the Friday right before the Parker Enduro, because a lot of the participants are out there already. But also, we’ve had some people fly in from out of town just to come and hang out with us without their boats, which is nice as well. I spring for the food and the helicopter.”
The third event was the largest yet: Wozencraft wound up feeding about 100 people, with around 50 boats involved at one time or another. The event started at about 10 a.m. and lasted until about 7 p.m.
“It’s not like a sanctioned event or anything, and we’ve opened it to all of our customers. It’s always fun when boaters can get together and hang out, socialize, and so on,” Wozencraft says. The event drew a good mix of hulls, in all shapes and sizes. “We had a lot of variety,” he says. “We definitely had a big Schiada showing. We had Jeff Clark’s brand-new DCB M31 Widebody that we just insured. And there were a lot of the boats that you see in the ‘Brett’s Cove’ section ofSpeedboat Magazine. There was also a good representations of Nordic boats. Thane Tiemer and John Lovell, his right-hand man at Nordic, were there as well.”
Expect to see the Wozencraft event continue next year, as well as Devin Wozencraft’s “traveling road show” to some of the big powerboating events in his outboard-powered 32’ Skater, starting with Desert Storm and continuing with the Tickfaw 200 poker run and Jacksonville River Rally.
Myrick Coil and Rusty Williams—the dynamic duo from the Performance Boat Center/Auto Alert offshore race team—have achieved a unique side-by-side test using a pair of Wright Performance 360 catamarans. Their mission was to pit Mercury Racing’s 400R outboard against its own recent release, the 450R, using the same hull, props and basic setup.
Coil and Williams both work at the world-renowned Performance Boat Center dealership and service center based at the Lake of the Ozarks, MO, the company that co-designed the Wright Performance hull. One 360 with 450Rs was being delivered to a local customer, while the other (powered by 400s) was at the shop as a trade-in for a boat with 450s.
“It was sunny and 65 degrees here last Friday, and we didn’t want to be in the office,” deadpans PB Center co-owner Brett Manire. “So we took the boats out because we wanted to see what the differences were. We tell people at boat shows and poker runs what we think the differences are, but until now we’ve never had two boats with the same props, in the same water, on the same day, with the same fuel. It was like a real drag race.”
On the day of the test, Myrick got behind the wheel in the 450R WP360, while his co-worker and co-pilot Williams climbed in the 400R WP360. We asked each man for what happened next.
MYRICK COIL: Both boats have similar top speeds. Because of the rev limiters, the 450s gave us a 126 mph top end. Using the same 15”x34”-pitch propellers, the stock 400s yielded 122-123 mph. So, we saw a couple more mph out of the 450s, using an “apples to apples” comparison. On the acceleration side, starting at about a 40-mph roll and going for about a mile, the 450 was about 2 and a half seconds quicker. Rusty and I were in communication the whole time, and he kept saying that I was going approximately 7 mph faster. So, when I was going 90 mph, he would have been going about 83 mph. By the time I got to around 125, he was at around 117 mph.
The 400s will save you about $40,000 to $50,000 if you don’t go to the 450s. I think that would be the only advantage at this point. The 450 runs on 89 octane, while the 400 needs 91. So it’s even more of an advantage with the 450 on fuel. Of course, fuel consumption on the 450 is significantly more, but you would expect that with more horsepower. You can’t really build more power using the same amount of fuel. You might be a little softer on the drivetrain with the 400 over the 450, but knock on wood, we haven’t had any propeller or a drive failures on the 450 so far.
Our WP420 model requires the 450s, and one interesting development is that we did achieve 120 mph in the WP420 the other day, using the same 15”x34”-pitch Mercury cleavers as the 360. That was in optimum conditions with 60 gallons of fuel and two guys in the boat.
RUSTY WILLIAMS: I had run both of these boats before. I didn’t know exactly how much better the 450 boat accelerated. When you’re in the boat, you can definitely feel that it accelerates quite a bit more. Ever since the 450R boats came out, we had been talking about doing a test like this, and we just had a great opportunity the other day, when the weather was beautiful and we had the two boats at the shop with the same stock Mercury props. Normally, with the 450Rs, we would go with a larger prop, but we wanted the same setup on both boats.
