Superboat Teams Put On Great Show For 30th Annual Event - Speedway Digest

Over the fourth of July weekend, Super Boat International crowned 7 winners in the fleet of 41 boats for the running of the 30^th Annual Suncoast Superboat Grand Prix. All the class winners included Two Cruel (P4), Black Pearl (P3), The Hulk (Superstock), Sun Print (Superboat Vee), Team STIHL (Superboat), Team Instigator (Superboat Extreme) and Miss GEICO (Superboat Unlimited).

This year’s event was a milestone for the City of Sarasota and Super Boat International (SBI). In its 30^thyear, Super Boat still wows the crowd with one of the biggest holiday parades in the State of Florida and the Sunday finale of the world’s fastest offshore race boats. Suncoast Children’s Charities continues to raise record amounts and SBI delivers one of the largest professional boat races in the United States.

President of SBI, John Carbonell, expands on the success of the event, “This was an all around group effort for another successful event. From the local group and volunteers, to our staff and the race teams that put on a great show, it was just a terrific weekend. Two of our larger teams, Team Envy and Spirit of Qatar, showed their commitment by bringing all their equipment and their largest boats to the event and they didn’t even race.” Their choice would have been to race; but for new equipment and long lead-times on parts, their teams and equipment were not quite ready to run safe and competitive races. Chris Cox, owner of Team Envy commented, “ I just wanted my team to have fun, even knowing we weren’t going to race. Also, we wanted to show our commitment to SBI and the wonderful Sarasota people for their efforts.” The Spirit of Qatar was committed to doing the same, knowing their engine package would not be ready for race day. It’s teams like those and the competing teams that showcase the true professionalism of Superboat racers.

Team Cleveland Construction experienced an unfortunate accident with a rollover in turn one early in the race. The quick response of the Super Boat rescue team assisted the racers on-scene and, fortunately, both driver and throttleman were uninjured.

Each class of racing saw some very competitive action on the course. The Superboat class with 7 entries is always a very close battle with Team Broadco and WHM Motorsports on the heels of Team STIHL all race long. The Superboat Stock class, another class with 7 entries that always keeps the fans on their feet, has seen The Hulk rise to the top with two wins after three races.

The next race on the Super Boat circuit is the 6^th Annual Great Lakes Superboat Grand Prix, Aug 1^st– 3^rd. Join us in Michigan City, IN and, if you cannot make it, watch it live online at http://new.livestream.com/sbi/michigancity2014.

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Adam Sinclair

NHRA, IHRA, Motocross and other forms of motorsports Staff writer
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.