Performance Boat Center, Wake Effects, and Sunprint Prevail in Michigan City

A healthy mix of aggressive racing and consistent performances—with a few mechanical issues thrown in—were the main plotlines in today’s Super Boat International eighth annual Great Lakes Super Boat Grand Prix in Michigan City, Ind. The double points event, which attracted 18 teams to the venue on the shores of Lake Michigan about 60 miles south of Chicago—the skyline of which was visible from the race site—featured two multi-class races on the 4.2-mile oval course.

Stlll undefeated, the Performance Boat Center team notched its third Superboat-class victory of the season in Michigan City. All photos courtesy/copyright Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

Starting promptly at 11 a.m. (CST), the first race included the Superboat Unlimited, Superboat Extreme and Superboat Vee classes. The 48-foot MTI Wake Effects and 40-foot Skater Powerboats American Ethanol/Cat Can Do catamarans ran neck and neck early on, but less than a third of the way through the 19-lap contest American Ethanol/Cat Can Do, which was manned by Keith Holmes and Ed Smith and is powered by twin supercharged 1,700-hp Sterling Performance engines, pulled ahead of the Wake Effects cockpit duo of Rusty Rahm and Jeff Harris in the Mercury Racing 1650-engine-powered 48-footer and established a solid lead.

Harris, who throttles Wake Effects, said that he and Rahm were able to catch Holmes and Smith in the turns but couldn’t keep up with them in the straights. “We were just a little long-propped,” Harris said. “We didn’t have enough acceleration and we weren’t getting all the rpm we needed. I had gone out earlier in the day, but it was calmer and (during the race) there was just enough slop and wave action that made our prop choice hurt us for the conditions.”

Roughly two-thirds of the way through the race, one of the engines in American Ethanol/Cat Can Do emitted a puff of blue smoke, and the 40-footer slowed immediately and dropped off plane. Wake Effects took the lead and finished first.

“We ran hard all day, and they had an engine problem,” Harris said. “I love running against the Cat Can Do guys. They’re really good guys. It was fun.”

Harris was equally complimentary of his cockpit partner Rahm, who was driving the 48-footer for the second time in his rookie season. “We ran some really hard turns today and he was really good,” Harris said. “It just takes some time to get comfortable. He’s doing really well.”

Steve Miklos and Steve Fehrmann lead wire to wire in Sunprint, their 29-foot Extreme V-bottom, in the four-boat Superboat Vee class, but not without a strong challenge from Brit Lilly and Ron Umlandt in LSB Hurricane of Awesomeness near the end of the race. Lilly and Umlandt cut down Sunprint’s lead to a couple of boat lengths but eventually ran out of laps, which turned out to be perfect timing for the Sunprint team.

“I think we blew up a coupler,” said Miklos via mobile phone from the cockpit of his raceboat as he and Fehrmann headed back to the docks under tow. “That was a scrap (with LSB Hurricane of Awesomeness) man. That was real. Something happened to them on the start, but we could see them coming the whole time so we kept pulling. We had a couple of bad corners that slowed us down.

Miklos, who has two first-place finishes and one second-place result so far this year in SBI competition, said that the Michigan City contest was the roughest race so far for his team season. “It was hard water,” he said then laughed. “We took a hell of a beating.”

In the four-boat Superboat-class contest that began at 1 p.m., the first lap saw Performance Boat Center, WHM Motorsports and STIHL—a pack of Skater catamarans—go into the first turn together. Performance Boat Center came out ahead with WHM Motorsports and STIHL hot on its tail. On the next lap, the battle for first place became between Performance Boat Center and WHM Motorsports as STIHL drifted into third place, a position the 38-foot cat manned by Jake Noble and Bruggemann held throughout the contest. (Cleveland Construction, another 38-foot Skater, dropped out of the race early with a mechanical issue.)

One spinout wasn’t enough to knock WHM Motorsports owner/driver Billy Mauff and throttleman Jay Muller out of the lead they eventually grabbed from throttleman John Tomlinson and driver Myrick Coil in Performance Boat Center. But a second spin for the WHM Motorsports 40-foot Skater enabled Performance Boat Center’s 38-foot Skater to take the lead, and it proved to be too much for Mauff and Muller—who appeared to be on a take-no-prisoners mission to hand Tomlinson and Coil their first defeat of the 2016 season—to overcome.

Check out the slideshow above for a look at more action from today’s SBI race in Michigan City, Ind.

“I think Billy was just a little bit better today, but he swapped ends in the turns and made a mistake,” said Tomlinson as he idled back to the docks with Coil. “You have to be aggressive in this class—you can’t give it a break or guys will jump on you. You have to run the best you can and give it every mile an hour you have. It’s the same way it is in (UIM) Class 1. You have to push, and push hard. That’s the only way to win in this class.

“We ran strong,” he added. “So I guess it’s off to the next one.”

Despite that it only involved two boats, the Superboat Stock-class race boasted close racing from start to finish. Eventually, Gary Ballough and Jimmie Harrison in FJ Propeller, a 32-foot Doug Wright catamaran, took what appeared to be a commanding lead over Ryan Beckley and Kevin Pruett in Juice and Java, a 30-foot Skater catamaran—until Juice and Java jumped up front again. The scenario repeated itself multiple times until the race ended with FJ Propeller in the lead.

A hard-fought victory followed by a tow back to the docks—that was today’s story for the Superboat Vee-class Sunprint team (click image to enlarge). Photo courtesy/copyright Steve Miklos.

For complete official results from the Great Lakes Grand Prix in Michigan City as they become available, visit the Super Boat International website. SBI’s next race is the inaugural Mentor Super Boat Grand Prix (Aug. 26-28) in Mentor, Ohio.

Performance Boat Center, Wake Effects, and Sunprint Prevail in Michigan City

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