Wild Ride takes the world championship in a penalty-filled OSS Vee Lite race.

Story: Terry Tomalin
Photography: Robert Brown

Will Ros left the drivers meeting more confused than when he arrived.

"I still don't understand what happened out there," said the driver for the OSS Vee Lite team Wild Card after receiving one of the stiffest penalties in the history of the Offshore Super Series. "What can I say? In this class, you have to be aggressive."

Ros and teammate Larry Fontecha weren't the only ones to get a slap on the wrist in what was the tightest, and perhaps most entertaining, race of the 2007 Offshore Super Series World Championships in Destin, Fla.

The OSS Vee Lites—small, single-engine boats that average 80 mph—are considered to be the entry class in the series. They aren't as glamorous as the big cats or as fast as the OSS Vee boats. But with all that in mind, the OSS Vee Lite class consistently provides the most competitive races season after season.

"I've raced in every class over the years," said Ben Hedrick, who was sitting in as the driver for the OSS Vee Lite team Wild Ride. "You can keep the big boats. This is racing."

In a weekend that was a little disappointing for organizers—only 18 boats competed in six classes—the OSS Vee Lite class proved that there is life still left in offshore racing.

"You gotta love it," said Wild Ride throttleman Larry Kostelac. "When we hit that starting line, it is anybody's race."

The opening race of the weekend's festivities was so exciting that Chief Referee Mike Tomlinson felt compelled to show a rerun of it at the Sunday morning drivers meeting.

"I must admit that I have never seen anything like it," Tomlinson quipped after penalizing four of the five boats in the class. "That has to be some kind of record."

Only LaveyCraft, which ran about 7 mph slower than the other four boats, escaped unscathed. It finished last, but thanks to the penalties, was awarded first place.

"They weren't holding back," Typhoon throttleman Randy Schleuss said of the victor. "That's just how fast they go."

Ros and Fontecha in Progressive Woodwork (the renamed Wild Card boat for the world championships) were assessed a one-lap penalty for cutting the buoy at Turn 4. Then, as a turn boat tried to retrieve the buoy, the racers were assessed two additional lap penalties for failing to turn correctly after the buoy was dislodged.

But somehow during the race, the buoy at Turn 7 also was cut. Ros and Fontecha cut the turn so tight that the turn boat tried to back off the course. For that, they lost another eight points (two points for each occurrence).

"It was confusing out there once the turn buoys got cut," Ros added. "Even the turn boat didn't know what to do."

Three other boats were reprimanded. Popeyes Hard Rock Biloxi with Matt Reed and George Auriemma Jr. received a two-lap penalty, as did Typhoon with Jim Natolie and Schleuss, who lost an additional eight points for endangering the turn boat (four times). Wild Ride with Hedrick and Kostelac also got a two-lap penalty for failing to negotiate Turn 4 properly.

So with the four top teams crippled by penalties, Kevin Cooper and Brad Johnson in LaveyCraft took the easy victory.

But on Sunday, with the title at stake, things played out quite differently. Popeyes Hard Rock Biloxi failed to make the start. And Progressive Woodwork, which turned in the fastest average lap speed with 79.57 mph, was forced out after Lap 4.

"We had great speed," said the throttleman Fontecha. "We thought we were going to run away with it. Then we blew a hose and it was all over."

That left Hedrick and Kostelac in Wild Ride to battle it out with Natolie and Schleuss in Typhoon, a matchup that seemed to keep repeating itself all season. But Wild Ride had about four-tenths of a mile per hour on Typhoon, and after 10 laps, that gave them a healthy advantage.

"They had the speed on us, there was no doubt about it," Natolie said. "There was nothing we could do but try to chase them down and it just wasn't working."

The victory was long overdue for Hedrick, who was sitting in for Larry's brother, John.

"I've come in second place at the worlds at least three times," Hedrick said. "I came here thinking, please, not again."

Hedrick said Sunday's Final was one of the roughest races he had ever run.

"It was relatively calm, but there were 10 laps of running through wakes trying to take each of the seven turns just right at close to 90 mph," he said. "That is 70 turns. In a little boat like this, that would wear anybody out."

The OSS Cat Lite race was equally impressive. In the opening race, the father and son team of George and Mike Stancombe managed to keep their Peppers boat 14 seconds ahead of Paul Whittier and Bob Teague in Team AMSOIL.

"It was tight, hard racing," Teague said before heading into the Final.

All the Peppers boat had to do was finish behind Team AMSOIL within that 14-second time margin to claim the title. But during the last race, the Stancombes' Skater just couldn't keep up with the Team AMSOIL Skater and trailed by more than 1 mph.

But Braden Jones and David Wade in Popeyes proved to be a more worthy adversary. Several times during the race, it looked like Whittier and Teague might give up the lead, but for 12 long laps, the veterans held on.

Team AMSOIL crossed the finish line first—by the same margin of victory Peppers had enjoyed on Thursday—followed by Popeyes and Peppers.

"We should have gone with a bigger prop," the elder Stancombe said afterward. "But in these races, you should be glad that you even finish."

The win was especially sweet for Whittier, who moments before the OSS Cat Lite final, had won another world championship driving for Gary Ballough's TNT Custom Marine in the OSS Outboard Cat class.

"I am fortunate," Whittier said. "When it comes to outboard cats, you won't find anybody better than Gary Ballough. When it comes to OSS Cat Lite, Bob Teague is as good as they come."

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