Key West Worlds Finale Race 2: SOS Helped Itself

Though it’s still pending official verification from the Super Boat International scorer, Chris Schoenbohm and Gary Ballough in SOS Venezuela appeared to capture the 2014 Superboat Stock-class world title in today’s second race of the Key West Offshore World Championships. Talbot Excavating‘s Kyler Talbot and Jay Muller came into today’s with first-place finishes in the class on Wednesday and Friday, as well as a 30-second lead over SOS Venezuela, which took second on Wednesday and third on Friday.

Chris Schoenbohm and Gary Ballough drove SOS Venezuela to a world championships in the Superboat Stock class.

That meant the SOS team had to finish more than 30 seconds ahead of Talbot and finish with one boat between it and Talbot to take the overall victory with today’s double-points format. And that’s exactly what happened when a mechanical issue knock Talbot down to one running on one 280-hp outboard engine and the Papa’s Pilar cat sliding into second place behind SOS.

“We worked nine hours yesterday moving things around and changing our CG, and if we hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t have won today,” said Ballough. “I’m glad we won, and I’m glad everybody came back safely. It was rough out there.”

Added Schoenbohm, “We got a good start, and Gary did a great job. We came here to race.”

The Hooters/Instigator Fountain earned the 2014 Superboat Vee Extreme class world championship.

In the extremely close two-boat Superboat Vee Extreme class, which ran at the same time, multi-time world champion Peter Meyer’s Hooters/Instigator team took home the world championship despite finishing 12 seconds behind the Twisted Metal Motorsports team.

“I would have liked the guys to have put it to bed today and win all three races, but you can’t always have things your way,” said Meyer, who watched John Stanch and Giancarlo Cangiano bring home the title in Meyer’s 42-foot Fountain. “We had a little problem with the trim tab, but we were able to stay in the race. I’m very happy with the team’s performance.”

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