What Made St. Pete A Winner
Offshore racing isn’t having its best season. You are entitled, of course, to believe otherwise.
You are also entitled to believe the world is flat.
New teams and much more made the St. Petersburg Grand Prix a compelling event. Photo by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
The elephant in the room, of course, is the split in the sport as witnessed by two sanctioning bodies. Whether you believe the split had to happen or never should have happened doesn’t matter to me. I’ve heard both sides ad nauseum. I’m not complaining—it comes with the hat—but I’ve heard them. Of course I have personal opinions—lot and lots of them. They will stay that way for now.
But here is one irrefutable fact.
Last weekend’s Visit St. Pete/Clearwater St. Petersburg Grand Prix in Southwest Florida was excellent. Canceled in 2024 by back-to-back hurricanes, it came back strong with a 51-boat fleet—just a few teams shy of its last total—and two days of action that included utter dominance in the Class 1 and Mod V categories and different winners each day in all but the single-boat fleets.
Thanks to the El Bandido Yankee Tequila team it also produced one of the most spectacular V-bottom wrecks in the history of the sport right in front of thousands of fans on St. Petersburg Pier.
Read More—What Made St. Pete A Winner
Related Story: Sequence Of The Week—El Bandido Yankee Tequila Takes A Double Shot
and then