So we did one practice run, followed by some shootout-style passes. That’s when you’re starting at 40 mph. We were perfectly next to each other, with both of our phones on speaker. Brett Manire and Mark Waddington were floating in the main channel in their Sea Ray and we made the passes by them, running up lake and down lake. Then, from about 40 mph, with the trim up, we both just floored it. From that time, and for about a mile, Myrick in the 450 boat was pulling away the whole time. Within a half a mile, he was 6-7 mph faster than I was. Eventually he was going 123 and I was going 117. It was pretty cool.
(It should be noted that since the 450s have come out, everybody who has ordered a WP360 from PB Center has opted for 450R power.)
Powerboat enthusiast and poker run circuit mainstay Michael D. Pierce, 39, and his father were killed in an automobile accident on Friday night, it was reported.
Pierce and his 59-year-old father, also named Michael D. Pierce, were involved in the crash in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Pierce was the owner of the famous Pure Platinum 388 Skater, formerly owned by close friend and co-pilot, Bill Pyburn. He had previously been the owner of the equally famous 47’ GTX Outerlimits XXX, as well as Maxed Out, a unique 45′ Cigarette Maximus.
Police said that Pierce, from Gonzales, LA, and his father were driving north on US Highway 61 in a Ferrari 458 Italia sports car. The accident occurred when the Ferrari exited the highway and struck a driveway it bordered. The car then repeatedly overturned, it was reported. It was not immediately clear who was driving, and police said both men were not wearing seat belts and were ejected from the vehicle.
Pierce was the owner of the North American Auto Group in Gonzales and is suvived by his wife Nikki, son, Peyton and daughters, Brooke and Hailey.
The social media world was devastated after learning of the tragic events, with hundreds of friends, family and acquaintances sharing their fond memories of the “man with the infectious smile.”
“I am so blessed to have worked for and with you and to get to know Mike, the prankster; Mike, the successful businessman; Mike, the loving husband, father and son; Mike, the joker—but most of all, you inspired me to keep a positive attitude and a smile on my face.I will always remember the way you lived, giving 150 percent to whatever you put your mind to.Rest In Peace, Mike, until we meet again,” wrote close friend Cindy Esquivel.
Fellow powerboater Chuck Stark wrote, “Life is so precious, and my friend, you were full of it. As you soar with those golden wings, I know you will be watching over us…My friend, rest easy and know one day we will do it again. On Earth, it seems like forever before we meet, and in Heaven it will only be a couple minutes. Gonna miss ya, man.”
Speedboat Magazine Publisher and Powerboat Nation’s own Ray Lee had the opportunity to spend time with Pierce just last month in Key West and remembers him fondly.
“Mike was always so nice and accommodating to us. He even invited us to his home in Louisiana for my first-ever crawfish boil, to teach me how to ‘pinch the tail and suck the head’ with the best of them. He was definitely one of the guys that I always looked forward to seeing at the events because he was always so upbeat and fun. He will be extremely missed.”
Pierce was the former owner of the 47’ GTX Outerlimits XXX.
He was also the previous owner of Maxed Out, a 45′ Cigarette Maximus.
Paul Fiore, the innovator who created Hustler Powerboats—and whose son Mike Fiore founded Outerlimits in the early 1990s—has passed away, according to Outerlimits National Sales Manager Dan Kleitz. He was 76.
Launched in 1978, Hustler made an immediate impact on the East Coast offshore performance scene, and it remains a force today, with a rich line of upscale offshore vees and cats. Paul sold the company in 1993 and then went to work for Mike at Outerlimits.
Five years ago, Outerlimits’ President/CEO Mike Fiore, then 44, died from injuries he sustained during a boating event in Missouri. The entire Outerlimits family was devastated by the the loss of their friend and company leader. Following the tragedy, Paul Fiore continued to play a major role in continuing to grow the company.
