SBI Founder and President John Carbonell called it the best event of the season. “The spectator fleet was three miles long down the beach. It looked like you could walk from boat to boat and never touch the water,” Carbonell said. “There were people all along the beach and they went way beyond Pier 60, which was our south turn.”
Miss Geico won the hugely anticipated turbine match race.
The big Turbine shootout produced two winners. Miss Geico dominated the race with Aqua Mania, turning speeds of 145 mph on the 2.5-mile straights.
Aqua Mania made plenty of heat waves on its way to the season title.
Aqua Mania drove a conservative race, which paid off big-time with a National championship.
Super Heat made the trip from New York to win the cup in front of three miles of spectator boats.
In the other two Unlimited classes, Super Heat dominated the Catamaran class while Seminole Hard Rock won a season long battle over Rock Star in the Vee class.
Seminole Hard Rock won the season battle with the No. 11 Rock Star boat.
Panasonic Racing dominated the Superboat Vee Extreme class in 2009.
In SBI’s “NASCAR” boats (pushrod V-8 motors), WHM Racing (850 class) and War Paint (750 class) dominated their respective categories for the year.
WHM put on a great show for the fans on its way to a class championship at Clearwater.
2009 saw Team Miccosukee Indian Gaming dominate the highly popular Stock outboard class with a win over archrival Team Stihl.
Superboat has five “stock” Manufacturers Production classes for 30 foot and under boats with single engines. Hulls can be either catamaran or vee, and each class is capped by a maximum speed ranging from 75 mph (MP-5) to 117 mph (MP-1).
The closest racing was in MP-4 between Simmons Racing and Crazy Chicken who had battled all season long. Simmons took the lead at the south turn and gradually pulled away for the Clearwater win and the season title.
Other Production class champions were Rock Star Energy Drink in MP-1 and Just Pray Offshore in MP-5.
Three cheers for the Clearwater Beach Chamber of Commerce and Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard for organizing a terrific weekend. SBI’s National Championships will return to Clearwater on October 1st-3rd, 2010.
Karla Jo Helms (center left) and Diane Stein (center right) of JoTo Extreme PR made it all work!
A big SpeedStyle shout-out to Karla Jo Helms and Diane Stein of JoTo Extreme PR for providing the media with full access to the teams and the racing action!Superboat wraps up its 2009 season with a weeklong festival and World Championships at Key West, Florida on November 8th-15th.
WOW! A big thanks from us to you Speed Style for the shout out! And a big thank you for the race teams for being so willing to talk to the fans, the media and us! You guys ROCK!
-Diane & Karla Jo
