LAKE RACE

In the second stop in the 2021 APBA Offshore National Series, 36 boats battle in 11 classes at LOTO.

Powerboat P1/OPA competitors trekked to Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks for four suspenseful races comprising 11 classes as the second bout in the APBA Offshore National Series got underway. In addition to 36 OPA competitors, more than 20 Formula One boats joined in on the fun for the 2021 NGK F1 Powerboat Championships (see Page 34).

Eight teams came out to battle for the trophy in Super Stock Class, which had been won by Team Allen Lawn Care in Cocoa Beach only a couple of weeks earlier. (Five of the eight boats call the Lake of the Ozarks home.) In this ten-lap race, CMR Roofing driver Eric Belisle and throttleman Shaun Torrente grabbed an early lead, chased by Myrick Coil and Rusty Williams in Performance Boat Center/FASS Fuel Systems and Rob Unnerstall and Casey Boaz in CR Racing. The positioning didn’t change much, if at all, for the duration of the race, with CMR Roofing taking first place, followed by Performance Boat Center/FASS Fuel Systems and CR Racing. The Earl & Rose Rand Memorial Lake Race Trophy will be emblazoned with the names of those who have contributed to offshore racing at LOTO. The first names to be memorialized are Bob Morgan, Jeff “JT” Tillman and Keith Holmes.

Left: Taylor Scism (holding Saylor Moe, daughter of family friends Shawn and Linde Moe) accepts her award for the Stock 450 Class win driving Marine Technology (above) with throttleman Johnny Tomlinson. Below: Team CMR Roofing.com (including driver Eric Belisle and throttleman Shaun Torrente) celebrate their Super Stock win. Performance Boat Center/FASS Fuel Systems (bottom) finished second, but the team (including driver Myrick Coil and throttleman Rusty Williams) led the class in points following the race—and would go on to win their class in Sarasota.

(Following this race, Coil and Williams led the Super Stock class in points.)

Bracket Class 2 featured driver Billy Shipley and throttleman Chad Woody in Team Woody, a 35' Fountain powered by Tyler Crockett engines. It was one of three Team Woody competitors chasing—and finding—victories during the weekend (see Page 29). Team Woody was pitted against the legendary Bat Boat MTI (with driver Elliot Gray and throttleman Terry Forsythe) and We on Top (with driver Robert Bryant and throttleman Brian Cole). Although the Bat Boat enjoyed a comfortable lead during the first half of the race, it experienced mechanical gremlins, alternately falling off and getting back on plane. This allowed Team Woody to take the lead and finish in first place, while We on Top (with driver Heath Kirkwood and throttlman Brian Cole) finished in second place.

“The water was great out there,” Shipley said. “Once we got into our own water and ran out in front by ourselves, it was just like making passes on the lake. We’re from Fort Worth, so our local lake, Possum Kingdom Lake, is similar to this one. It’s kind of flat, super fast, full speed the entire time, except for when you have to slow down in the turns.”

Several bracket classes—notably 4, 5 and 6—saw their unofficial wins change by the time the evening’s awards ceremony rolled around, due to boats determined to have “broken out” of their restrictive speed limits. [Text continues on page 60]

VEE EXTREME: Knucklehead Racing (top left) ran unopposed and took the win in the class. The 42' Fountain is raced by driver Ed Smith and throttleman Anthony Smith (above).

MOD VEE: Owner/driver Steve Kildahl usually races Boatfloater.com (above) with his son Stephen, but since he couldn’t make the race, his sister Kaley operated the throttles instead. At right, father and daughter accept their trophy.

STOCK VEE: Driver Travis Pettko and throttleman Steve Papp (left) of #47 Relentless accept their first-place award.

CLASS 2: Billy Shipley and Chad Woody (left) accept their award for their victory in the Fountain #227 Team Woody.

Team Woody’s trio of first-place awards.

CLASS 5: The 30' Phantom, piloted by Micheal Stancombe (shown at right with son Dominic) and JJ Turk (shown with son Cameron). The three Team Woody competitors (bottom to top): The 35' Fountain, 28' Lavey Craft and 30' Phantom.

CLASS 3: Driver Jeff Muehlhausen and throttleman Brad Wade (above) of the Team Woody canopied 28' Lavey Craft accept their first-place trophy.

