There are a number of Offshore boat races in Florida from the Keys to Miami, Sarasota and St. Petersburg. The Unlimiteds ceased in Miami in the early '90s after Andrew as already noted. There used to be boat racing going in throughout Florida practically year round back in the mid 80's but evidently insurance and bureaucracy derailed those events. Think we may agree also that if it weren't for Bernie Little, the Busch family and Budweiser, there wouldn't have been Unlimited hydros especially after the deaths of Muncy and other drivers. BHW
I assume all you boat racing fans have rented "Madison" by now, right? [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_-y6NOvfug[/ame]
I've never heard of the Madison movie but I'll watch it now. Thanks for pointing it out. I was looking for for some pictures of Bernie Little but haven't had much luck yet. After 35 years of photography my files run deep and unorganized I did find this shot I took of Spirit of the Amazon, a 50' Cat with four 1,100 hp engines in the wet pits at a race in Marathon. Parked in the background is August Busch III's ride. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I haven't heard of Madison either! It looks like a pretty cool movie. I have seen the Miami Vice Episode called The Great McCarthy, which has some very cool cigarette boat racing. Chris
This weekend, I attended the first Unlimited hydroplane race on Lake Guntersville in Alabama in 49 years! The Hydroplane & Raceboat Museum (mentioned above) brought the Merlin-powered Miss Budweiser that won the last Guntersville race in 1969. Somewhat fittingly, the fastest speed set in qualifying was 158 MPH, which broke the 1969 fastest speed record by.....49 MPH! Image Unavailable, Please Login
The final heat on Sunday was one of the best boat races I've ever seen. Last year's two hot shoes, Jimmy Shane in the U-1 Miss HomeStreet Bank (owned by the citizens of Madison, IN) and Andrew Tate in the U-9 Delta/RealTrac were at it again. Never more than three boat lengths apart throughout the five laps, they came off the final turn nearly dead even (as seen below). Tate made it to the finish line less than a boat length in front; the speed for the final was over 152 MPH. (The U-9 is the boat nearest the camera.) Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login