Teague on the front page of The Citizen.
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After Hiatus, Teague and AMSOIL Ready for Return
By J.W. Cooke, Citizen Staff
Florida Keys News
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Owner/throttleman Bob Teague, left, and driver Paul Wittler are bringing back the Amsoil boat this season following a three-year hiatus from racing in the Key West Offshore World Championships.
KEY WEST – It has been three years since Bob Teague and the AMSOIL racing team last competed in the Key West Offshore World Championships, but that does not mean the veteran racer was away from the Superboat International (SBI) circuit.
Instead, Teague and his team were just buying time and studying up on the Superboat class, which was formed in 2012. After last year’s World Championship – which is the official start of the SBI season – the team came together and decided it would be a good value for the sponsor to return to the new look class.
Now the boat is heavier, faster from its former Supercat regulations and Teague is ready to compete for a World Championship once again.
“It’s a huge investment for me so I wanted to really study what the class involved,” said Teague. “Of course, I have Amsoil behind me as a sponsor, which makes it really easier, and they have also been sitting on the sidelines waiting to see how this develops too. But lots of times new classes come out and they are a flash in the pan, so you throw it up against the wall and it doesn’t stick. This one stuck and I wasn’t sure at first if it was going to stick. I now see, it’s a pretty good program.”
Once the team decided that the Superboat class, which now combines the former 750, 850 and Supercat classes, produced a winning formula, they then had to completely redesign the boat to the new specifications.
“Before we had to have a boat that weighted 8,350 pounds coming out of the water and now it has to weigh 9,500 coming out,” said Teague. “So it’s a completely different situation and we had to do something different but with the new technology it made it a lot easier. The only thing is we had to bolt 800 pounds on led into the boat in order to get to that weight.”
Racing outside of the SBI, the AMSOIL began testing in July, after being out of the water for 16 months, with the team’s plan all along to return to Key West for the start of the new season.
“It’s going to be fun because the last time we were down here we had deck-to-deck racing with STIHL and we’ve already raced against Braodco somewhere else and we have an idea we have a fair boat,” said Teague. “But you can test as much as you want, when the green flag drops, you’ll know what kind of day you are going to have right then.”
Adding to the difficulties of preparing for a new class, the Valencia, Calif. resident said the water on the opposite coast do not compare to that of Key West Harbor, but participating in at least his 26th world championship, he said he has the knowledge of the course and how to make the proper adjustment to the boat.
In fact, Teague began racing in Key West in the mid 80s and at one point was racing two different classes a day. He began his journey into powerboat under the guidance of Bob Nordskog, who is the former president of the American Powerboat Association along with helping found Powerboat Magazine, and has since participated in more than 1,050 events after his maiden voyage aboard a 27-foot magnum in 1974.
After that he said it became a hobby that went haywire.
He has competed on the West Coast for a majority of his early career, often times against his current driver Paul Whittier, which Teague said gives the team an advantage in all type of conditions.
“It’s a different type of water,” Teague said about racing in the Pacific Ocean. “We are talking about 10 to 15 foot swells, opposed to this chop. So we have some rough water experience that some people don’t have.”
His hobby also led him to his career as his company Teague Custom Marine, which is a manufacturing and distribution company, has continued to allow the veteran to pursue his racing thrills. Part of that for Teague is getting the best competition on the water and he said he will do whatever it takes to help a fellow team.
“Before we race I’ll do anything to help anybody, even if I have to race against them in an hour,” said Teague. “I really started this company to support my racing habit and fortunately the experience I gained from Bob helped me a lot, and I like to share that.”
Even through all his experience Teague said he now knows that he still has a lot to learn when it comes to racing. The team will look to setup the boat today with some practice runs – hoping to find the right configuration between the 10 different propellers that team brought – before the start of the World Championship races on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The last time Teague raced in Key West his AMSOIL team was part of the Super Cat class and the team won its third World Championship, but this is a whole new season.
“I honestly don’t know how many National and World Titles I have,” said Teague. “It’s a lot. National titles maybe four dozen, I don’t know, but that really doesn’t matter because it’s about the next one you are looking for and what you have to do now. So, I’m wide open like a sponge trying to learn it all.
“The problem is what you have one day here in Key West, when you wake up the next morning it’s a totally different program,” he added. “You have to really study the water, because it is never the same out there as it appears from here.”
With his son and wife in Key West this week enjoying a typical Teague family vacation, he said if he can win another title it will be no more special than any of the others, despite the time he took off to study the Superboat class.
“I don’t know how you rate that, it’s always special when you win” said Teague. “And some of my best races aren’t the ones I’ve won. You always have to respect your competitors and when you go out there and race hard and clean and just get beat for whatever reason, sometimes that’s the way it goes. You can’t win them all and I think everybody in this class has a chance. We think we have a good boat but we are not overconfident. It requires some luck then the rest of it comes down to the talent, but it’s just back to business as normal.”