Offshoreonly.com - from deerfield

Good, bad setups both end up first

By Steve Waters
Staff Writer
Posted October 10 2005

Deerfield Beach · Mapei overcame the wrong setup, and Rio Roses Fountain had the perfect setup in Sunday's Deerfield Beach National Championship offshore powerboat race.

Mapei throttleman Gary Ballough and driver Mike Majhess of Boca Raton put propellers on their twin outboard motors that were too big for the seas on the 6.4-mile course, but they prevailed in a closely contested battle with archrival The Hulk to win the race and the championship in the Super Stock class, their fourth consecutive national title.

Throttleman Doug Kelly of Boca Raton and driver Rob Nunziato of Dania Beach of The Hulk had a narrow lead in the points over Mapei going into the race, and the title would go to whichever boat finished ahead of the other.

Rio Roses Fountain, a 42-foot Fountain throttled by David Knight of Moncure, N.C., and driven by Mike Seebold of Frontenac, Mo., trailed Instigator and Miccosukee Indian Gaming for the first eight laps of their 13-lap Super Vee class race. But Rio Roses moved into second place on the ninth lap, took the lead on the 10th and pulled away to beat Instigator by 24 seconds.

"That's just preparation and setup," Knight said. "We knew after the first lap that we were going to be running down everybody."

Going into the race, Rio Roses had a 27-point lead in the Super Vee standings. The win gave Knight his sixth national title in seven years and Seebold his third offshore crown.

Spectators on the beach north and south of Deerfield Beach Pier as well as a large spectator fleet on the east side of the course watched 24 boats compete in nine classes.

Westerly winds Sunday morning had seas calm, which is what Ballough and Majhess of Mapei prepared in selecting large propellers. As they headed out for the race, which started at 1:20 p.m., the wind switched to the southeast and seas became choppy.

"It caught us off-guard at the last second," Ballough said. "Living here, I should've known the wind was going to come out of the southeast in the afternoon."

Without time to put on smaller propellers like the ones The Hulk had, how did he and Majhess overcome?

"Champions adjust," Ballough said. "We knew once the fuel [in Mapei] started burning off, we'd have some speed."

Results

Superboat Stock (boat, time): 1. Mapei, 45:45 2. The Hulk, 46:02; Super Vee: 1. Rio Roses Fountain, 56:52 2. Instigator, 57:16 3. Rodriguez Group Fountain, 59:06; Factory 2: 1. Team Fisher, 46:10 2. Moral Hazzard, 46:54; Factory 1: 1. Team TKO/Russo Marine, 40:29 2. Venom Powerboats.com, 46:56; Manufacturer Production 3: 1. Shamoo, 32:52 2. Marine Tech, 33:46; Manufacturer Production 5: 1. Crazy Chicken, 37:21 2. David Brian and Ricks Formula, 37:23; Manufacturer Production 4: 1. Team Nesquik/AMF Offshore; Superboat Unlimited: 1. Miss Longlite; Super Vee Limited: 1. Team Lavey Craft/AMF.