Superboat racing at Panama City Beach - Raceday pics added, and now with video!

Offshore powerboat racing Superboats. The boats are big, they're powerful, and they're - - - well, the racing is generally boring! Very fast boat parades. Once in a while you actually get passes for position, but not often. Generally the faster boats leave the slower boats behind, and unless there's a problem, the slower boats just keep dropping back.

The courses are marker buoys some miles apart, and the race is just got to the next marker, then the next, then the next. The course can be laid out like a triangle, an oval, or in our case, a very narrow rectangle. 4 or 5 miles east, then 4 or 5 miles west.

But there's money in these boats! Empty hulls can cost a million or two, then you need engines, running gear, cockpits, transporters, crews, yada yada yada.

But you want motorsports with power and speed? This is something you should look at if you get a chance! There are boats carrying up to 4000 HP, and capable of over 200 miles per hour! There are giant supercharged V8s, there are turbines, and the lower classes run outboards, still nearly 300 horsepower per motor.

Today I got shots at the dry pits and the launch marina (where they crane the boats into the water.) The in-water running was up to the boats as to location, so they mostly puttered around the bay, and I never found but a couple of them running (and then while on the motorcycle, camera not ready.) Images are clickable to get a larger version.

Bud Light Superboat unlimited, twin 1500HP V8s, 50 feet.






What kind of prop does it take to go 200?





Popeye's Super Cat, twin 525-HP engines, 36 feet:







Taboo Superboat Vee Unlimited, twin 750HP engines, 42 feet:





Stihl Superboat Stock, twin 500 outboards, 32 feet:


Geico Turbine, twin 1600-HP (2000-HP?) turbines, 45 feet.




Unfortunately shut down during its test run. This shot is severely cropped, the boat was almost 2 miles away from my position. The team's support boat is alongside.


Earlier at the dry pits area:



The other turbine boat, Aqua Mania G3, twin 1850 HP turbines, 50 feet.




Team colored scooters. I actually came up behind this boat behing trailered to the launch marina, and the scooters were riding escort, changing lanes to block traffic, holding cars back at traffic lights, etc.



Its teammate, Aqua Mania G3 Superboat Unlimited, twin 1500 HP engines, 46 feet.



Raven Manufacturer's Production 1, 980 HP two times, 42 feet.





In the Bud Light transporter, a couple of spares (or maybe even for sale?):


And at the Mercury truck:



WHM Superboat Unlimited, twin 850 HP, 40 feet.




Throttle-Up Propellers Superboat Stock, twin 280 outboard, 32 feet.



Will see racing tomorrow, hopefully some more pics to post then.

Race day. A little cloudy in the morning, became a light overcast for the race, so I had two problems with the pictures. Light is very flat from the cloudiness, and since the beach faces south, I'm looking into the sun for most of the pictures, which put the boats into shadow. Still, there are a few that worked pretty well.

First, the marina, putting the boats into the water.


Enough of that, on to the beach. First an artsy fartsy shot


OK. Boats.


Heat haze from the turbine exhausts:


Aqua-Mania turbine pulled off after one lap. Don't think anything was wrong, but they qualify for the world championship race by completing one lap in this race.














Hit a wave, then fly:




Fly, then splash down:




Little outboards fly, too!


Helicopter could not keep up with the Bud Light boat! They came out of the turn together.





Embedded does not give you the higher quality option, so here it is: Clicky

Love the artsy fartsy shot! Pity there was more vibrant colours! Keep working on it ;-)

Serious boats those and prolly in excess cost-wise than most racing cars... smoother the water the better... speed on water is so much more pronounced than on land...

nice shots man. and wow im sure the crew of the sthil boat where feeling the effects of that race afterwards

hellnback

Love the artsy fartsy shot! Pity there was more vibrant colours! Keep working on it ;-)

Serious boats those and prolly in excess cost-wise than most racing cars... smoother the water the better... speed on water is so much more pronounced than on land...

Click to expand...

We'd had 9 straight days of gorgeous sunshine, right up till the race was about to start when it went into a light overcast. Between that and the south-facing beach here (looking right into the sun) I was really disappointed in the race-day shots. To not be shooting into the sun I'd have to have shots from behind the boats, not as attractive.

In the dry pits I talked with the Aqua-Marine G3 guys on their turbine boat. They bought the boat from another team. The boat had been built to a custom set of specs, and then it turned out they couldn't do what they wanted, so they unloaded it. The AquaMarine guys got the empty hull for half a million dollars and called it stealing. They've put a couple mil into it since then outfitting it.

As for speed, on glass-smooth water the top boats are capable of over 200 miles per hour. In the races, with waves, surf, and wakes, they don't get much over 120 or 130. Still, it was funny watching the Bud Light boat pull away from the helicopter!