In the beautiful but sometimes treacherous seas off Key West Fl., the 30' Shadow cat, P-70 PENNZOIL met its destiny. In the first race Wednesday, on the 9th of 10 laps the angry seas opened up and the boat launched off a wave. The results were two battered racers and a hull that will never race again. It was a valiant come from behind effort for rookie driver Shane Mahieu and veteran " T " man Nick Coutro Jr. as they drove the cat hard ...and it almost paid off .
Racing from behind is always difficult but... (Nicky) "...second place just isn't good enough. We we're heading for first, and when you race hard... these things happen." On lap nine and coming into the square - behind about a minuite- things were looking good as the gap had been steadily closing. Emerging from the cut, the gap was down to about 20 seconds and you could see this was going to be a fight to the finish!. Acording to Nick - "We were in their spray going into turn 1 " After the turn, at almost the farthest point out on the course it turned UGLY! In a scene that was not caught on video or film, a wave launch and a large hole and it was all over. Rescue crews were on the case in short order and the battered boat and crew proceeded back to the cranes under power but pumps struggling to keep up with the sea.
We were done for the season but Key West is Key West and we enjoyed the rest of the week meeting many well-wishers that stopped by to see us both at the trailer and the night spots. It was most interesting to find out that, following a tech inspection after the race, team Kamikaze was disqulified from this race for illegal engine modifications. Huummm...
All is well with the team and this year our 32' Skater will be ready for another exciting racing season. Thanks to all the helpers ect...