Miss GEICO ‘Flawless’ In First Pre-Season Test
Earlier today throttleman Scott Begovich and driver Marc Granet ran their Miss GEICO offshore racing catamaran for the first time since they claimed a Superboat Unlimited-class world title in the 44-footer during the 2013 Super Boat International Key West Offshore World Championships. While the cat was repainted earlier this by Jay Pilini of Pilini Marine Technologies, its twin Mercury Racing 1650 engines have not yet been refreshed. They had, however, been pulled from the boat, which was completely torn down and reassembled at the team’s shop in Riviera Beach, Fla.
Said Granet: “We haven’t run the engines since our last race in Key West—they were literally sitting in our lobby just a few days ago”
The team tested for more than two hours today. According to Granet, he and Begovich ran the cat up to 160 mph in a few passes.
“We didn’t push it too hard or doing anything over the limit,” said Granet. “Honestly, though, the boat was just flawless. When you completely take apart a raceboat and put it back together—as (crew chief) Gary Stray and the guys did—you almost expect some warning light or buzzer to be coming on or have something ‘trailing off the back’ the first time you run it again. We had none of that.
“We haven’t run the engines since our last race in Key West—they were literally sitting in our lobby just a few days ago,” Granet continued. “They ran perfectly.”
Granet said the team will spend the next two or three days inspecting Miss GEICO before the cat heads out for more testing and dial-in later this week.
“OK, there was one thing wrong,” Granet said, then laughed. “Scotty’s voice was a little muffled on the intercom system. I told Gary that we need to get that handled.”
and then