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Round Two Brings Fame to Five Powerboat Teams
At APBA Offshore GMC Marathon Grand Prix Festival of Speed
Marathon, FL 5/15/04 - - The second race of the APBA Offshore GMC Pro Grade Marathon Offshore Grand Prix produced a number of high energy races all under hard hitting conditions. While seas continued to throw a light chop to the competitors, a dual ejection threw a wrench into the appearance of a smooth ride for all.
Brett Hartley of New Smyrna Beach, Florida and teammate Bruce Kreimeier, of Debary, Florida took an unexpected swim head first into the Gulf off Sunset Key and the Seven Mile Bridge on turn two of the seven turn course in their P3-9 Lap Dance entry, giving P3-1 Team Fortress the win.
Mark Slater, and Tyler Crockett on the throttles were thrilled with their performance, especially Crockett who was able to showcase own Crockett Marine Engines for a successful campaign. Taking the lead from the start, they were concerned for their fellow competitors, who were in second place when the accident occurred.
Hartley said the first thing that crossed his mind was whether or not he and his partner were going to get run over by the boats heading around the course.
“It was funny because when I was in the in the pool during the swim test, I was thinking, wow… I hope I never need to know this. The fact that I went through the swim training with Clay (Ingle) and the (STARS Rescue) guys, you know… it prepared me. The first thing I saw when I looked up, when I came up out of the water, was the helicopter over top of me and then Greg (Banks) saying, are you all right? I remembered to put my hand on my helmet, to show them I was fine. Then, the biggest thing I was worried about was that the boat was OK and hopefully not pointing straight up.”
Thousands enjoyed some heated action and a hard fought battle in the Factory 1 ™ class between F1-10 Activator with Mark Kowalski and stand in driver, Glenn Murray and the F1-11 Laveycraft entry with Kevin Cooper and driver, David Rehm. The equally aggressive teams, who switched the lead back and forth equally to the seventh lap, ended with the F1-10 taking the checkered flag by one single second.
“Glen did a great job. Absolutely great. At the last minute, I didn’t have anyone to drive. Gino retired, and Glenn heard, called me and we talked, said Kowalski.
“It was wonderful that we could come out. Before we were competitors, and now we are teammates just on a fill-in basis, we had a great time. I’d like to thank APBA Offshore, Mercury, David Brian Jewelers and the whole City of Marathon for a really great time.”
“Had a really good time, Mark did a great job on the throttles, I felt confident all the time, the boat ran well, and I was really glad he called me up. We had a great weekend,” said Murray.
“It was Laveycraft’s first race back after his accident (last year in Ft. Lauderdale) and he wasn’t taking the corners probably as well as he used to. It was also Glenn’s first time in the boat so we took it a little easy in the turns, but tried to run hard enough on the straight to stay with everybody. Once we got comfortable with our corners, we pushed a little harder. There were changing waters out there, different water conditions… It was a lot of fun,” added Kowalski, who left right after the race for a thirty-hour drive back to Medina, Ohio.
“On lap seven, we had a little bit of a bobble, and got caught in lap traffic boats. It’s just a fact of racing, and it’s anybody’s day, that’s all it takes is one little bobble and we tried to catch up and little by little, if we would have had maybe four more laps, we would’ve caught back up. That’s just racing,” said Cooper of his defeat.
Second place finish went to Team P4-45 Wild Ride’s John and Larry Kostelac, and for them it was just that, a wild ride.
“We had a real good race. The other boat in our class, it was nip and tuck all the way. We got a lead. With the tight turns around the bridge he cut us off pretty close one time, got some water on us, but that was racing,” said John.
Larry added that on Sunday, the team planned to switch props to compete against defending National Champion Gary Decieuces. They are not intimidated.
“We got the sister boat. We actually used their boat as the model. We ran a similar boat last year, we do have some time in these type Super Vee Light Extreme hulls. Gary’s run the course in years past successfully, so I think we have our work cut out for us, but we have patience. We’ll reel him in by the end of the year. It’s a long season. We’re here to learn and stay in the points chase.”
