Superboats in Sarasota Florida put on a big show

Posted on August 6, 2014 by World Sports Boats

Another sun filled, performance packed, Super Boat International weekend, crowned 7 winners in the fleet of 41 boats for the running of the 30^th Annual Suncoast Superboat Grand Prix this past weekend. 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). The WSB team were lucky to be ring side to take in the action.

This year’s event was a milestone for the City of Sarasota and Super Boat International (SBI). In its 30^th year, 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.