Paul is survived by his wife, Diane; his daughter, Donna, who is part of the Outerlimits team; former wife Joyce (Mike’s and Donna’s mother); and grandchildren Nicole, Sophia, Jet and Moxie. A celebration of Paul’s life was announced, with details to follow.
The staffs of Powerboat Nation and Speedboat Magazine salute this legend, icon and all-around amazing human being.
In a rare ruling, the Offshore Powerboat Association (OPA) has awarded its World Championship in Class 3 to driver Billy Shipley and throttleman Chad Woody of #327 #Living Right/Team Woody—reversing its decision to give it to V1 Wazzup, driven by OPA President Ed “Smitty” Smith.
The weekend’s season-ending Englewood Beach Waterfest event in Florida had comprised two races, on Saturday on Sunday. Saturday’s race was won by Team Woody, while Wazzup did not run; Wazzup was victorious on Sunday, with Team Woody coming in third. During the race, it was assumed that given Woody’s Saturday win, the team would clinch the world finals as long as they finished the race. To the surprise of many—including Shipley and Woody—OPA awarded the overall win to Wazzup, while Team Woody got a runner-up prize.
However, after Shipley posted a passionate post on Facebook objecting to the outcome, OPA’s Smith modified the outcome to demote his own boat’s points on Saturday to zero, giving Team Woody a high-points total of 131. Meanwhile, V6 Strictly Business was named the event’s second-place finisher.
Sunday’s race was played out on an extremely bumpy course with 4-5 foot seas on the Gulf of Mexico. “We were hitting walls of water that were like mountains out there,” Shipley told Powerboat Nation. “A lot of people got hurt. Brian Forehand was injured pretty badly, and I heard that one of the guys in the Speedster boat got knocked unconscious. Chad and I are pretty sore today.”
The pair had campaigned two boats throughout the season: their Class 3 35’ Fountain #Living Right/Team Woody and the Class 5 30’ Phantom competitor Team Woody. Their 28’ Lavey Craft has also been a popular fixture in Class 4.
Here’s the second in our new series, PBN Profiles, in which we showcase notable figures in the world of powerboating.
Myrick Coil is a man who wears many hats. He is a mechanic, shop foreman at Missouri’s renowned Performance Boat Center, multiple World Champion offshore boat racer, avid fisherman, Speedboat Magazine test team driver, loving husband to Missi, and father of four small children.
Originally from Mackinaw, IL, Coil moved to the Lake of the Ozarks in 2000. He was working as a swimming pool installer and electrician on grain elevators in Central Illinois when a friend got him interested in the world-famous Shootout. The experience left him so enthusiastic about powerboating that he vowed to do whatever it took to get involved in that world. So it was off to tech school, where he took up studies at a marine training facility called the Lake Career and Technical Center in Camdenton. While in school, he also worked on a variety of boats and engines at a shop called Advanced Marine. Upon completing his education on all boat and engine types—and doing extremely well—he competed in a Vocational Institute Clubs of America competition in mechanics and took first place in the national division.
During his stint at Advanced Marine, Coil got his first taste working on performance boats—Fountains, Skaters, and even some boats powered by Sterling engines. “The go-fast stuff was really the most exciting to me, but I’d get those in between bass boats and runabouts. It really did help to broaden my knowledge across the scale,” he says. During this era, Coil’s bosses included Matt Patterson and Steve Wallace. “They really took me under their wing,” Coil recalls. “Steve Wallace is still one of the best mechanics I’ve ever worked with, and Dave Scott was one of their customers.”
Working on Dave Scott’s boats proved to be a major turning point in Coil’s career. In the early 2000s, Scott owned a Sterling-powered pleasure boat—a 36’ Skater called Nauti Girl—that could go 180+ mph. Working with Coil, Scott decided to build a canopy-powered Skater to run in the shootouts, and maybe the occasional race. That boat attracted the attention of Anheuser-Busch, which offered Scott an opportunity to campaign it in offshore racing’s Extreme class.