CLASS 6: Deception, driven by Jesse Schmig and throttled by Robert Bryant, took first. Right: The team accepts their trophy.

CLASS 7: Julian Maldonado and Ray Maldonado (above) finished first in their 22' Velocity Jackhammer (right). CLASS 4: Driver Grant Greytok and throttleman “Lil Bill” Reeves (left) were victorious in GNS Motorsports—news that came as a big surprise to the team at the awards ceremony!

GENERATION NEXT: Meet Offshore’s 14-Year-Old Wunderkind

by Eric Colby

In his first 24 hours of offshore powerboat racing, Dominic Stancombe experienced the ranges of emotion that a competitor can feel during an event at the Lake Race in Lake of the Ozarks, MO, last weekend. First, on Friday, he and his dad Micheal Stancombe headed out to test their 21' Challenger, Ella’s Nightmare, but the 3.0-liter Mariner outboard wouldn’t fire. Cue anxiety.

While his father and friends tried to trace the problem, Dominic took the team’s boat through registration and tech inspection— by himself. Cue stress. Then he passed the swim test.

“We couldn’t get the boat working and got help from a lot of Team Woody people and Goofin’ Around helped us and Robert Ryan helped us,” said Dominic. Cue camaraderie.

At around midnight, they got the engine running and turned in for the night. Cue relief. Until Saturday night after the race, Mike Stancombe estimated that he had gotten seven hours of sleep since Thursday evening. The Stancombes were one of a handful of families that were teaming up in

CLASS 4: Micheal Stancombe has been pulling double duty this season, campaigning both the 30’ Phantom Team Woody in Class 5 (see Page 31) as well as the 21' Challenger Ella’s Nightmare in Class 4 (above). Stancombe’s 14-year-old son Dominic (top, accepting their second-place award) is Ella’s driver. the cockpit for the first time throughout the fleet. Cancer survivor Nate Hunt throttled the 41' Apache, Predator, in Class 4 and his wife Connie was the navigator. Steve Kildahl usually races with hits son Stephen Kildahl in their 29' Extreme, Boatfloater. com, but for the Lake Race daughter Kaley Kildahl stepped in.

Race day dawned on Saturday and after going through his first physical and second driver’s meeting, Dominic was ready. At the start, having all four Class 7 boats running side-by-side was a little unnerving for the 14-year-old. Dominic was driving and Mike throttled.

“It was pretty bumpy,” said Dominic. “It was close seeing all the class 7 boats all four in a row. I wish I had my camera.”

When the green flag flew, Mike didn’t try to keep up with the hard-charging 22' Velocitys, Jackhammer and Goofin’ Around. He wanted [Continues on page 58]

F1s Hit Lake of the Ozarks For First Time in History

The NGK Spark Plugs Formula One Powerboat Championship brought its high-performance show to Lake of the Ozarks for the very first time. The third event of the NGK F1 Series’ 2021 season, the Formula 1 Lake Race ran as a companion event to OPA’s Lake Race occurring during the 90th Anniversary of the town’s beloved Bagnell Dam.

Lake of the Ozarks is also the hometown of NGK F1 Series Manager Tim Seebold, making the success of this long-awaited event even sweeter.

The event brought together three different disciplines of boat racing, providing a wide assortment of racing entertainment for every type of powerboat fan. Formula 1 and Tri-Hull were the two classes from NGK F1 with a total of 25 entries, while OPA brought its offshore fleet for a weekend filled with sun, fun and nonstop racing action.

The state of Missouri was once a stronghold for high-stakes tunnel boat racing as it hosted the famous St. Louis Grand Prix, which started in 1972 and ended with the last race in 2008. Thus, the fans were extremely delighted to see the outboard tunnels back for a show in the Show-Me State, a new tradition that the series hopes will continue for years to come.

Precision planning by the organizers kept the action hopping with non-stop competition on the water. The event saw several high-speed spills, but with the sport’s long running focus on safety enhancements, those competitors were free of injuries.

In the Formula 1 class, competitors came from all over North America, hungry to compete for a third time after a year of Covid19 quarantine. The winner of the first two events of the season, #93 RJ West, was not able to make this round due to family commitments, leaving the odds for “favorite to win” up in the air.

