Re: Congrats! P-5 44 Army Pantera
 

Thanks Guys. It was nice to hang out with quite a few past and current Pantera customers in Tennessee. Boat ran real strong all weekend and John did a great job on the wheel.

The 1st race we ended up breaking out by .5 of a MPH after finishing a 1/2 lap in front. Scott Coile let me borrow a hand held GPS ( thanks again ) which we velcroed on to the dash in front of me. It just so happens by mistake I was reading the elevation which was between 708 and 712 in the area and thought I was reading MPH instead.I went over for approximately 3 seconds at the start to 72.5 MPH which caused us to go over the 72.0 limit which is allowed in this class.I am not use to this type of racing.

The 2nd race later in the afternoon it was decided at the drivers meeting that the P5 and P4 class would race with the GPS turned off. ( my kind of race ) and we finished in 1st place by close to 3/4 of a lap lead.

Boat was well balanced, accelerated real strong with a new labbed prop we had done up by Brett at BBlades , and we maintained high speeds in the turns - WOT.

Key West is the next stop for the U.S. Army 24'. Should be a good rough water race.

The Pantera 24' is the smallest boat in the class.The crew has alot of heart and an excellent boat though !

Regards,

JO

Re: Congrats! P-5 44 Army Pantera
 

Hey Jo, Like wise it was nice getting to see you again & also getting to meet John he seems like a really great guy. I agree I thought he did an outstanding job on the wheel ! especially in that turn 1 & 2 incident that even had us on the bank drawing up ! Sorry to hear about the break out. I am with you on the fact that it would be hard to get used to only beeing able to run but so fast . I have never raced offshore but I have raced practicly everything that rolls on land & It would be really hard to know that you had power that you just can't use , but I guess thats just part of it. Did you get the pics. I sent ? We will have to get togather when you guys come back up for riverbend. Hopefully I will be up & running by then & we can all go for a run. I wish you guys the best @ Key West I know you guys will run hard !! I just wish I was going to be there. :( Talk to you later , Scott

Re: Congrats! P-5 44 Army Pantera
 

Here are a few pictures from this past weekend in Key West.

JO

Re: Congrats! P-5 44 Army Pantera
 

Little black boat was bombing.

Re: Congrats! P-5 44 Army Pantera
 

Damn I miss my 24' :( You may see it soon Pool Whore

Re: Congrats! P-5 44 Army Pantera
 

congrats on the race. how many boats were in your class and were you guys the only Pantera? Himes

Re: Congrats! P-5 44 Army Pantera
 

I heard how well the GO ARMY 24 did in the first race, but how about the rest of them? Is there any footage of it racing?

Mike

Re: Congrats! P-5 44 Army Pantera
 

6 boats in p-5
Army finished 4th overall

Re: Congrats! P-5 44 Army Pantera
 

Wednesday's race we took a 1st place.

Friday's race : We led from start to finish and within 300 feet from the finish line the GPS spiked from 71.1 to 72.1 after hitting a few wakes in the harbor.It was very frustrating to lead the entire race only to breakout by .1 of a mph so close to the finish line. :mad:

Sunday's race : We went in tied for 2nd place in the point standings. We led the 1st lap and had a very close battle for the lead with the Crazy Chicken boat on lap 2,3,4,and 5. With 1 lap remaining John and I tried to do an agressive pass on the inside at WOT and spun the back out after hitting the strong wake coming from the Crazy Chicken boat. I ended up landing on top of John and getting my shoulder banged up. We took off immediately and finished in second approximately 8-10 seconds behind the Crazy Chicken team. John and I never saw over 71.3 on the GPS for the entire race. When John inspected the GPS after the race it showed again 72.1.We felt that we did not re-set the GPS correctly from the previous race and asked APBA - SBI to download the chip. It was shown on the Computer that we did not run over 71.3 but they felt our average speed was high and consistent. They ended up sticking with their ruling of 72.1 breakout and we got moved back in the points to 4th overall.

Basically lost the Championship by .1 of a MPH. I am not use to having to stare at a GPS while racing and making sure you do not break out. :eek:

We had the smallest boat in the class with the smallest power ( Pantera 24' with a single 496 HO - 425 with CMI headers ) but gave it 100 %.

Congratulations to the Crazy Chicken team !!

Key West was the last race for the team in P5 class. John did a great job on the wheel. We got alot of compliments in our driving style from many fans. :drink:

We spent Saturday giving local Army recruits boat rides and the kids had big smiles on their faces. :D

It was good to see many Pantera customers from all over the U.S. present in Key West supporting the U.S. ARMY team.

Joe the new owner of the Blue Pantera 36' also attended the Poker Run. Boat looked great in the water and got many looks.

Regards,

JO

Re: Congrats! P-5 44 Army Pantera
 

A few more pics.