Offshoreonly.com - Clearwater Beach Marriott Suites on Sand Key

Clearwater Beach, Florida marked the return of TnT Racing back to the race course and what a return it was. Going in, there were so many questions, how much rust is on Scott and Trent?, will Trent’s knee hold up?, what has the competition done to better their programs?, the list goes on. The team arrived in Clearwater on Wednesday to set up for the kick-off press conference and it only got better as the weekend progressed. TnT partnered with the Clearwater Beach Marriott Suites on Sand Key for this event and they did nothing short of rolling the red carpet out for the team. The Marriott Suites on Sand Key, provided the perfect get-away of rest and relaxation for the team with the busy schedule of appearances and media gatherings. Once the media events were over, the team went back to the task at hand which was the 2009 Superboat National Championship race. In testing Saturday, things didn’t go exactly as planned with a new experimental setup and it had Trent going back to the drawing board. Odds were already stacked against TnT as the boat competes in a class in which they are shy at least a minimum of 150 hp to the competition. Trent decided to go back to the setup that brought TnT the national and world championship honors. To everyone’s amazement( including their own) TnT got the jump at the start and had the lead going down the straightaway, but it was soon evident that heart isn’t the only thing that wins races, a little bit of horsepower and torque helps! Immersed in a tightly contested battle for the National Title, “Simmons Racing” and “Crazy Chicken” caught TnT and continued to battle it out for the title until the checkered flag which Simmons won. TnT settled back into third place and was waiting to be challenged by two other teams: “National Guard” and “Daredevil Racing”, but unfortunately the challenge never came. Both teams suffered from mechanical issues which in turn allowed TnT to settle in and establish a rhythm. In the end TnT ended up third which after the layoff, the team considers a huge success. “Hey, 3rd place means you’re the second loser, but looking at things overall, we are very pleased with this weekends results. We had so many things going against us, but from top to bottom our team stood up and accomplished all of the goals we set. Our partner, the Clearwater Beach Marriott Suites on Sand Key was flat out incredible as well,” said Trent.

After the race Kay Grier of the Marriott Suites on Sand Key said,” We were so excited to be part of the 2009 Superboat National Championship race event and we were even more excited to work with a team like TnT Racing. They were truly an amazing team to work with. Our partnership with the team not only brought the resort extra business, it allowed us to be “hands on” with this great event. This partnership had turned business acquaintances into friends. We definitely look forward to working with them in the future.”

Special thanks also go out to Ray Pusillo, Diane Stein, Karla Jo Helms, and the cities of Clearwater and Clearwater Beach for making the return of TnT Racing to competition an awesome event.