The west coast of Florida was packed full of power boating this last weekend and so right after leaving the Florida Powerboat Poker Run, Powerboat Nation made its way to Englewod Florida for the Port Charlotte Gran Prix to check in on the race action. We missed the first race but arrived just in time for the day’s final with the SuperBoats.
With over 30 boats the race pits were full and the beaches were lined with spectators. The raining weather held off throughout the day and conditions were ideal.
In SUPERBOAT UNLIMITED, regrettably Miss GECIO suffered a drive failure at the start of the race which left GASSEand CMS to battle it out. CMS was flying out of the start and led most of the race until some fuel pressure issue slowed them down just a little giving GASSE the chance they had been waiting for to take the lead and the win with a 119.47 mph average speed.
INSTIGATOR ran alone in SUPERBOAT EXTREME turning in 10 laps at 92.56 MPH
SUPERBOAT looked to be a great race with five entries three from SKATER Powerboats and two from MTI.AUTONATION RACING FOR CANCER was in for 6 laps, WHM for 10, CLEVELAND CONSTRUCTION for 10 leavingSTIHL and BROADCO on the course. STIHL was running with brand new team member, throttleman Mark Kowalski who ran the boat up front for the entire race taking the win with a 103.20 MPH average for the total 18 laps.
Our great friends Dan Lawrence and Rob Nunziato won SUPERBOAT STOCK running at 90.83 MPH in theHULK/Redline Oil.
MANUFACTURER PRODUCTION 3 was again won by a Poker Run boat. Gary Jones and Billy Glueck ran the 38 fountain BLACK PEARL with 280 hour factory sealed Mercury Racing 525 Motors to another easy win.
