First leg of Geico Triple Crown – huge success!
June 9, 2008: With 54 boats competing in OPA’s Ocean City, MD Grand Prix, (the first race of the Geico Triple Crown), season opener for the Offshore Pro-Series was what offshore racing is all about – Big crowds, Big boats and Big water …. So big in fact that Saturday’s testing had to be cut short due to 6 to 7 foot seas. The seas were so rough that the Geico Extreme team tore a sponson off their new Miss Geico Mystic Turbine. Further testing in these conditions would have lessened the competing field for Sunday’s events, so officials did the right thing by curtailing Saturday’s rough water “racing” activities.
Sunday, however was another day as the Pro-Series teams prepared to do battle in their respective classes. In Extreme Cat the Geico team (like many well equipped automotive racing organizations) rolled out their back-up boat to take the class victory in the Turbine MTI.
In the Super Cat Class Jimmy Winters debuting his new 38foot Skater Talk’N Trash, took 2nd place to class winners Tom Abrams and Steve Curtis in Reliable Carriers. The Super Cats put on a great show with a number of boats in contention for the checkered flag throughout the day. Mechanical problems sidelined JD Byrider and rough seas combined with hard racing resulted in the Pursuit Cat going over in the latter part of the race. Both driver and throttle man escaped uninjured.
In Cat Lite, Motley Crew and Team Amsoil kept fans on the edge of their seats throughout the entire race as these two boats put on a fierce competitive show for the crowd. In the end it was Team Amsoil who took home the 1st place trophy.
The Pro-Series wants to thank Smitty and the entire OPA organization for a great opening event.
Next it’s off to Sarasota, where the Series will compete in the SBI Suncoast Offshore Super Boat Grand Prix on July 4-6, and then the Series heads north to Michigan where it will participate in the 100th running of the “DRRA” Detroit Gold Cup on the Detroit River – July 11-13.
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