FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. — Boat racers from across the continent came to race at Fort Myers Beach, the weekend of Oct. 12–13, for the final race of the American Power Boating Association (APBA) championship series. Among them, Lake of the Ozarks-based teams made a strong showing, especially in the Super Stock Class.

Super Stock catamarans are canopied, no more than 32 feet in length, with twin stock outboard engines. When these boats hit the course, there’s no speed limit.

At Fort Myers Beach, the Wide Open/WIA team took first place in a 32-foot Doug Wright catamaran. Mike Wright and Loren Peters were in the cockpit, and both are new this year to racing in the super stock class, which tends to be the largest and among the most competitive. Nine super stock boats competed in last weekend’s race, but in June at Lake of the Ozarks, in the second APBA race of the year, 12 boats competed in the class.

Wide Open/WIA At Lake Race

Wright and Peters might have landed in second, if the Team Allen Lawncare boat—which stayed in front nearly the whole race—hadn’t run out of fuel on its port side engine in the last lap. Team Allen Lawncare finished in 11th place, and Wide Open/WIA got the win.

Right behind Wide Open/WIA was Performance Boat Center’s 32-foot Wright Performance cat, with Myrick Coil and Rusty Williams at the helm. Both are seasoned racers, but also new this year to the Super Stock class. PBC never actually finished in first place at any of this year’s six races, but they also never finished worse than third place. Thanks to that strong consistency, they won the Super Stock class overall for 2019.

CR Racing At Lake Race

In 4th place for the Super Stock class was CR Racing, with Lake of the Ozarks resident Casey Boaz and Rob Unnerstall in the cockpit. CR Racing took 1st place at Lake Race in June.

In the Super Cat class, which allows larger boats—34 to 42 feet—and twin 750 engines, two Lake of the Ozarks teams put up strong performances. Finishing in third place was the larger Performance Boat Center MTI, and in fourth (out of seven racers) was MCON, based in Wathena, Kan. — not technically based out of Lake of the Ozarks, but the locally popular race team has strong connections here.

Performance Boat Center At Lake Race

WATCH: CR Racing's Wild Barrel-Roll At Lake Race 2018 --

1
1
1
0
0

(0 Ratings)