Rios Roses team takes top Grand Prix prize
By Brock Letchworth
CHOCOWINITY — A weekend of speed wrapped up Sunday at Whichard's Beach with the Fountain Mercury Super Boat International (SBI) Grand Prix.
The race, which featured more than 60 speed boats from around the country, attracted clusters of interested fans that lined the shores of the Pamlico River to get a glimpse of the action.
When the last boat docked, the top overall prize went to a familiar group — the Rio Roses team, featuring Fountain Power Boats President and CEO Reggie Fountain at the throttle and Ben Robertson at the wheel, took first place in the Superboat Vee class, which also earned the team the overall first place prize. The boat's average speed on the day was 102.56 mph through 15 laps on the 61/2-mile course.
"We're really happy because Fountain boats had a great day today," Fountain said. "We've got some great employees that build great boats and it was nice to get out there for a Sunday afternoon ride and show them off to everyone."
Fountain's team began a dominant weekend by setting five world speed records during Saturday's kilo runs, including a blistering 171.883 mph pace in their 40-foot Super Vee Unlimited.
The new record eclipsed the old mark set by Fountain's team by more than 10 mph. On the second pass during the run, the team actually reached 177.359 mph, but the first pass of 166.407 lowered the average speed.
"I think it just continues to show that Fountain Powerboats are the fastest in the world," Fountain said. "We would have liked to of been able to run that boat in the races today, too, but unfortunately it wasn't race ready quite yet.
"Next year we'll come out and try to go even faster."
Records were also set in the Super Vee Limited (112.025), Superboat Vee (123.080), Super Vee Unlimited (171.004) and Super Vee (109.869). The kilo runs were just a preview to Sunday's races, however, where Fountain Powerboats swept each of the Vee bottom contests.
"It's hard to come to these races and outrun a Fountain boat because Reggie is so determined to be number one," said Robertson, who has raced with Fountain for over 25 years. "Whatever it takes to make the boats bigger, better, faster and safer for the public is what he tries to do.
"But you also have to commend everyone at the factory for making it possible."
Other winners from the SBI races included Team CRC (Superboat Limited Cat), Fountain Racing.com (Superboat Vee Limited), Racing Frenzy (Superboat Stock), Don't Blink (Offshore A), Velocity VRI (Factory 1), Simmons Racing (Factory 2), Lightning Jacks (Manufacturer Prod 1), Wazzup (Manufacturer Prod 2), Team Taboo (Manufacturer Prod 3), High Priority Joker Powerboats (Manufacturer Prod 4), Great Adventure (Manufacturer Prod 5) and Pair-A-Dice (PX Class).
The American Power Boat Association (APBA) also held races during the day with Team CRC taking the Super Cat Light win and The Rodriguez Group earning first in the Super Vee class.
Other winners from the APBA races were Extreme (Super Vee Light), Team Velocity (Factory 1), Simmons Racing (Factory 2), Don't Blink (Outlaw A), Team CRC (Outlaw Performance 1), RMS Motorsports (Outlaw Performance 2), Team Fortress (Outlaw Performance 3), High Priority (Outlaw Performance 5) and Pair-A-Dice (Outlaw PX).
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