With Scott’s star on the rise—and a growing number of boats to service and care for at his Nauti Marine facility, including Skaters, MTIs and a C5000 Mystic—he needed a full-time team member to put in charge of it all. “We were just constantly doing stuff,” Coil says. “Even though I was still really green, he invited me aboard as a full-time team member to take care of the boats.” Scott would eventually go on to become the world’s fastest offshore driver, his Budweiser Select teams sponsored by Anheuser-Busch. So Coil made the jump from Advanced Marine (with their blessing) to Scott’s Nauti Marine facility.
Coil started out as a crew member on Dave Scott’s fleet, meeting numerous current and future offshore superstars along the way. One of them was John Tomlinson, who had launched his own offshore career in 1986 and whose list of speed records, national and world titles is seemingly endless. Coil worked hard to prove himself, and the team quickly took notice of his abilities. “So they’d give me bigger and bigger jobs, and when their crew chief left to work in the NASCAR circuit, they moved me to crew chief.”
Working closely with a crew that included Lowell Bodenbach, Mike Powell and Clinton Milas, the team took care of Scott’s fleet for years. “We won a lot of world titles and national titles,” Coil says. “Eventually, as Dave got older and wanted to get out of the boat, he started putting me in there with Johnny every once in awhile. A lot of the time, people didn’t realize that I was the driver. But I really didn’t care, because I just thought it was so cool being in one of the baddest boats on the planet.” Back then, Coil was in his late 20s and participating in both the Superboat International (SBI) and Offshore Super Series (OSS) groups. “OSS really had it going on back then in the SuperCat class,” he recalls.
Crucial to Coil’s success was learning from a wide range of talented individuals, from Scott, Tomlinson, Bodenbach and Milas to folks like Peter Hledin of Skater Boats, John Cosker of Mystic Powerboats, Gary Stray at MTI, Randy Scism of MTI, Mike Thomas (Tomlinson’s partner at TNT Marine), Mike D’Anniballe of Sterling Engines, Chris Hanley (“a great fiberglass and carbon-fiber guy”) and many team members at Mercury Racing. “You meet all these people and you learn a little bit from all of them,” Coil says. “Then you can start to use their knowledge because they’ve opened your mind or different things.”
In 2008, the economy took a nosedive, and the team lost its major sponsor, Anheuser-Busch, when the company got sold. So the team focused on their service work at Nauti Marine, where their customers included owners of bass boats, as well as a few high-end customers like racer (and Anheuser-Busch heir) August Busch IV and his amazing array of go-fast machines. “For a little shop, we had a lot of cool boats there,” Coil says.
In 2014, Mark Waddington and Brett Manire, who had launched Performance Boat Center in Osage Beach, MO, the year before, needed some more skilled service people to join their team. Coil demurred, being loyal to Dave Scott, but then a deal was struck to buy out Nauti Marine—including the property, the assets and the employees. It was a giant step forward for Coil, who not only helped PBC grow its business, but rejuvenated his offshore racing career. “I think I started working here in December, and in February, Mark Waddington said, ‘Hey, what do you think about going racing again?’ I said, ‘Oh, that’d be cool!’ It had never been mentioned during the whole purchase. I was just going to be one of the service guys.”
Coil’s 2015 was a banner year: he not only launched his legendary stint racing the brand-new 388 Skater Performance Boat Center/Jimmy John’s (initially throttling with driver Lance Sutton), but winning the Top Gun award at the LOTO Shootout, driving Don Onken’s American Ethanol Mystic to 208 mph with Mystic owner John Cosker on the sticks.
With Coil driving the 388 Skater and Tomlinson on throttles—and with unending support from crew members Greg Hillmer, Dave McInytre and Craig Amptmeyer—the team would earn back-to-back World Championship titles in 2016 and 2017, along with three consecutive National titles.
After campaigning the Skater for three full years, Performance Boat Center discontinued selling Skater and took on MTI as a new dealer line. PBC is also a dealer for Sunsation, Cigarette, Tiara Yachts and Princecraft pontoons. A few years ago, PBC also joined forces with Melbourne, FL-based Doug Wright Designs to create a new muscleboat line known as Wright Performance, first launching a 360 cat, followed by a 420.
