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P1 Powerboat Grand Prix

September 4, 2021 @ 10:00 am - september 5, 2021 @ 5:00 pm.

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Offshore powerboat racing is back on the bay

High-speed powerboat racing is back in St. Pete this Labor Day Weekend, in Tampa Bay around The Pier and the waterfront. The P1 Offshore St. Pete Grand Prix debuted in 2021, and an estimated 30,000 people turned up to tune into the roar and the splash.

This year, says P1 USA Championship manager Michelle Petro, fans should expect bigger and better.

Powerboat and personal watercraft (a.k.a. Jet Ski) teams from across the United States will compete across multiple classes of racing during the weekend. More than 1,000 boats will be in the water for the free event, which will be livestreamed on the P1 website .

Although the organization does offshore races in other Florida cities, “I would say that St. Petersburg is the best place to do this,” Petro believes. “The racers love the venue; it’s very efficient. Everything is all in one area – you can see everything from one spot, basically. From almost anywhere.

“You couldn’t ask for a better site, to be honest with you.”

Race calendars for Saturday and Sunday are downloadable here .

Visit St. Pete/Clearwater is a sponsor for 2022 – with racers and their teams from all over the world, plus family, friends, fans and visitors, the P1 Offshore St. Pete Grand Prix is going to take up a lot of hotel rooms.

Last year’s 30,000 may soon just be a memory.

“For a first-time event, that was pretty incredible,” proclaims Petro. “So we’re expecting more people to come and enjoy the racing, because the word is out.”

VIP ticket packages are available.

September 2, 2022at11:49 am

Looking at the schedule times on the PDF I sure hope these boats have headlights.

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Powerboat race draws international crowd to St. Petersburg

P1 st. pete powerboat grand prix wraps up.

Justin Matthews reports.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The second-annual P1 St. Pete Powerboat Grand Prix wrapped up Sunday afternoon, and brought 60 race teams to the Bay Area from around the world, including Australia, Sweden, Norway, Canada, New Zealand, and Italy.

The powerboats range from about 30 feet to 50 feet long, and race across the water at speeds up to 160 miles per hour.

"The guys are in an enclosed capsule inside the boat, they have air so in case the boat goes over, they’re sealed in and strapped into the boat. The boat is built with carbon fiber, which makes it very, very light but very strong," stated Gary Stray, the technical director for the Huski Racing Team.

Stray says getting the boats on the water can be just as much of an art form as racing them.

"Everybody asks, how do you get that in the water? So, we have two huge cranes in downtown St. Petersburg that we roll underneath before qualifying or the race, and they pick us up and put us in the water, it’s another thing that people love to watch," he stated.

The second-annual P1 St. Pete Powerboat Grand Prix wrapped up Sunday afternoon.

Powerboat races are similar to Formula One racing because drivers are trying to get around a track as quickly as possible. But, these racers are dealing with elements that are different from what you’d experience behind the wheel of a racecar.

"The thing that’s very unique about offshore powerboat racing is that every lap around that course is different because the surface is changing," Stray said. "So if you were to be driving a formula one car and do a lap, and the next time put three or four different lumps and bumps in the track, then that is what it’s like."

Stray has raced in 27 different countries and says St. Pete is one of his favorite places.

• APBA Offshore Championship
• Asia Powerboat Championship
• Australian Offshore
• Bermuda Offshore
• British Offshore Racing
• P1 Offshore
• P1 Superstock
• P1 Superstock US
• Race World Offshore
• Raid Pavia Venezia
• Super Boat International
• UIM Awards Giving Gala
• UIM Class 1
• UIM Marathon
• UIM Pleasure Navigation
• UIM V2 World Powerboat Championship
• UIM XCAT Racing
• UK ThunderCat Racing

• Australian V8 Superboat Championships
• Circuit Powerboat Association
• E1 World Electric Powerboat Series
• F1 Powerboat Championship Series.
• Powerboat GP
• UAE F4 Championship
• UIM OSY400 European Championship
• UIM World Circuit Endurance
• Unlimited Hydroplane Racing
• F1H2O Nations Cup

• P1 AquaX Bahamas World Championship
• UAE Aquabike Championship
• UIM-ABP Aquabike World Championship

Powerboat Racing World

Frode Sundsdal

What is prw.

