The third and final day of Race World Offshore’s Key West World Championships ended with Monster Energy/M•CON taking the grand prize in Class 1, Jackhammer winning Class 2, CR Racing winning Super Cat and Team Bermuda/GL Construction winning Super Stock. It was a long day with equal amounts of suspense and frustration, with numerous red flags, restarts and a few accidents leading to delays that kept the program running nearly until sundown. Here’s a breakdown of what happened in each class.
Class 1: Shortly after the race began, Club Car Wash/BPR (Bill Pyburn and Darren Nicholson) flipped on Turn 1, resulting in a red flag. The remaining competitors returned to the mill, and after the restart, Tyler Miller and Myrick Coil grabbed the lead in the 418 Skater Monster Energy/M•CON, giving them the APBA and the UIM World Championships respectively and their third consecutive win of the week.
Wednesday's second-place finisher, Marine Technology/GC Racing (Willy Cabeza and John Tomlinson)—which suffered a broken propeller and only completed a couple of laps on Friday—finished second on Sunday. In third place was Outta Pocket/XINSURANCE (Kevin Birrell and Billy Moore). Nick Buis and Brit Lilly were fourth place in XINSURANCE; Reese Langheim and Adam Carpenter finished fifth in Discrete.
Class 2: After taking the win on Friday, 151 Express (Sean Conner and Vinnie Diorio) was part of a three-boat collision early in Sunday’s race involving both M•CON/HURT! App/Monster Energy (Tyler Miler and Myrick Coil) and Say Less MF (Chad Rudesill and Rusty Williams). The 151 Express entry flipped upside down, while the damaged M•CON and Say Less MF were towed in. (None of the pilots suffered any injuries.) After the restart, Jackhammer/Manatee Marine (Reese Langheim and Julian Maldonado) took the lead and kept it for the win; Lake Wylie Racing (Joe Spoloric and Garrett Coonrod) finished second and Good Boy Vodka (Rob Lockyer and Christian McCauley) was third. Montlick Injury Attorneys (Logan Adan and Giovanni Carpitella) suffered a mechanical issue and went out. Lake Wylie Racing accumulated the necessary points to go home with the Class 2 World Championship.
Super Cat: The objective of Casey Boaz and Rob Unnerstall was to grab their third consecutive win of the week in CR Racing, and they accomplished that goal handily, leading from green flag to the checkered. They were chased by Bill Pyburn and Brit Lilly in Dirty Money and Chris Grant and Jay Muller in C.J. Grant Racing/Graydel (the exact podium of Friday). However, during Lap 4, Dirty Money suffered a mechanical issue and pulled off the course, removing it from CR Racing’s tail. CR Racing took the checkered flag again, with C.J. Grant taking second and Ripit Racing (Anthony Smith and Christian McCauley) taking third. XINSURANCE/Lucky 13 (Andrew Biddle and Tracy Blumenstein) blew up an engine on Friday and did not make Sunday's start.
Super Stock: Two red flags marred the opening of this race—the first caused by a bad start, the second by a collision. Team Allen Lawn Care (Billy Allen and Sabrina Kowalik) and STR/Two Conchs S-45 were involved in an accident that left the Two Conchs boat upside down and Team Allen right side up, but with extensive damage to the sponsons. All pilots were safely extracted from their boats. After a restart consisting of seven laps, David Selley and Steven Bridges of Team Bermuda/GL Construction—winner of Friday’s bout—charged ahead to take the lead, the win and the World Championship. Nuff Said/Team Bermuda (Luis Martins and Nick Imprescia) was second and Raymarine (Cole Leibel and Gary Ballough) was third.
Super Vee: Running alongside the Class 1 boats were the three-entry Super Vees. Wazzup Motorsports (Ed "Smitty" Smith and Anthony Smith) repeated its Wednesday first-place performance to take both Sunday’s win and the World Championship—making this the 20th anniversary of their very first Key West World Championship. DSK Marine and Go GPS Racing/Cortez Cove finished second and third, respectively.
Mod Vee: Running alongside Cat 300, Vee Limited and Bracket 200 and 300 classes, the Mod Vee race was pretty sloppy state of affairs, with two different red flags—first because of a turtle on the course, followed by a bad start. Even after a second restart, things still didn’t look ideal: Speed Marine (Kyle Miller and Jay Wohltman)—coming off a second-place finish on Wednesday and a win on Friday—appeared to jump the start. Although they finished ahead of the pack, the team was ultimately penalized for getting ahead of the pace boat, relegating them to fourth place. They weren’t alone—a total of five of the nine-boat field suffered infractions of one type of another. When the dust settled, Fastboys/NJ Truck King (Ken Bollinger and Dyland Myers) nabbed the win and the World Championship, with Boatfloater.com (Steve and Stephen Kildahl) finishing second and Clouatre Cartel Racing (Dustin Clouatre and Owen Buis) finishing third. Safe Cash/XINSURANCE (Rick Raab and Scott Jobin) spun out during competition; caution was called, but the team got their bearings back quickly and continued the race. Relentless suffered a mechanical issue and did not finish.
Vee Limited: Team Legend 504 (Jeff Zimmerman and David Bruchis) took the win and the World Championship. BoatRacingExperience.com finished second; Mike’s Marine Care finished third.
Cat 300: Wicked/Lakeside Motorsports (Michael and Mike Bethan) took the win and the World Championship; Pantera Mike Racing came in second and Jackhammer was third.
Here were the podiums in Bracket Classes:
200: OC Racing*, Victory Racing, Justice League.
300: Herbott Racing*, Shocker Offshore Racing, Team Woody Racing.
400: Saris Racing Engines, Smokin' Tuna/Framed Offshore, Hartman/XINSURANCE*.
500: Rum Runners*, Back in Action, Team Yabba Dabba Doo.
600: Moderation*, American Hustle, Gerard Marine.
700: Pist'n Broke*, Team Progression/REDRUM, SafeCash Racing/XINSURANCE.
*World Champion winners.