With MTI and Wright Performance in the mix, it was time to shake things up on the race course. First, the company had a new 42’ MTI catamaran (also called Performance Boat Center/Jimmy John’s) with crew chief Greg Hillmer for the 2019 season, racing OPA’s APBA Championship Series in Super Cat class and finishing the season in the third-place position.
Then, as if breaking in one new boat weren’t enough, Coil also spent the current season dialing in another new hull with crew chief Andy Sanders: the 32’ Wright Performance hull Performance Boat Center/Auto Alert, with rookie driver Rusty Williams (his PBC coworker) at the wheel and Coil and throttles. The first season out yielded impressive success for a new team in a new boat: winning the National Title in the APBA Championship Series.
After racing for a full year in “double duty” mode, Coil doesn’t regret doing it for a minute. “I never felt fatigued to the point of saying, ’This is stupid. Why do I do it?’ After the end of the race day, I could tell I was more tired, but during the race I never felt like I was jeopardizing how good I could do. Test days were probably the toughest, because you’re working out problems, and you keep hopping from one boat to the other six different times. But I’m a guy who lives and breathes boats, whether it’s a bass boat or one of the fastest boats in the world.”
Coil says he has relished the experience of being part of the Performance Boat Center team with Waddington and Manire. “It’s been an enormous thrill,” Coil says. “And now I’m also working closely with the Wright Performance crew as well, including Doug Wright Sr. and Doug Wright Jr. It’s really a dream come true.”
A couple of years ago, Speedboat Magazine invited Coil to join its test-team crew, so the last few rounds of boat tests have included valuable input from him and his co-pilot, Teague Custom Marine owner and fellow World Champion offshore racer Bob Teague.
“At first, it was very exotic going to Havasu,” Coil says. “I wasn’t used to going there, and I rarely get to run the West Coast-style boats at the Lake of the Ozarks. One of things that really made an impression on me was how professional Ray Lee and his crew were doing all of the prep work, like setting up the tent, and arranging for all of the boats to be ready at 6 a.m. There’s all this stuff that the readers of the magazine never see. You just look at photos of the boat and think, ‘How fast did it go?’ But we’re literally running boats from sunup until we just can’t go anymore. I really enjoy it.”
The girls of PBC: Missi Coil, Jessica Moore (Rusty Williams’ girlfriend) and Rachel Waddington (Mark’s wife)
Coil gives an appreciative shout-out to Missi, his wife, the love of his life and his biggest fan. “She’s amazing for putting up with everything I do,” he says. Together, they have four kids: Preston, 11; Kennadie, 7; Jaxon, 5; and Camden, 1.
Two days of racing in Englewood Beach, FL, climaxed on Sunday with 4-5 foot seas on the Gulf of Mexico that made for a barely navigable course as the OPA season came to a close at their World Championships event.
Due to brisk winds, choppy waters and mechanical gremlins, numerous boats either didn’t make it to the final day of racing or had to drop out during Sunday’s competition, including Miss Geico in Unlimited class, NJI Motorsports in Class 7, and Typhoon and FastBoys in ProStock Vee. FJ Propeller, with owner/throttleman Gary Ballough and driver Jimmy Harrison, flipped during Saturday’s race after having hit a rogue wave that catapulted them skyward. (Although the 32′ Victory hull was largely undamaged, it was unable to compete on Sunday.) Some races on Sunday were shortened due to the extreme water conditions.
With Saturday’s second-place finisher, Miss Geico, out of the running in Unlimited class, the stage was set for competitors DF Young, Team CRC and Scuderia Cazzani to duke it out on Sunday. DF Young, with Rich Wyatt and Hugh Fuller, took their second consecutive win on Sunday to capture the unofficial World Championship, followed by Team CRC and Scuderia Cazzani.
In Super Cat class, driver Chris Grant and throttleman Billy Moore—who had finished in second place on Saturday—led Sunday’s bout for most of the seven laps (shortened from 14). However, AMH Motorsports overtook them close to the end of Sunday’s competition, giving them their second consecutive win and the unofficial World Championship. SV Offshore finished in third place.