Instead of the usual modified Le Mans-style, flag-drop dock start, organizers opted for a rolling start, with racers paired up two by two, following a pace boat. During the first F1 heat of the day, #9 Johnny Fleming of The Woodlands, TX, easily bested the field, leading wire to wire. Finishing in second was #24 Spencer Love of Santa Rosa Valley, CA followed by #17 Dylan Anderson of Nashville, TN, taking third.

The second heat for F1 was a reverse-order start, with competitors lining up in reverse order of their earlier finish. With the wind coming across from the coves, drivers had their hands full. While pushing from 5th place to 4th, #71 Jimmy Kerr blew over directly in front of one of the race sponsor restaurants, Neon Taco, stopping the race one lap early. This resulted in a trio of new top-three finishers led by #77 Mike Quindazzi of Parker, AZ— who suffered from battery issues in the earlier heat—followed by

Johnny Fleming in the #9 entry won the first Formula 1 heat.

Terry Rinker won the Formula 1 final race.

Tri-Hull winner Whittney Terry Fletcher.

In the Formula 1 final race, #17 Dylan Anderson shot out into the lead, but his dreams of victory came to a halt on lap #2, when his boat fell into an enormous hole at the turn, which spun his racing craft around, swapping ends, bow to stern. He emerged uninjured.

former multi-champion #10 Terry Rinker driving for Phase Three Performance. Third place went to #13 Aaron Wachholtz of Forest Lake, MN, his first weekend racing in a new boat he personally built.

The lineup for the F1 Final race put #17 Dylan Anderson starting on pole with #9 Johnny Fleming, #10 Terry Rinker and #24 Spencer Love starting in 2nd, 3rd and 4th positions. Anderson shot out into the lead, but his dreams of victory came to a halt on lap #2, when his boat fell into an enormous hole at the turn, which spun his racing craft around, swapping ends, bow to stern. On the restart, #10 Rinker took the lead and never looked back. Finishing on the podium with Rinker was second place finisher #9 Fleming and third place going to #24 Love.

Rinker, who had taken several years off from racing, was asked to come back into the sport by team owner Jim Slack, whose original Phase Three Performance driver, Canadian Rusty Wyatt, learned he could not cross the border from Canada due to Covid19 restrictions.

When asked about his victory, Rinker said, “It is always great to win an inaugural event knowing that title will always stand, as it does for the 2017 Springfield, Ohio event as well.” Regarding his time away from the sport, he said, “It was tough stepping away from competition a few years ago. Fortunately, I was still able to be involved and took great pride in watching my son Ashton showcase his talent amongst the elite group of competition in F1.”

The Tri-Hull class, with its own private brand of raucous racing competition, arrived at Lake of the Ozarks without its 2021 points leader, Cory Walker of Richmond, TX. Nearly a dozen racers were on hand to become the next event winner. #13 Grant Schubert of Richmond, TX—who is a high school student and youngest racer of the class—won the qualifying heat like an old-time veteran. Heat #2 was won by #99 Devyn Brown of Katy, TX and Heat #3 was won by the only woman in the field, the daring #9 Whittney Terry Fletcher.

The Tri-Hull Final starting grid saw Schubert on the pole, followed by Fletcher, Brown and the formidable 77-year-old Jerry Rinker #52, who has been racing boats for a whopping 70 years and is the 2019 NGK TriHull Champion. By lap 4, Rinker had moved into the third spot, with an incredible battle between Schubert and Fletcher just ahead in his view.

By lap number 15, #99 Devyn Brown had worked his way up to third behind Fletcher. Two laps later, Fletcher took advantage of lapped traffic and made a move on leader Schubert, diving to his inside and running off with the lead, securing her first Tri-Hull win.

Fletcher, who hails from Thibodaux, LA, described her win: “Sometimes you have to leave them confused for a second! Actually, it’s more like I dove in and hoped it would work.” When asked about her patience before making her winning move, she explained, “I’ve always been pretty good at driving the boat hard, but I never had much patience to wait for the right move. Hopefully, this means I’m learning. This win is a big, wonderful feeling, and I am so happy to share it with my husband, my dad, stepmom, and my brother.” Whittney’s brother—F1 driver Dustin Terry—was on hand to give her the traditional “dunking” for first time race winners, which is a splashdown into the same water that provided the victory. “My guys all had to catch me in running jumps. Dustin caught me, bear-hugged me, then immediately threw me in the water!”