Firstly congratulations to the team, its a great sign that America is coming back from the recession when a boat manufacturer is chasing speed records. While reading about it I noticed that they thanked Mercury for their support and they also thanked Dave Scotto (OL 52)for providing the motors. Does that mean that one of their customers loaned his personal motors without warranties to OL for the record run? That guy must be the customer of the year!! If that is the case what did Mercury do to support the program?
As an aside would the same boat run any faster with Arnesons?
This record has stood the test of time which makes me wonder why more people haven't taken a shot?

Im sure that as high as those drives are Arnesons wouldn't have made much difference.

The record has stood the test of time because of the $$$ associated with putting something like this all together. Remember the economy took a major dip is 2007 and and is only recovering recently. Basically you either have to have more money than you know what to to do with, or (as in this case) a group of talented people all coming together to pool their efforts and money to make something like this happen.