Mechanical gremlins were out in full force for the second day of racing at the 39th annual Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix.

The day began with Modified Vee boats sharing the course with Bracket Class 2 and 3. LSB Hurricane of Awesomeness/Rev-X Oil grabbed an early lead in the field of nine Mod Vee competitors, with Kyle Miller driving and Jay Wohltman on the sticks. But they were soon overtaken by Travis Pettko and Rob Hartman in Laticrete, who gradually built up a 14-second lead over the fleet, while LSB gradually fell back to fourth place and Fastboys Racing (with Ken Bolinger and Forrest Riddle) bore down to snatch the lead away from Laticrete. However, Fastboys fell off the pace and LSB eventually worked its way back to the front of the pack.

In the end, Laticrete finished first, followed by LSB and SunPrint (featuring Steven Fehrmann and Steve Miklos) to round out the podium. Bracket Class 3 was dominated by Control Freak (with Mark Robbins and Damon Marotta), followed by Simmons Marine and Unleashed. Bracket Class 2 featured only two boats: Predator (with Dean Stahlman, Nate Hunt and Connie Hunt) and OC Offshore Racing (with Joey Olivieri and Chris Volosin). Predator ran most of the race uncontested after OC Offshore lost power. It would be far from the last boat to suffer mechanical problems.

The second race brought eight Super Cat competitors out to play. At one point, Myrick Coil and Tyler Miller held an eight-second lead over the rest in their M CON / Monster Energy boat, leading for most of the race but they were overtaken by New Zealand rival Valder Yachts, featuring Wayne Valder and Grant Bruggemann, after M CON appeared to lose an engine. Valder Yachts took the checkered flag, while M CON limped to second place on one engine. They were followed by Graydel/C.J. Grant Racing, with Chris Grant and Billy Moore in third place. Former World Champion WHM Motorsports, with Jay Muller and Billy Mauff, also suffered mechanical issues and did not finish.

Next, it was time for Class 1 racers to take center stage—along with more mechanical gremlins, which would affect nearly all of the boats in play at one time or another. Coil and Miller were back in their other Skater, Monster Energy / M CON, and led for nearly the entire race until the last lap, when they began to lose power and ultimately the starboard side engine caught fire. That allowed 222 Offshore, with Darren Nicholson and Giovanni Carpitella, to take the checkered flag. The remaining competitors were all victims of mechanical gremlins: Huski Ice Spritz (with Brit Lilly and Steve Curtis) finished in second, only to start taking on water and needing to be towed in. dfYOUNG, with Hugh Fuller and Rich Wyatt, suffered water pressure issues and blew a hose, but finished in third place. Monster Energy/M CON managed to finish the race; however, Pothole Heroes (with Travis Pastrana and Johnny Tomlinson) and XINSURANCE (with Miles Jennings and Alex Pratt) did not.

The final race of the day brought out five 450R Factory Class competitors, which featured a hard-fought battle between T/S Motorsports (with Taylor Scism and Tomlinson, in his second race of the day), Waves and Wheels/Doug Wright (with Logan Adan and Ricky Maldonado) and Gladiator Canados (with Ervin Grant and Michel Karsenti). And that was exactly the order in which the competitors appeared to finish: T/S Motorsports in first, Waves and Wheels in second, and Gladiator in third. However, at the awards ceremony, APBA officials arranged the podium this way: Waves and Wheels in first, T/S Motorsports in second, and 151 Express—which did not finish the race—in third. APBA officials had apparently hit T/S Motorsports with an infraction for violating a rule in which boats must not pass closer than 50 yards of any stationary vessel. That infraction was disputed as having been misunderstood by APBA, which has reportedly conceded that T/S Motorsports did not violate any rule. (As this story was being prepared, APBA was preparing a press release clearing up the matter; additionally, it was expected to restore the win to T/S Motorsports, with ‍Waves and Wheels/Doug Wright as the true second-place finisher, and Gladiator in third.)  

Running with the 450R class was the VX class, which was won by Team Farnsworth/Hancock Claims Consultants (with Christian McCauley and Jay Healy). In second place was The Developer/Wix Filters (with Scott Brown and Eddie Tamberino).

Yesterday, Speedboat published coverage of the first day of racing, and reported the Super Stock results as follows: CMR Roofing in first, Coco's Monkey in second and Jackhammer in third. However, at the awards ceremony, Jackhammer was announced as the second-place finisher, with Coco's Monkey in third place.

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