Key West Worlds Finale Race 1: Snowy Mountain Brewery Wins Third-Straight Title

ByJason Johnson

Before the green flag even dropped on today’s Superboat Vee-class contest in Key West, Fla., during the Super Boat International Key West Offshore World Championships, the battle began for Snowy Mountain Brewery and archrival Sun Print/Boatfloater.com. While the accounts vary between the Sun Print team of Steve Miklos and Stephen Kildahl and Snowy Mountain Brewery‘s Michael “Doc” Janssen and Brian Forehand, the two V-bottoms made contact before they even left the milling area.

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Snowy Mountain Brewey led Sunday’s race from start to finish to win the Superboat Vee class world championships in Key West.

In less than one lap, Miklos’ new 30-foot Extreme V-bottom was out of the race, leaving Janssen and Forehand to finish the six-lap, rough-water race mostly uncontested with Hurricane of Awesomeness and Absolutely Not bringing up the rear.

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The SunPrint/Boatfloater.com boat ran into some trouble at turn 1 during the Superboat Vee finale. Photo by Pete Boden/Shoot2ThrillPix

“We were overheating an engine, and I think we lost a sea pump,” said Miklos. “That’s racing.”

The late Mike Fiore, founder of Outerlimits, will never be forgotten.

“This one feels great—we came here this year to honor (Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats founder) Mike Fiore, and we did it,” said an excited Janssen from the team’s celebratory pit, which included world champion-labeled wine and champagne bottles as well as posters of Fiore. “This is our fifth world championships in three different boats—we’ve won it back-to-back-to-back in the Outerlimits.

“Today was the roughest I’ve seen it in five years—the boat was hanging in the air for so long,” he continued. “Our team was well prepared and we knew we controlled our own destiny coming into the race this morning. We couldn’t be happier. Brian and I stumbled together several years ago, and although we’ve had our ups and downs, things have clicked for us lately.”

Janssen thanked his team as well as Bob Bull’s CMS crew, which shared tools and information throughout the week during the championships.

“This means everything to everyone back at the Outerlimits factory,” said Dan Kleitz, operations manager at Outerlimits. “To have Doc and Brian representing Outerlimits and bringing home another world championships, especially with Mike on everyone’s minds, makes us so proud. We wish both of them continues success representing Outerlimits in future races.”


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