As the driver of one of offshore racing’s most successful and recognizable race boats—Miss GEICO—Marc Granet has established several endurance speed records and won multiple world championships, including the 2009 Super Boat International Turbine class title in Key West, Fla., in the team’s 50-foot Mystic catamaran.
A resident of Florida, Granet has been a boater all his life and started racing for John Haggin and AMF Offshore Racing in 2006 in the Platinum Princess catamaran. To contact Marc, visit www.missgeicoracing.com or call 561-963-3438.
I haven’t provided a Miss GEICO update in a while, so here you go:
We’re less than one month out until we splash the boat and the team is getting excited. The shop is very busy with prepping the Mystic for the 2011 season. With all the obstacles out of our way, we have a great schedule this year—combining both Super Boat International (SBI) with Offshore Powerboat Association (OPA) events to cover the Midwest, Southeast and Northeast.
The indication is that we will have several Unlimited boats in the field this year, clearly a welcome outlook for us. Gary Stray has been building a fresh new crew at Miss GEICO Racing Team and has spent the winter redesigning the driveline and gearing to optimize engine efficiency.
Scotty B and I are really looking forward to hanging it out as we step it up a level and begin to show the crowds what Miss GEICO is really capable of. If we’re lucky, CMS (Bob Bull’s 48-foot MTI) will have some big-power motors in store and we can bring the piston/turbine battle back like we had with Dave Scott and his Budweiser team.
Here are a few more thoughts: We’ve all heard the term: “You have to finish to win it.” And it usually comes when a competitor who was leading a race has a mishap (breaks, runs out of fuel, destroys a drive, blows an engine, etc.). The banter afterward usually goes like this: “We had you guys beat easy,” and “We were killing that boat,” and “If I woulda changed out that part,” and “That motor was weak,” … blah, blah, blah.
Fact is, many racers I know “pace” their competitors for much of the race using their advantage only at the end. It’s a lot harder on the racer and the equipment to lead a race than too tuck up behind a competitor and, as Todd Werner (Supercat world champ and Statement Marine owner) used to say, “Hide the salami.” You allow the lead boat to lapse into a false sense of security and then pounce like a tiger.
The reality is in operating any racing machine you must be able to manage the power and finish the race/event. It doesn’t take any special skill to hold a throttle down or swing a wheel—it takes a special skill to use what you need to finish and win the race/event.
Strategizing similar to changing tires or fueling in NASCAR or F1 is an overlooked art in offshore racing. Yeah it’s glamorous to lay it down and run in front, but with most races being 50-plus miles, those who play the race out will win consistently. I’m not saying that all-out running won’t get you your share of flags—it’s just that it also will give you your share of headaches and disappointments. You’ll hear many NASCAR drivers talk about hanging out in back until the end of the race then pushing for the win. That’s a smart strategy in offshore racing as well.
Racers, next time you’re the lead boat and you break out, blow a drive, go into guardian and watch your win vaporize in front of your eyes, get your composure on your long idle back and instead of claiming you “would have won if,” congratulate the winner and plan your strategy for the next event. Because whether they planned it or not, you have to be able to go the distance to claim the win.
Finally, here’s a little buzz: Word is a new turbine boat, REBEL Racing, will hit the circuit this year. Scotty B and I are excited to meet the team and look forward to running against its super-fast new 48 MTI. The last race we raced against the 48 was Sarasota in 2009 against CMS with the Miss GEICO 44 MTI—It was great action and this year should be no different. Check out the video...
We’ve got some new sponsorship partners, too! Miss GEICO has teamed with Hering Propellers, which will design and supply new forged wheels for the boat. And House of Kolors Paint—I don’t need to say any more because it’s the brightest slickest paint on the circuit!
It’s February and the Miami International Boat Show is this week! The “new” Miss GEICO racing team will be presenting our freshly painted and re-rigged turbine-powered Mystic at the show.
Miss GEICO arrived back last week from Raticle Graphics in St Louis. Rodney, who painted both Team CRC and Dave Scott’s Nauti-Marine, did a wonderful job. The Caveman Cigarette will be waterside and Scotty B, Gary Stray and I will be kissing hands and shaking babies (lol) from Friday to Sunday. We’ll also have a set of new Whispering Turbines T53-703 series engines on display with our builders Tracy and Adam Bratvold. At 2,000-hp apiece, they are quite impressive. If you can pin down the Bratvold father-and-son team, they can tell you some great stories from the Miss Budweiser days to their latest top hydroplane boat, Spirit of Qatar.
This show is all about catching up with the industry friends and networking with prospective clients. For a marine insider, it’s almost a can’t-miss event. New products, latest designs and, of course, Stu Jones and company’s legendary Florida Powerboat Club party on Friday night.
This year we are adding to the equation with a party of our own—NFL celebrities included!
Join us at Club Play on Saturday night from 8 to 11 p.m. along with our friends, Asante Samuels of the Philadelphia Eagles; Miami Dolphins defensive end Kendall Langford, wide receiver Brandon Marshall and cornerback Benny Sapp; Baltimore Raven’s receiver Donte Stallworth; Tennessee Titan’s linebacker Stephen Tulloch; socialite and philanthropist Alexia Echevarria. Oh … and we have six elite supermodels coming to fill in the blanks.
