Highs and Lows from 2013: Marc Granet
While driver Marc Granet is without question the public face of the Miss GEICO offshore racing team, he also is the first person to emphasize that regardless of what happens on the racecourse it is the result of a “top-to-bottom, all-around team effort.” And with world championships on the Super Boat International and Offshore Powerboat Association circuits, the Miss GEICO team’s efforts were rewarded handsomely this season. But the team’s journey to those titles, according to Granet, was the best part of all—even sweeter than the victories themselves.
High: There were a bunch of highs for us this year. For the first time, our team truly came together as one. That has been a high that lasted all season. It all came together for the team this year. Our team is a family, and it’s been so nice to see it and be part of it. Another high was that the boat finally came together—after so much work that went into it all year and before the season even began—to point where its balance was perfect and we had the power we were used to having with the turbine engines. That was a long way to come after losing the turbine boat to a fire in a Sarasota (Fla.) less than two years ago (read the story).
Low: My low would have to be, without question, watching one of my good friends and partners in the Miss GEICO team, battle cancer and deal with cancer therapy. That was very challenging—definitely a low for everyone involved. But watching him emerge from cancer therapy was one of my biggest highs. We had a couple of lows on the racecourse, and spinning out in Clearwater (Fla.) was one of them. We were pushing hard, and after evaluating what happened we realized we were racing “emotionally,” and that’s not how we run. And from my perspective as a member of the powerboating community, the loss of our poker run brothers Jeff Asbell and Brad Smith was a tremendous low. Whether something like that happens in a poker run or on a racecourse doesn’t make it any easier. It is horrible in and after the moment, and it brings back a whole flood of hard memories.
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