Repeat Grand Event for Great Lakes Super Boat Grand Prix
JBS Racing Blew The Crowd and Their Props Away
Michigan City, IN (August 9, 2010) – Super Boat International race teams converged on the Lake Michigan coastal city of Indiana this weekend and dazzled the crowd for the second straight year. This year’s fastest entry in the field, JBS Racing, screamed by the beach and around the course taking first place in the Turbine powered class.
Joey Skrocki, throttleman for JBS Racing, surely entertained the crowd with great racing around the 5-mile course. He noted how he was “impressed by the huge turnout of so many people showing up to support the Super Boat event.” Skrocki continues, “what a great event and what a great day. We’re very happy Lisa is okay after that wild crash.”
JBS Racing slid around the track and after feeling major vibration, Jeff Stevenson, driver, knew something was wrong with the boat as it was acting so erratic. After stopping and seeing the boat was leaking, they knew they were done. Returning to the cranes, the team experienced something rarely seen. The team had snapped the drive shaft off and the very expensive hi-grade prop was stuck in the transom of the boat. “Fiberglass is basically free compared to a $12,000 prop,” comments Skrocki.
The Popeye’s Super Cat, throttled by Stan Ware and driven by Lisa Matthews, experienced a wild rollover at the end of Sunday’s race. Ware did not receive any injuries from the accident but Matthews was transported to South Bend Trauma Center for evaluation and is expected to be released Monday afternoon.
The overall winner, WHM Motorsports, did not disappoint the Michigan City crowd, delivering a winning performance in the Superboat 750 Class in their bright yellow and black paint scheme. However, it was not without a battle with Supercat competitor, JD Byrider. Production 1 winner, Global Warmer, owned by Dan Davies, delivered the home team with a victory. “We were flying a lot and taking some shots out there. They do call it [hard] water and, after many landings, it felt like hard water. I’m just so excited to be racing here in Michigan City… everyone has been great and we’ve had so much fun,” comments Davies.
Superboat Vee Unlimited winner, Instigator Motorsports, owned by Peter Meyer, brought back veteran driver to compete. Joe Sgro, who has been competing in Europe for the past few years, has returned to the United States to compete in select Super Boat National races. It appears it suits them well as they bounced around a tough course and secured Sgro’s first SBI win of 2010.
Saratoga Stampede Super Vee Extreme Owner, Michael Jannsen, was pleased with the win in the Vee Extreme class and thought it was an incredible race. “ We’ve done a lot of testing recently and were definitely prepared for today’s race. This was a great race and I was really impressed with the number of fans. I will definitely be back next year,” comments Jannsen.
This second annual Great Lakes Grand Prix race, from all accounts, appears to be another successful year for Super Boat and Michigan City. President of Super Boat International, John Carbonell says, “Laporte County CVB, city volunteers, public services and all the fans from around Indiana and Illinois really showed their support again for offshore racing. We had really good weather for this 5-day long event and it appeared to have near record crowds on the beaches. It really shows how much the fans support boat racing and we’re really proud to bring our teams here to race. Not only do the fans enjoy us coming, but our teams continue to be excited about this event,” comments Carbonell.
The next race for Super Boat International is Cocoa Beach, FL August 20th – 22nd for The Thunder on the Beach Space Coast Super Boat Grand Prix.
Super Boat is the premier sanctioning body of offshore powerboat racing. The 2010 racing schedule consists of a total of 8 National Series point races and then the final event, The Key West World Championships. These 9 scheduled events for the 2010 racing season enables Super Boat International to claim the largest and the best schedule of offshore Super Boat racing around the world.
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What happened in the SCL class?
this was yet another fantastic race.. was a little disappointed to not see AQUA MANIA or Miss Geico attend but was still a great race to watch..
hope this event becomes a more popular event an even more boats make the drive to attend..
This was our first year attending! It was awsome we had a great time. We are from Indianapolis area and the 3 hours drive was well worth it. We will be attending next year for sure. I was ruiting for POPEYE and JBS. dangit lol we left at 5 pm and popeyes boat was still sticking out of the water. How do they get those boats out of the water when they wreck like that??
An even better event this year! More boats, better racing. It was a very exciting event. Thank you Superboat for coming to Michigan City, Indiana. We loved having you here. I hope that you will make a long term commitment to continue to bring your world class racing to the south shore. Thanks again.