Bikini show, body painting and a load of other cool sights and sounds. The proceeds from the event will go to Bring it Home Single Moms Foundation. The organization’s vision is to provide hard-working, low-income single mothers with a home to restore each woman’s pride, optimism and stability.
Club Play is located at 1045 5th Street (Lenox and 5th) with a convenient attached parking lot. RSVP is requested at
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. And for VIP table reservations, call 305-532-4340. As of me writing this blog, the RSVP list was filling up. So if you’re looking to come hang out with a great “performance crowd” this is your invite … join us.
There’s a ton of great new stuff going on at the Miss GEICO headquarters so keep an eye out for my next blog on our team’s march toward the 2011 season.
At least once a week, someone asks me if we are going to race in Europe with the Union Internationale Motonautique (UIM) Class 1 catamarans because that’s where “real” racing is. That question always makes me smile, and my answer is always the same.
Real racing is right here in the United States. It just hasn’t been pulled together properly into one cohesive package, at least not yet.
The truth, as anyone who seriously follows UIM Class 1 can tell you, offshore racing isn’t in any better shape over there. In fact, for years offshore racing abroad has faced the same issues we face here. Dominant teams. Sanctioning body fragmentation. Inconsistent technical rules. Lack of capital. Scant to nonexistent television coverage. Questions of safety.
Passion for offshore racing is wonderful, but it’s not enough. Nowhere is enthusiasm for the sport higher than it is in Australian, and yet racers down under still face low boat counts and a lack of parity like we face here.
Obviously the offshore racing ocean always seems “bluer,” at least if you don’t look too closely, somewhere else. But I would suggest that if you take a good hard look in your own backyard, you will find the ripple—that given the right environment—will grow to a huge wave.
Online message boards have given everyone a voice, and that’s a good thing. It’s worth putting up with a little nonsense (and by the way, no one ever forces you to read anything) for a lot of knowledge. But the next time you read some keyboard jockey slamming what’s happening over here and praising what’s going on over there, you know at least two things. First, that person is misinformed about what’s happening abroad. Second, that person likely is doing nothing to improve their sport right here. Next time you read or hear someone pontificating on the sport, ask him this:
What have you done for the sport? Chances are, the silence will be deafening.
No question, it’s going to take some time to get this sport back on its feet. There are all the hurdles I mentioned above to get over, and a whole lot more.
As for the Miss GEICO Racing Team, Scott Begovich, the rest of the crew and I have heard it all—the good, the bad, the ugly, the unjust and the just plain ignorant. None of it will deter us from our goals. We will still continue to visit kids’ hospitals. We will continue to build on our success to help develop a positive image for our sport. We will still support the old guys who have retired from years of racing. We will still push the limits of speed and handling.
Whether or not someone shows up to challenge us for the top spot in or sport is not under our control. But we will always put on the best show we can for the fans. That you can bank on.
There’s “bluer” water is right in front of us. Here’s to a great new year in offshore racing.
Sorry for the delay in updating my blog. It’s been quite busy the past couple of months. So here goes … obviously the big news out of the Orange Beach (Ala.) OPA world championship race was our team owner John Haggin’s retirement. While we knew he was not enjoying the events as much, we were all quite surprised at his public retirement.
He has transferred the management of the GEICO sponsorship and operating assets to a new management team consisting of Scott Begovich, Scott Colton, Gary Stray, Gary Goodell and myself. We have been in strategy and business-building meetings for the past month to ensure this new company is built properly and runs on the ideals and successes we’ve experienced in running our own businesses. Everyone is excited about the prospects for the future, and I promise we won’t let our fans down.
The Miss GEICO … she’s stripped! She is all yellow and looks menacing with no graphics. All of the hardware has been removed and she is on her way to the paint booth for the new skin she deserved but never got last year. With some fine-tuning to her gearboxes, electronics and aerodynamics, she’ll be ready to rock for 2011.
AMF Offshore Rigging: Gary Stray has been up to his ears in new projects for the rigging side of the business. His unparalleled knowledge on how to truly set up a fast boat is astounding. I feel like every day I learn something new, and being able to prove his knowledge on the water makes it all that much more fun (see Key West World Championships below).
The future: We’ve spent the last five years promoting our sport and the Miss GEICO race team. We plan on continuing the job. We will be focusing our efforts on the class we choose to race and leave the sanctioning bodies to manage their affairs without input from our team—either financially or strategically. It just has not worked for us and we need to focus on the task at hand. Expect a lean, mean Miss GEICO for 2011.
Key West World Championships: Yes, I did team up with Rich Wyatt to race for the Superboat Unlimited title last week. Rich brought his 50-foot Mystic Cintron to AMF Offshore Rigging several months ago to strengthen the canopy and re-set up the boat. Gary Stray has extensive experience setting up the 43 Tencara with Victory Team, which is a very similar hull.