FJ Propeller’s absence from the Super Stock field left a four-boat battle between Shadow Pirate (Saturday’s winner), Wicked, Cape Haze Marina (Saturday’s third-place finisher) and Phase 5. On Sunday, Shadow Pirate and Cape Haze Marina swapped positions, with Ryan Beckley and Greg DiRenzo in S-111 Cape Haze finishing first. The pair will take home a World Championship trophy.
Shadow Pirate‘s Nick Scafidi told Powerboat Nation: “Ryan Beckley won it today, and he 100% deserved it. I went out there and raced one lap, and it was so rough, I’m officially retiring. My boat’s for sale. Ryan Beckley won the whole thing overall, and it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.”
Other unofficial World Championship winners included LSB Hurricane of Awesomeness/RevX Oil (Pro Stock Vee), Tug It/LSB (Vee Extreme), Marker 17 Marine (SVX), Wazzup (Class 3), Saris Racing (Class 4), Shoreline Plumbing (Class 5), Smith Brothers (Class 6) and Shadow Pirate (Class 7).
Race World Offshore (RWO), the offshore powerboat sanctioning body that formed in 2017, is preparing to expand its racing season in 2020, according to RWO President and founder Larry Bleil.
The organization held its inaugural race season in 2018 with a modest lineup, including races in Mentor, OH, and Dunkirk, NY. For 2019, RWO dropped the Mentor race but picked up two events in Florida: the Clearwater and Key West competitions formerly run by Superboat International. The Key West World Championships recently wrapped up its week-long extravaganza in the country’s Southernmost city to rave reviews from fans and racers alike.
Now Bliel—the former president of the Conch Republic Offshore Powerboat Racing Association for 10 years—is plotting to grow the RWO series in 2020. “I’m working on two new sites, and we’re going to change our Dunkirk dates,” Bliel told Powerboat Nation. “We’re working with Orange Beach, AL, on an event toward the end of April, and a race on Lake Lanier in Atlanta, GA. In Orange Beach, they’re just meeting with the Tourist Development Council next week. Meanwhile, we’ve applied for the Army Corps permit in Lake Lanier, so after it’s approved, we can move forward.”
Dunkirk’s new dates will largely depend on the dates of the new events, he said; the 2019 event was held Aug. 16-18. Dates for the Hooters Clearwater Offshore Nationals will be Sept. 25-27, while next year’s Key West World Championships will run Nov. 8-15.
“We’d like to do five or six races next year,” Bliel said. “Orange Beach has been raced before, and we’d like to do another on a lake that has never been raced on.”
Bliel said the recent Key West World Championships went off even better than he had anticipated. “I had a vision of changing things up, and making Key West the World Championship that it should be,” he said. “We added concerts during the week. We added a VIP experience that had not been at any other race anywhere. We brought in a shuttle to take people to the VIP area. I was able to implement all of these ideas that I’d come up with over the years, and got nothing but compliments from the people who were there. At the awards ceremony, the racers stood up and applauded the RWO staff. I was really humbled by all the people who came up to me and said this was the best year they’ve ever had in Key West.”
Stu Jones, leader of the Florida Powerboat Club, says he is “picking up all the pieces” following his epic Key West Poker Run that took well over 200 teams from Miami to the USA’s Southernmost city for six days of fun, sun and Race World Offshore‘s Key West Offshore World Championships. Jones also revealed his group’s 2020 schedule, which will closely mirror this year’s itinerary. (See below for the complete schedule.)
Jones said the 2019 poker run season outpaced previous years, and credited the strong economy for the growth.
“This year turned out to be really successful, in that we launched a lot of new events and we set records on some of our bigger events, like the Key West Poker Run,” he says. “I think it reflects the state of the economy being at a very high level. The sport continues to grow, just because it’s a great sport and a great way to enjoy performance boating. We’re getting more people coming into this sector, and that’s why these events have become more successful. Seeing Key West go to record numbers, and going off without a hitch, was a real highlight.”
It’s been just about a decade since Jones operated his ubiquitous pace boat, 39′ Nor-Tech King of Clubs, which was a familiar fixture on FPC’s numerous runs through the years. This year, Jones could be seen driving his Project 1080 Cigarette (showcased in the May issue of Speedboat Magazine) during nearly every one of his group’s events, which was another red-banner moment.
