Once again the old rustin bucket took first place limping on one motor and all in Sarasota this weekend. Congrats guys 4 out of 5 is AWSOME. Party it up 2night...See yall in 2 weeks...

Mike

That is great looking and running boat no doubt but it is NOT a P3 boat. I love the sound of the engines in the engines in the Predator boat.They were out running the 100mph outboard cats and they outran a few Super V's too!

FeverMike,

Too bad your opinion is that we are not a P3 boat. We race our hearts out each run. There is no way to sandbag in the performance class. We are speed limited to a maximum of 92 mph and they check the entire course. That is recorded on the GPS. (we run two units side by side)

Yes the boat is faster than 92 mph. In this new class rules you can bring all the money you want and still lose. The new rules are about how tight you can run the course, how high you can keep your average speed, how well you turn and not break. That is why it is so great. We just play the game better.

We chose a big old classic boat to run because we love the old school. We knew big water would be easier for us but we have won in flat against the faster cats. You are used to the old P class rules where you could sandbag.

Our top speed on Sunday was 91.7mph. They downloaded our race and said we did it perfect.

We could put in bigger motors and run P2 or P1, but how fast do you want to run standing up.

We did outrun the cats and some supervee boats but we never exceded our class. If you watched you would have noticed that we corner way harder then the supervees and some cats and thats where we caught them.

Please tell me where you think we should run. We are supporting racing, love to talk and see everyone in the pits and we even threw over 200 free t-shirts in the parade???????
Whats you beef with us.

Carl

Carl, I dont think Mike has anything wrong with you. But, you answered your own question.

SBI rules 11.4.1- P3 Average lap speed 75-84.9mph
11.6.2 P3 PEAK SPEED 92mph

I dont think he has a problem with you..... it has been one of the things that present and former P-class racers have had issue with organizations. They make rules and dont enforce them.....nothing against you.

Carl whats your beef with me? You come off real harsh to someone just voicing what they saw and there opinon...I even said I loved your boat and especially the sound of it. I said what I saw as a spectator that's all. Your boat is awesome...I love it....I support the sport too...you obvisouly do not know who I am... but with out me you and others would not be racing at least in P-Class... to put it mildly. Anyway, I just said I saw you guys out running Outboard Cats and Super V's and to me I thought of your boats as more of a P2 class boat and so did about 4 other people on my boat in the spectator area. I agree you guys played the game perfect and there is nothing wrong with that. I'm sure that SBI enforces the rules. Enjoy!

FeverMike,

I do know you and you would know me if we met. I raced with the Zero Cavity guys in another life. I do not have any beef with you either and I am well aware of all you have done for us and the sport. When we raced before there was no real enforcement except for the occasional radar gun. It was easy then to turn slower then run hard in the straights (sandbag). The boats back then all ran faster than the class called for too.

Qball,

We talked indepth with SBI to fully understand the way they would enforce the rules this year because it was also new to us and we had to pick a class. The top GPS speed can't be any clearer or easier to enforce and that was their choice. For those who haven't tried, pick a fast speed in anything but flat water and add in some turns, try to maintain that speed within two or three miles an hour. Oh yeah then don't forget about GPS lag. (ever seen your boat pick up two or three mph coming of some waves?). Tommy our throttleman, who has more than few races under his belt, says it is the hardest thing he has ever done.

We all agree on the rules and who knows what is perfect. I can tell you the way it is now is very clear and enforceable.
We are all doing this to have fun and not for the huge prize money. We just love boats. Cheer for us or not, but enjoy the show

FeverMike,

I am not sure if you noticed but this race was different. When they put us all in one start because of the rain concern we were in the same start as P2 and supervee. The outboard cats were in start three. That might be why it looked like we outran them. We usually start in group three. We did get to play with the occasional supervee but I don't think we had them the whole course.

Bottom line, we try to run as hard as we can within their guidelines and put on the best show possible. Thanks for the compliments about the boat and the sound (y-pipes)

Sarasota was awesome and the support from the city was unreal. We all said that every city should be so supportive. We should be uploading pictures soon. Come see us in Dania.

Carl

Qball,

You got my curiousity up so I looked at our highest average lap speeds in Miami (82.5) Ft. Lauderdale (82.5), Marathon race 1 (83.5) and race 2 (83.5). All three races we had a maximum speed under 92. Maybe their guidelines do work!

Our average speed in Hollywood was a little low so I didn't include it.

Carl

Carl, it's cool and it's all good... i was just saying your boat seemed faster. Thanks for explaining, I'm sure SBI enforces the rules and yes the GPS is way better than the radar gun but that was all we had back in my days....enjoy! You gotta remember though that P-Class is way better than the old Local Class were there were no rules or Championships and very few boats compared to P-Class. With out going into a long story Local Class and all it's local club B.S. is why I pushed APBA in 1999 to let me come up with a better class to attract more racers and develop more racers.

BTW, I was out watching you guys practice/test on Saturday on Sarasota Bay. I was in the all white 38 Fountain fish boat with triples...I gave you guys a thumbs up!
Mike

,,,,,

Great race!

Mike,

I did see you numerous times, nice looking Fountain. Did you like the rooster tails when we did the quick blips testing the props for bite? Hopefully some of my explaining (ranting) clarified what is really happening out there. Every race when we win we hear someone who knew someone who owned the boat or raced the boat say we are in the wrong class or we are sandbagging.

We have seen 96 MPH one time in perfect water. When we went to this class we tuned the engines and props specifically to do exactly what it does. As you can see on the SBI website under results we are spot on both parameters. We race our race every time. I challenge anyone to stand where I was and run some laps with Tommy throttling and Dennis driving and say we are sandbagging. It was intense to say the least. Add to that the we had no trim in one drive and had to run the boat loose to keep the speeds up (broken trim ram) the whole race. Then we ended up finishing the last half lap on one motor because of ignition trouble, all in a 20 year old resin bucket.

I personally love the P classes because it truly shows driver and throttle skill and the average guy can play and pretend we are real racers. Thanks for watching us and please keep supporting any racing organization because life would suck without it. Give us credit where credit is due. We all have families and business obligations so we too have to keep our speeds and danger levels in the safety zone. Would we love to run 100 MPH plus racing, sure, But being that far over the edge and having one accident would change quite a few lives besides the one getting hurt.

Carl