Another Action-Packed Lake Race In The Books

All eyes were on the largest class of the day on Saturday during the seventh annual Lake Race—the second stop of the American Power Boat Association Offshore National Championship Series—as eight Super Stock-class teams hit Central Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks in front of thousands of spectators.

Shaun Torrente and Eric Belisle won the Super Stock-class contest at the Lake Race in Missouri on Saturday. Photos by Jeff Helmkamp/Helmkamp Photos

In the end, the Florida-based CMR team of Shaun Torrente and Eric Belisle led from start to finish in their canopied Doug Wright catamaran, besting the local teams of Performance Boat Center and CR Racing, which finished in second and third, respectively.

“The boat ran pretty well today—honestly it was a little off but I think everyone was since the weather conditions changed and got hot and sticky on us,” Torrente said. “We were just happy to finish the race after having a gearcase failure in Cocoa Beach and not finishing the final race of 2020 in Morehead City (N.C.). Eric did a great job on the wheel. We limited mistakes and managed the race from out front.

“We’re back in the championship fight now,” he continued. “We’re going to get ready and prepare for Sarasota—it’s going to be a big one. I’m guessing we’ll have 15 boats at that one.”

In Class 7, the Jackhammer team of Julian Maldonado and his uncle, Rey Maldonado, bested Ella’s Nightmare, a 21-foot Challenger featuring veteran offshore racer Micheal Stancombe alongside his 14-year-old son Dominic, reportedly the youngest racer in OPA history.

Check out the slideshow above for more images from the Lake Race.

The three-boat Team Woody crew had a strong showing as the 527 Phantom finished first in Class 5, the 327 LaveyCraft ran uncontested in Class 3 and the 227 Fountain best two other teams to finish first in Class 2.

“That was an awesome day,” said Billy Shipley, who co-owns Team Woody with Chad Woody. “That felt really good after all the work we’ve put in.”

In Class 4, the GNS Motorsports team finished ahead of Throttle Therapy after the Michigan-based Old School team, which led for the entire race, but broke out and ended in fifth place. In Class 6, which included seven boats in the field, Team Deception took first ahead of the Reindl Powerboats crew.

“That was a great race,” said Jesse Schmig of Team Deception. “We battled all eight laps against Rum Runner. There was a lot of contact at the first dogleg turn pillow. Rum Runner and Reindl both thought it was a full turn. There was a lot of paint-swapping and the Reindl team busted apart a wing pretty good.”

In the three uncontested V-bottom classes—Relentless earned the checkered flag in Stock Vee, Boatfloater.com took first place in Modified Vee and Knucklehead Racing won the Vee Extreme trophy. The only entry in the new 450R Factory Stock class, Taylor Scism and John Tomlinson showcased their 39-foot MTI for the second time this season and looked good in the process.

Another Action-Packed Lake Race In The Books

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