LSB/Hurricane Of Awesomeness Extreme-Class Raceboat Getting Dressed

Fans of the Super Vee Light LSB/Hurricane of Awesomeness offshore powerboat racing team—competing this season in the six-race American Power Boat Association Offshore Championship series—will notice familiar yet completely fresh graphics on the Arnold, Md.-based team’s new 40-foot Fountain V-bottom that driver Brit Lilly and throttleman Kevin Smith will campaign in the circuit’s Super Vee Extreme class. With help from airbrush great Chris Dilling of Grafik EFX in Edgewater, Fla., Lilly and Smith currently are painting the 40-footer, which should receive its first clear-cote by the end of next week.

In about a week, the LSB/Hurricane of Awesomeness raceboat will be dressed in its new colors.

A longtime friend and advisor—at least when it comes to boat painting—of Lilly’s, Dilling designed the boat’s graphics package. The paintjob will include the LSB and Hurricane of Awesomeness elements, as well as various vinyl stickers for sponsors including Black Rifle Coffee, Preston Ford Automotive Group and more, but will be distinctly different from that of the 30-footer Lilly and Smith will run together throughtout the series in the Super Vee Light ranks.

Lilly and his crew reportedly have been working seven days a week since late 2018 to get the boat ready for paint. He and his crew uncovered seven previous paintjobs on the Fountain, which was completed in 2002.

“Most recently, we found a silver paintjob you could blow off with an air hose,” Lilly said, then laughed. “It’s been a raceboat its entire life but has been sitting in dry storage since 2011. We found some major damage during the sanding process and even some rotted sections of the deck. So we had to re-vacuum bag and core the deck.”

Dilling currently is working alongside Lilly and Smith at the LSB shop.

For a closer look at the team’s 40-foot Fountain raceboat currently being painted, check out the slideshow above.

“I have been coaching Brit over the phone on this project, but this is the first time we have actually seen it firsthand together,” said Dilling. “I have known the Lilly family my entire life. I painted the Carlos and Charlie’s boat when Art, Brit’s father was running with Jack Carmody. When Brit got into painting several years ago, I started helping him with some stuff.

Dilling described the boat’s pre-paint preparation as perfect. “It’s nice when you have guys who know what they’re doing,” he said. “We’ve already laid down the first two colors and tonight we’re going to spray the third color on the hullsides.”

Said Lilly, “Chris is my ‘Yoda.’ He’s helping me take my painting to the next level.”

As the team announced through social media, freestyle/aerial motocross pioneer Travis Pastrana—a longtime friend of Lilly’s—will drive the boat at the APBA Offshore Championship season-opener May 17-19 in Cocoa Beach, Fla. Smith will throttle the boat. Lilly said he’s hoping the “offshore racing bug” will bite his high-flying friend, but has no intention of giving up the driver’s seat beyond Cocoa Beach.

“If he really likes it, he can go get his own damn boat,” he said, then laughed.

 Related Story: Lilly And Smith Teaming Up On Extreme-Class V-Bottom