Or even mud could dampen the spirits of the Offshore Super Series (OSS) racers as they gathered in Biloxi for the first race of the 2008 season.
Despite storms that lashed Biloxi and the surrounding region Friday evening and early Saturday morning, testing began virtually on time and 25 boats craned into the water, some for the first time since the OSS World Championship last November.
Richie Prince and his bright green MTI moved up from the Cat Lite class into the Cat 850 class and hope to give Steve Page and Joey Gratton and their new sponsor, Celerity, a run for the national title this year.
In the Cat Lite class, Ray Contreras in the Propstop.net boat was one of the racers in Biloxi starting his boat for the first time this year. Mark Kowalski, world and national champion in both vee bottoms and catamarans, joined Contreras in Biloxi for this race. Unfortunately the boat gremlins struck and Contreras was uncertain whether he would make Sunday's race.
A new entry in the Cat Lite class is Fury, owned and driven by Guy Costa, a citizen of Trinidad. Throttling for Costa is Ray Delaney, who for four years owned and throttled a Super Vee named Fury. This new boat is a 38' Doug Wright and the team only has a few hours of test time on the engines.
The Cat Outboard class has just two entries - TNT and CarCredit411.com. Gary Ballough owns and throttles the lightening fast TNT boat. When Ballough isn't racing in the OSS circuit you can find him in Dubai racing neck and neck with sheiks in the extremely competitive UIM Class III 6 litre powerboat series.
Driving for Ballough is Paul Whittier, who is one busy man at the races as he also drives the Amsoil boat for Bob Teague in the Cat Lite class.
Ryan Beckley owns and throttles the CarCredit411.com boat, a 32' Skater that just had some modifications done at the factory. Driving for Beckley is Allen Campbell, former Vee Lite world and national champion. They found some speed during Saturday's testing session but headed for the cranes quickly after a prop blade broke off.
The Vee Lite class has 10 entrants, several of which are new additions to racing and to OSS. This class decided to try a 2 x 2 NASCAR-style start to ensure exciting racing for both the fans and the teams. The class practiced this start several times during testing and are eager to put it to the test in Sunday's race.
Sporting a beautiful silver and blue paint job is the Bud Lite boat, a Cat Extreme. Dave Scott and Johnny Tomlinson will be battling Mike DeFries and Jeff Harris in the CRC boat on Sunday afternoon.
Anyone have shots or video of the 2x2 start... Great idea, we considered that years ago with one design but could never get it to fly... Awesome to see ten boats out there.
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Chris Reindl (702) BAT-BOAT or 