“We put in 150 hours on the boat from January to November,” he reports. “That was a highlight for sure. The fact that I could start enjoying these poker runs in my own boat put a different slant on it for me and made them more enjoyable. Certainly one of the reasons it made my Key West run more fun is that I was able to drive my own boat all the way there and all the way back, and I haven’t been able to do that for a long time.”
The Cigarette project boat celebrates the club’s 25th anniversary and perfectly captures the whole spirit of what the poker runs are for Jones. “It was truly special for me,” he says, “and I think it was one of the reasons I really enjoyed the 2019 Key West run.”
Jones says that the international participation at his club’s events continues to expand, “not only from Canada, which has always been strong, but European boaters are making transatlantic crossings, putting their boats on freighters and bringing them over here for the season to enjoy,” he says. “We had about 10 teams this year from European nations—all of them had brought their boats over for this event.”
With more participants than ever, the onus was on FPC to give away a colossal amount of shirts and other goodies. “It all goes bye-bye at Key West—we finish it off there,” he grins. “There might’ve been a few things left over. Smalls and mediums.”
Team Allen Lawn Care runs alongside LPC right before their accident; Larry Pinegar and Billy Allen (inset)
Presenting a new regular feature for Powerboat Nation: Periodically, we’ll showcase a high-profile powerboater—someone from the world of racing, or poker running, or just someone whose passion for the sport really stands out in a unique way.
To kick off this feature, we spoke to Billy Allen, owner-throttleman of Team Allen Lawn Care. Allen has been racing since 2016, but in that short time, he’s already experienced enough exhilarating highs and devastating lows to last a lifetime.
Last week, the nation watched in horror as Allen and his driver, Larry Pinegar—along with his LPC competitors Mike Wright and Loren Peters—suffer a double-blowover accident at the Key West World Championships, causing major damage to both boats. Fortunately, nobody was seriously injured.
Allen, 51, is the owner of Des Moines, IA-based Allen Lawn Care and Landscaping. Established in 1988, the company provides the best in professional outdoor services, from the lawn care and landscaping their name suggests, to trucking, dumpster rentals, commercial snow removal and more. With more than 10,000 customers served, the business is wildly successful. And it has given Allen the opportunity to indulge in his seemingly unquenchable need for speed—not just in boat racing, but in auto competition as well. “We started racing dirt stock cars and dirt ‘late model’ stock racing cars in 1990,” Allen says. “We raced anywhere from 70 to 117 nights a year in the International Motor Contest Association (IMCA) and Midwest Latemodel Racing Association (MLRA) circuits.”
Team Allen Lawn Care launched its boat racing career in 2016, operating a 26’ Velocity vee-bottom in Superboat International’s (SBI) Production 4 class, and a 30-foot Phantom for the Offshore Powerboat Association’s (OPA) Classes 5 and 6. Both boats were I/O powered; owner/throttleman Billy Allen’s driver was originally Rick Portel of Johnston, IA. From 2016 to 2018, their OPA racing was limited to their home waters of the Lake of the Ozarks.
Allen’s inaugural SBI race was in Michigan City that year, where they earned a victory with an average speed of 53.33 mph. The team took another win in Clearwater over Team Woody, Team Raven, Yabba Dabba Doo, Two Cruel and Reinforcer, but having only raced part of the season, they didn’t have the points for a National Championship. Then they were bested at the Key West World Finals running up against Crazy Chicken.
However, their 2017 season proved to be quite an achievement. Now racing with his son Andrei Allen, the team finished in third place at the season opener in Cocoa Beach, FL, but then consistently grabbed the checkered flag for the rest of the year: in Mentor, OH, followed by Michigan City, IN, Clearwater, FL, and Key West. They were the National and World Champions in 2017. It was nothing short of mesmerizing.