In the Outlaw Performance 5™ class, it was P5-14 Carraba’s Team Blythe who ended in Victory Lane with Todd Blythe teaming up with Glenn Wilson on the throttles. It was smooth, smooth as silk. We like to thank the City of Marathon, and thank Carraba’s, too, it was a great team effort.
We had to keep in front of our competition out there and we just stayed on it. Todd steered on the corners nice and smooth, you know… Never scrubbing any speed off. We just stayed in it.
As for Wild Ride, Wilson said they did get ahead of them for a while, and they had to do a little magic on them, but they got in front of them and stayed in front of them until the end.”
As for the win, Blythe said, “It feels great. We got a new sticks, Glenn Wilson on the throttles. He is going to do a few Florida races and you know my wife, Bonnie will jump in the boat as well, so there will be three of us on the podium. We are definitely heading for a National Title.”
The A Class produced a sure shot winner with #A-18 Team Velocity VR1 taking the lead and holding it from second running #A-30, Great Lakes Caster. Bob Spitulski and Steve Kildahl kept MIchiganders Todd Lyonnais, and Doug Popma at bay, ending the race with a mere four seoncds between them. Grumpy Old Men with George Eisenhart, Sr., Bobbie Kieber, and Jack Roth came in holding a steady third, behind a minute and twenty four seconds from the first place fnisher.
Doug Sutherland and Pat Mumper in A-71 Don’t Blink managed to climb the ladder to 4th ahead of Mike Markesteyn and Chris Volosin,in #A-21 Junkyard Dog.
Results, Factory 1™, 1st, F1-10 High Energy, (d) Glenn Murray, Bridgewater, NJ, (t) Mark Kowalski, 71.52, 2nd, F1-11, Team Laveycraft, (d) David Rehm, Placentia, CA, (t) Kevin Cooper, Laguna Niguel, CA, 71.52. Outlaw Performance 3™, 1st, P3-1 Team Fortress, (d) Mark Slater, Waterford, MI, (t) Tyler Crockett, Ruby, MI, 77.50, 2nd, P3-96 Lap Dance, (d) Brett Hartley, New Smyrna Beach, FL, (t) Bruce Kreimeier, Debary, FL, 20.73. Outlaw Performance 4 ™, 1st, P4-88 Herbott Racing, (d) Keith Herbott, Lake Harmony, PN, (t) Mike Barry, Lake Harmony, PA, 73.76, 2nd, P4-45 Wild Ride, (d) Larry Kostelac, Mechanicsburg, PA, (t) John Kostelac, Camp Hill, PA, 63.12, 3rd, P4-16 Vixen – The Gambler, (d) Kenneth Kasten, Sanibel, FL, (t) David Howard, Ft. Myers, FL, 71.17 ret. 6th. Outlaw Performance 5 ™, 1st, P5-14 Carraba’s Team Blythe, (d) Todd Blythe, Doylestown, PA, (t) Glenn Wilson, Orlando, FL, 65.90, 2nd, P5-4 Great Adventure, (d) Rodney Petruzzi, Stuart, FL, (t) Bill Gazell, Palm City, FL, 64.15. Outlaw Performance A ™, 1st, A-18 Velocity – VR 1, (d) Bob Spitulski, Chuluota, FL, (t) Steve Kildahl, Sarasota, FL, 76.46, 2nd, A-30 Great Lakes Caster, (d) Todd Lyonnais, Lowell, MI, (t) Doug Popma, Wayland, MI, 76.30, 3rd, A-25 Grumpy Old Men, (d) George Eisenhart, Sr., Thompson, OH, (t) Bobbie Kieber, Big Pine Key, FL, (n) Jack Roth, Madison, OH, 73.07, 4th, A-71 Don’t Blink, (d) Doug Sutherland, Sarasota, FL, (t) Pat Mumper, North Port, FL, 66.41, 5th, A-21 Junkyard Dog, (d) Mike Markesteyn, Orlando, FL, (t) Chris Volosin, Appaloosa, FL, 69.96 ret. 5th.
Stay tuned to www.apbaoffshoreracing.com for the Sunday competition results.