Offshore race to be earlier

SARASOTA COUNTY -- Organizers of the 2004 Sarasota Offshore Showdown powerboat races are planning to hold the event earlier next year.

The competition will be May 14-16, two weeks before Memorial Day and two months before the longstanding Fourth of July Grand Prix races off Lido Beach. It will mark the beginning of the American Power Boat Association's season.

The race will again be held off Siesta Key Beach and will again benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

This year's event marked the return of the APBA, which sanctions high-speed and national-circuit powerboat races, to Sarasota after a two-year absence.

The last weekend in August was the only available weekend this year for the APBA, said race chairman Anthony Puccio. It was in the middle of hurricane season, and it had been raining almost daily. Puccio cited the weather as the main reason for the date change.

"We really were fortunate and blessed that we were not rained out," he said. With the May date, "We might even have more boats."

For years APBA sanctioned the Suncoast Offshore Grand Prix, a July fund-raiser for the Suncoast Foundation for the Handicapped. The relationship ended in 2001.

So, that weekend was the Marathon race this year ... is Marathon gone? I might be a bit biased, but I much prefer Sarasota over Marathon ...

Marathon is gone. Milwaukee and Detroit - here we come.

Marathon is gone??? I'll miss watching from the Seven Mile Bridge, it was the best thing about Marathon (wait, the ONLY thing about Marathon, there is nothing else there.....)

I don't believe the seven mile bridge was open for viewing this year (I watched the races from the water myself this year). In 2002 it was awesome, they had porta-potties and food and drink vendors set up all along the seven mile bridge and it was great, but this year it was gone already anyway.

I do have to admit, I didn't do Marathon this year, so I was not aware. The 2002 race there was some of the best race viewing ever, even though they combined both races, and we were out on the bridge for what seemed like forever.