In November, the Team AMSOIL Skater will compete in Key West for the first time since the 2010 race season.

There’s just something about Key West. The Florida Keys’ hot spot provides an offshore racing location that is unlike any event in the country, or the world for that matter. Ask any racer who has competed there—there’s just something special about it.

I believe it’s because of the course, but I know there’s more to it, such as the spectator opportunities and the destination of the town itself. I’ve been participating in the Key West World Championships since the 1980s and I’ve raced there more than two dozen times, many times running in two different classes. During the years, I have competed in all kinds of boats—Scarab, Magic, Fountain, Extreme, Formula, Donzi and Skater—and in a variety of classes—Offshore B, Modified, SuperVee (supercharged), Factory II, SuperVee (525EFI), SuperCat Lite and SuperCat.

Bob Teague and race partner Paul Whittier after testing in Key West in 2010. Photo by Cherilyn Teague Noack.

One of the original racecourses included a leg that went around the southeast end of the island. Later, this course was modified to a 12-mile lap, which created the famous “wall” at turn one. At that time, the turn was about six miles out of the Harbor and the 90-degree left turn (turn No. 1) would head you directly into waves created by a predominant wind out of the east off the Atlantic Ocean. During those years, the event consisted of two races that were equal in length with most classes running 100 miles or more each day. Boat counts were as high as 150-plus, especially in years when the sanctioning organizations came together for the grand event.

One of the most memorable events was in the mid-1990s when the water was so rough during the Wednesday race that more than 50 percent of the boats had significant hull and fiberglass damage. Several boats left for Miami for repairs between races and probably everyone in Florida who could do fiberglass repair was in the area working on boats. We had to take our Offshore B class entry, Magic Potion, up to Stock Island and put it up on stands to repair bottom damage after finishing second among the 20-plus boats in the class. Almost all of the damaged boats were repaired enough to start the race on Sunday.

During the ’90s, the Pacific Offshore Powerboat Racing Association was going strong. So one year the organization went to Key West in force to “attack” the East. There was a huge caravan and all of the teams from the “Left Coast” pitted together and worked on each other’s boats. We also took over nearly the entire Fairfield Inn. That year, teams from POPRA won every class except for the triple-outboard catamaran class (P) because no one from the West was racing in that class at the time. That was a year I’ll never forget.

The Teague Family, racing world champions. Photo by Steve Lippincott.

As time has passed and racing fleets have grown smaller—and the need to provide safety assets that are closer together—the course lap length has been shortened. Recent Super Boat International Key West events have run on a course that allows spectators to view most, if not all, of the entire course from certain vantage points. Race boats run more laps on the shorter course which provides for more deck-to-deck racing in front of the spectators.

The shorter lap length also allows for quicker response times to incidents on the course by safety personnel. In addition, John Carbonell and the SBI staff require each team to provide a written detailed escape plan for participants in canopied boats that will be reviewed with staff and racers at the site.

Team AMSOIL & Stihl battling it out during the Key West Offshore Championships in 2010. Photo by Jamie Russell, Professional Offshore Photography.

Although our teams have placed high in many classes and we’ve even won a couple of UIM championships during the year, my proudest moment is the back-to-back-to-back SBI SuperCat world championships we won in the successful Team AMSOIL Skater powered with twin Mercury Racing 525EFI engines. One of the most exciting races I’ve ever been in was against Stihl in 2010 where we ran within five seconds of each other the entire week.

In the last couple of years, the 525EFI-powered SuperCats and Cat Lites were replaced by the current setup using a spec motor that is a 9.5:1 compression, 510-cubic-inch, single-carbureted, 7,000-rpm engine using spec Brodix heads combined with gross valve lift restrictions.

Engine compartment: The entire boat has been reconfigured, including Instrumentation, fuel systems, complete dry sump oil system install, water systems, ballast, final assembly of 3 engines, dyno testing, safety equipment, and on and on. A lot of applied talent has gone into this, combined with sheer determination!

Team AMSOIL took the year off in 2013 to evaluate the progress of the newly formed class. Along with AMSOIL’s support, the Skater began the transformation at the beginning of this year to a “750” SuperCat at Teague Custom Marine. This required a complete re-rig of the boat because of the different setup, and because it was just time to do so after 150 races or more.

The AMSOIL Skater cockpit: Dual garmin touchscreens, AEM digital wideband air/fuel, livorsi mechanical pressure gauges, livorsi digital indicator, Lifeline harnesses, racepak data recording, etc.

It also required strategically adding nearly 1,000 pounds of weight to the boat to meet the higher minimum weight of 9,500 pounds. I designed and built four new spec engines utilizing past experience from the 12:1 compression ratio we used to build combined with today’s improved components and technology.

The Key West boat parade that takes over Duval Street on Friday night – a favorite part of the event for spectators. Photo by Steve Lippincott.

At this time, the newly configured and powered Team AMSOIL Skater has been successfully raced at three events allowing the team to learn and perfect the new setup. After racing a couple of more races in early October in Solomons, MD., Team AMSOIL is once again headed to Key West to represent the West.

Team AMSOIL emerged in the Super Cat class during the 2014 season at the OPA St. Clair River Classic and took home a victory!

All of us with Team AMSOIL are excited to see to some great racing at the world championships this year and we’re looking forward to competing in races all over the country in 2015. Look for us with the Speed on the Water stickers on the hull sides. We hope you’ll find us right where we like to be in all races, especially Key West.
In the lead.

-Technical editor [for Speed On The Water] and offshore racing world champion Bob Teague is the owner of Teague Custom Marine in Valencia, Calif.

This article appears in:
Speed on the Water, Issue 9, Volume No. 2; September/October 2014