For 2018, Allen swapped the Phantom for a 32-foot Doug Wright hull, switched to Superboat Stock class and learned the ins and outs of outboard engines. (The boat was powered by twin Mercury Racing 300s). His competitors would now be the likes of FJ Propeller, Shadow Pirate, CR Racing and Jackhammer—a class famously known for being very tight-knit and willing to help each other out on virtually any issue.
“My son and I were running the boat together at the time, and I really wanted to get a canopy over my head,” he says. “We were aiming to go into the Super Vee Light class, but ended up putting a deal together with Mark Waddington of Performance Boat Center with the Doug Wright hull. Andy Sanders rigged the boat. Those guys did a wonderful job getting us going.”
Allen finished fifth the first time out, in Cocoa Beach, grabbed a second-place finish in Michigan City, fifth in Clearwater and third in Key West. It wasn’t quite as spectacular as the team’s first full-blown SBI season, but pretty darn respectable for a team with a new boat, new engine setup and in an entirely new class.
“We had some pretty rough races this year,” Allen told Speedboat Magazine in Michigan City last year. “We’re all new to this game, and it’s been a heck of a learning curve. But so far, we’re learning. I guess we’re headed in the right direction.”
With Superboat out of the picture in 2019, Team Allen Lawn Care was all in for the new OPA season and its APBA Offshore Championship Series collaboration with Powerboat P1. Now running in OPA’s Super Stock class, Allen welcomed a new partner, Larry Pinegar, after son Andrei decided to bow out of the racing circuit. The team’s season highlight was in Sarasota, where they took the win over FJ Propeller, Performance Boat Center/Auto Alert and 10 other competitors. Unfortunately, it was their only podium finish of the season.
Race World Offshore took over the Key West World Championships, and Team Allen was one of 10 teams participating in Super Stock class—one of which was Billy Allen’s good friend former OPA Class 5 competitor Mike Wright, who had throttled the former WIA Marine Insurance 29’ Warlock and would now be racing LPC in Super Stock with driver Loren Peters.
The 2019 World Finals was a three-day event, with the first day of racing just one week ago: Wednesday, Nov. 6. During the Super Stock race, Team Allen Lawn Care and LPC were running side by side when both appeared to each take too much air under the tunnels, blowing both over simultaneously. The double blowover was exceedingly rare in the sport, and video footage of the accident quickly went viral. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries, but both hulls suffered major damage. Speedboat Magazine co-publisher Ray Lee was live on Saturday via Facebook with a livestream and interview with Allen and Pinegar in which he gave viewers a close-up view of the extent of the boat’s damage.
“We got hit on the transom, then on the canopy about 18 inches behind Larry’s head,” he says. “The canopy held up, but a hole was punctured in the canopy itself. Then all the water hit the back of that bulkhead right by his left shoulder. That blew the bulkhead in, and the canopy instantly filled up with water and blew the lid off the top of it.”
As terrifying as the accident was, Allen says it all happened very quickly, and the response from the rescue team was immediate. “When the divers that were on their boat came over, we flagged them off. We were already out of our boat, and there was no need to put them in the water as well. We had ingested some water; as for the LPC crew, Loren was pretty shook up and sustained a leg injury, while Mike had a laceration to his leg as well.”
Despite the accident, Allen says he has greatly enjoyed participating in the Super Stock class with his teammates, who take great relish playing the occasional prank on one other. “There’s a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes as far as the jokester stuff,” Allen laughs. “Especially with the CR Racing crew and us. The first night we were here, I came back to my Geo Tracker SUV to find that my little Honda Ruckus moped was in the back seat upside down. They pull jokes on us, we pull jokes on them. It’s always something.”
With his boat in shambles, Allen’s immediate concern is getting it repaired. But whether he and his team will be able to get everything shipshape in time for the 2020 season is anybody’s guess.
“It’s all hugely up in the air,” Allen says. “There’s been talk between Doug Wright and Performance Boat Center to put a package together,” Allen says. “They’re working on a quote for me to get the boat fixed.”
In addition to the Doug Wright, Allen is also the owner of a 2002 38′ Cigarette Top Gun, which he uses at his Lake of the Ozarks home, located near the 13-mile marker. He is married to Tammy Allen, who also enjoys the sport.