With a year of running this new Mystic setup on Miss GEICO under my belt, Rich asked if I would be comfortable racing the Cintron boat with him in Key West. Receiving encouragement from my team, I joined Rich in the cockpit for this year’s championship last weekend.
What a great battle Wednesday’s race turned out to be as the CMS team (Bob Bull and Randy Scism) drove Bull’s new 48 MTI to the limit and we were deck to deck for most of the 43-mile race. We ducked under them in Turn 2 and never looked back, taking a big win in Wednesday’s race. Friday was a game-changer that put us in the all-too-familiar “must win on Sunday” situation. With an easy win in our grasp, we began to push the Mystic a little harder and broke a crank in the fifth lap, and CMS passed us and took the flag on Friday. I keep telling myself we should have slowed a bit and saved the equipment, but hindsight doesn’t help on this one. I won’t make that mistake again.
Team AMSOIL, Stihl, Talbot Excavating and Mapei also found themselves with a battle for the title, which brought a lot of excitement and anticipation to Sunday’s final race. We knew we had a long race ahead in Cintron and made the plan to conserve our freshly installed Stotler 1,300-hp mills until the eighth lap. We figured CMS would be out to show their massive power and speed, and, considering the challenges they faced earlier in the week with the 1,550-hp, fuel-injected monsters, were likely to suffer a similar fate if they pushed for an extended period on the difficult Key West race course.
The Aqua-Mania turbine cat started with our class and, as predicted, both the Aqua-Mania and CMS boats blasted out of the gate at full tilt, easily putting 10 boat lengths on us. We fell in behind to watch the action unfold wondering if these two were going to really continue to push with such a long way to go to the finish line. We didn’t wait long as Aqua-Mania pulled off with a broken propeller and ancillary damage on the third lap, and CMS suffered a critical engine failure when a blower belt took out the oil feed and they had to pull off in the fourth lap.
One can’t help but wonder if they paced themselves would they have lasted the entire event, and I’m sure they will be thinking about this throughout the winter. Our win was sealed with a bittersweet feeling as we were excited to execute another come-from-behind win. Either way, we still had the Mixed Emotion 2,600-hp Skater on the course so we settled in to a high-speed, conservative pace. The Stotler 1300s performed flawlessly to take the win on Sunday and the Superboat Unlimited world championship.
I would like to thank Herb, the owner of Stotler Marine, for giving up his driver’s seat for the weekend as he had two boats in Key West running Stotler power and had enough to worry about, less having to race himself. The Cintron team really worked well and the boat performed beautifully. I look forward to running some events with Rich in Cintron in the future as schedules permit.
With the season wrapping up, we are headed to our final event in Orange Beach, Ala. This location has been a great race site for the past five years and now needs our help to get back on its feet. The recent oil spill was truly disastrous for the area and drove almost all tourism away.
Now that the engineers have the well capped, we must support the area by bringing our show and your presence to this hard-hit region. Bon Jovi and Brad Paisley are going to rock the house for us—and I can promise you the Miss GEICO throttles will be slammed to the boards for the fans. Stop by and say hello to us in the pits.
Whoever said the old guys are gone? This weekend, my partner Scotty B will be working with “OFF” (Old Farts Forever), the old guys of boat racing in Jupiter, Fla. This group consists of the legends—and I do mean legends—of boat racing from Seebold, Switzer, Brownie, Gilbreath, Warby and the list goes on. The group gets together each year to reminisce, hang out, share stories and, this year, race some of their old boats.
If you are a fan of boat racing, you must make it a point to get to Jupiter this weekend. The stories alone are truly priceless. It’s free and you are encouraged to come and meet these guys (they ain’t getting any younger). They love telling stories of boat racing past—buy one a beer and you’ll get the real history of boat racing!
Here’s a look at the schedule:
OFF 2010
Thursday, Oct. 7, 5 p.m. – Earlybird at Sugarcane Bistro, 353 US Highway One, Jupiter. Cash bar and food. www.sugarcaneislandbistro.com
Friday, Oct. 8, 3 p.m. – Open House at GEICO Race Shop, Bldg A, 7555 Garden Road, Riviera Beach. www.missgeicoracing.com
Friday, Oct. 8, 5 p.m. – JJ Muggs Stadium Grill, 1203 Town Center Drive, Jupiter. Cash bar and food. Boats on display in the street and in the park across the street. www.jjmuggsgrill.com
Saturday, Oct. 9, 9 a.m to 5 p.m. – Run What You Brung at Cadillac’s Place, 8625 SW Kanner Hwy., Indiantown. Standard wet pit rules apply.
Saturday, Oct. 9, 6 p.m. – Brix Italian Fishery, 1000 North U.S. Hwy 1, Jupiter. Cash bar and food.
Sunday, Oct. 10, 9 a.m. – Breakfast Forum (serious discussion about boat racing today), Doubletree Hotel, 4431 PGA Blvd, Palm Beach Gardens.
As the driver of one of offshore racing’s most successful and recognizable race boats—Miss GEICO—Marc Granet has established several endurance speed records and won multiple world championships, including the 2009 Super Boat International Turbine class title in Key West, Fla., in the team’s 50-foot Mystic catamaran.
