Lake Race Winners! Official Results From A Weekend Of Powerboat Excitement

Lake Race 2018 is in the books! And with more than 30 boats running eleven races, there was plenty of excitement. Here’s a summary of how the races went, along with the official results per OPARacing.org.

Extreme/Unlimited Class

This is where the big cats play. Only two boats ran in the class this year: Wake Effects and Miss GEICO. Wake Effects came out to a strong start, but going into lap 2, the team appeared to struggle on a turn, as they navigated around a smaller boat that was racing in another class at the same time. Wake Effects slowed down to a crawl as they looped around and navigated the turn again, giving room for Miss GEICO to go roaring past.

By the third lap, though, Wake Effects had taken a commanding lead over Miss GEICO, which was struggling with mechanical issues. However, fate struck again, and Wake Effects ran into engine problems toward the end of the race and was overtaken by Miss GEICO, who went on to win.

RESULTS:

1st - Miss GEICO

2nd - Wake Effects

Supercat Class

One of the fiercest rivalries came out to play in the Supercat Class: world-champion Performance Boat Center/Jimmy John’s versus WHM Motorsports. WHM won the class at Lake Race 2017, but PBC/Jimmy John’s was determined not to lose again in their home waters.

This class was run in two, seven-lap heats. Along with the two strongest competitors PBC/Jimmy John’s and WHM, were MCON, Cleveland Construction, and Profloors. All of the boats are Skater catamarans except the New Zealand champion Profloors catamaran, which is an MTI.

In heat #1, PBC/Jimmy John’s had the inside line of the course, and took an early lead, with WHM close behind. Cleveland Construction was out by the end of the first lap, idling off the course with mechanical problems. By the second lap, there were two races: the first and second place contenders had established a solid gap over the third and fourth place contenders, but all four held their positions throughout the seven laps. PBC/Jimmy John’s took first, WHM took second, Profloors took third, and MCON took fourth.

In heat #2, WHM got the inside line on the course and took an early lead, with PBC/Jimmy John’s challenging close behind. Cleveland Construction and Profloors were close together for third and fourth place, with MCON pulling up the rear. But Cleveland had mechanical problems again, and limped off the course by the end of the second lap. Later, Profloors also had mechanical problems and did not finish the race. In this heat, WHM finished first, with PBC/Jimmy John’s second, and MCON in third.

RESULTS:

1st - PBC/Jimmy John’s

2nd - WHM Motorsports

3rd - MCON

[racers who didn’t finish]

4th - Profloors

5th - Cleveland Construction

Super Stock Class

These are the small cats with big speeds: up to 120+ mph. The race ended early because of a wild crash at the far end of the course: CR Racing flipped and had to be towed off the course. Thankfully the racers were fine, but the crash delayed the race enough that it was cut short to allow time for other classes to run. Racing were: Shadow Pirate/Nick’s Creative Marine, FJ Propeller, TNT Caddyshack, Allen Lawncare, and Jackhammer. Shadow Pirate/Nick’s Creative Marine, the defending champ from 2017, got an early lead and held it throughout the race. But the rest were not far behind, with FJ Propeller in second, CR Racing in third, TNT Caddyshack in fourth, Allen Lawncare in fifth, appearing to have engine problems, and Jackhammer way behind, also with apparent mechanical issues.

By the end of the second lap, everyone had settled into the positions they’d end the race in, but Allen Lawncare had managed to resolve their mechanical problems, and overtook TNT Caddyshack. At the end of lap 5, Jackhammer had come off the course, and it was Shadow Pirate in first, FJ Propeller in second, CR Racing only one or two seconds behind them, Allen Lawncare a good distance behind in fourth, and TNT Caddyshack a good distance behind them in fifth.

Then the race came to an abrupt end with the CR Racing flip.

RESULTS:

1st - Shadow Pirate/Nick’s Creative Marine

2nd - FJ Propeller

3rd - Allen Lawn Care

4th - Caddyshack

5th - CR Racing

6th - Jackhammer

SuperVee Lite Class

Three boats started, but only two finished in this class. Done Deal, Boatfloater.com, and Whoa Mama! II began the race, but by the second lap, Whoa Mama! II was out with mechanical issues. Boatfloater.com had established a small lead over Done Deal, and kept it throughout the race.

RESULTS:

1st - Boatfloater.com

2nd - Done Deal

3rd (DNF) - Whoa Mama! II

Class 2

The iconic Batman boat went up against Marine Max/Summerset and the red-and-white Wright Performance boat.

RESULTS:

1st - Wright Performance 360

2nd - Summerset Boat Lifts

3rd - Bat Boat

Class 3

Another big rivalry met on the course at Lake Race: Wazzup and Strictly Business, in class 3. At Lake Race 2017, Strictly Business was the only Class 3 racer, but in 2018 their online-smack-talking competitor Wazzup showed up.

Wazzup got an early lead, staying on an outside line around the course, but by the second lap, Strictly Business had taken the lead. Wazzup appeared to be having mechanical problems, but they kept going, though losing ground to Strictly Business. Wazzup slowed to an idle briefly in the fourth lap, but then sped up and finished the race, albeit well behind their rival.

RESULTS:

1st - Strictly Business

2nd - Wazzup

Class 4

American Outlaw was the only competitor in this class.

Class 5

This class has a “breakout speed” of 75 mph, which means competitors are not allowed to go over that speed—even though their boats could easily do it. On the course were Allen Lawn Care, WIA, Specialized Racing, and Tunnel Vision. These powerful boats were fun to watch, with exciting competition between second and third place, especially. Specialized Racing took a quick lead, and held that for the entire race. But Allen Lawn Care—the 2017 Lake Race winner for the class—and WIA battled it out, lap after lap, with WIA in front for awhile. But by lap 5, Allen Lawn Care had overtaken WIA slightly. The two boats stayed neck-and-neck to the end, but WIA edged out Allen Lawn Care in the end. It was later confirmed that all four boats crossed the breakout speed, so they ranked in the same order in which they finished the race.

RESULTS:

1st - Specialized Racing

2nd - Tunnel Vision

3rd - WIA

4th - Allen Lawn Care

Class 6

The breakout speed for this class is 70 mph, and this year’s Lake Race only had two Class 6 competitors: Smith Brothers CRC and Liquid Addiction. However, around the fourth lap, Liquid Addiction exited the race with apparent mechanical problems, and Smith finished the race as the default winner.

RESULTS:

1st - Smith Brothers CRC

DNF - Liquid Addiction

Class 7

The only racer in this class was Dawson Custom Marine.

Pontoons

The first race of the day was a surprising one! Four pontoons took to the course, all sporting twin-outboard motors except the 22-foot Hampton driven by David Dorris, which was a single-motor. Yet Dorris took an early lead, quickly putting nearly half a mile between him and the second place ‘toon, Big Thunder driven by Ryan Wilson.

RESULTS:

1st - Hampton (David Dorris)

2nd - Big Thunder (Ryan Wilson)

3rd - Sutersquad

4th - Premier

5th - 54 Playcraft Extreme