It’s a powerboat racing website that has covered circuit racing, offshore racing and PWC since 2016. Maintained by The Race Factory based in Norway who have specialists in event planning and promotion, social media, graphic design, and photography. We are currently working on our vision and believe that we can and will make a different in powerboating. We will dedicate our time to produce accurate factual stories and to promote the sport to a wider global audience.

Yesterday afternoon, Powerboat P1 announced its plans to host the St. Pete Powerboat Grand Prix over the Labor Day weekend.

P1 CEO Azam Rangoonwala commented on the event:

We began discussions for a national race event featuring a double bill of P1 powerboat racing and AquaX jet ski action in 2015, with plans to stage the two-day event near the iconic St. Pete pier. AquaX includes both professional and amateur classes of racing, which attracts riders from across the country. September’s event is part of the eight-venue APBA national race series which runs from May to October.

Visit St. Pete/Clearwater is the presenting sponsor of the event.

A custom designed ‘Visit St. Pete/Clearwater’ powerboat will compete in the APBA Offshore Championship races with leading personal watercraft rider Tory Snyder racing on a VSPC painted jet ski.

Visit St. Pete/Clearwater COO Tim Ramsberger (above) said:

We are thrilled to bring P1 Offshore and P1 AquaX racing to the St. Pete Pier for the Labor Day weekend. We’re extremely pleased with the partnership with Powerboat P1 over the past several years and look forward to building the St. Pete race weekend as a signature event for community.

The race will be broadcast nationally on CBS Sports Network and also on Bally Sports Regional Networks. Fans outside of the U.S. will be able to enjoy the racing via live streaming on the P1 Offshore Facebook page.

Veteran British racer, Steve Curtis was on hand at the presser to talk about the season, which will once again be affected by the global health crisis:

Hopefully a few of the Class 1 boats will be able to race here, we’ve been talking to Huski Chocolate from Sweden, we’ve been talking to the Norwegians, obviously with Miles Jennings who will be running in that boat and you know the Victory Team, Abu Dhabi, they’re all talking, they all want to come over here we’re just still worried about when they’ll be allowed to. Hopefully we’ll all be racing here in St. Pete by the end of the season, but we’re all jacked up over here at the Geico Racing Team. The boats running really well, we’ve got some more testing to do which we intend to be doing up at Mercury’s ‘Lake X’ within the next few weeks and we’ve been able to dial in a little bit more top speed into it and we’ve got the handling sorted so we’re really pumped up about this season. We really think we’ve got a very good chance at winning the championship.

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Powerboat Grand Prix returns to St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Some of the fastest boats from around the world are in St. Petersburg this weekend for the P1 Offshore Powerboat Grand Prix. 

The Powerboat Grand Prix is back in St. Petersburg for the second time and is expected to generate millions of dollars in revenue for the city and surrounding communities, according to Director Cole McGowan.

Steve Miklos has been racing boats for 31 years. 

"I started as a pleasure boater and realized it was probably safer to actually do something more organized where we have real safety like we do here," said Miklos. 

What You Need To Know

P1 offshore powerboat grand prix back in st. pete for the second time  more than 50 drivers will be racing .

He operates the throttle and travels at speeds of up to 120 miles per hour. 

The New Port Richey native is thankful for trained divers on his team and a medical staff nearby at his disposal. 

During the Grand Prix, he'll race against competitors from across the country, and as far away as Australia, Italy and New Zealand. More than 50 drivers will be racing Saturday and Sunday.

All kinds of boats will also be on display for spectators. 

"This was the first one of what is called the Generation Two and it’s very competitive boat," Miklos added. 

The boat is dedicated to the memory of Mark Spates, a local boat builder who died of cancer in 2019. 

Miklos says participating in races with the boat Spates built honors his legacy. 

"Mark is a genius and very much a local talent," he added. 

"The benefits to St. Pete are direct economic impact spend. So we’ve got teams from all over the world, all over the country coming right here to St. Pete where all of their fan bases and following and the locals in and out of market visitors coming in to come here, stay here spend money and eat here and that’s what we promote, " said McGowan. 

Milkos says location is key to the success of this event. 

"It's everything!  This is an incredible site. It’s a natural site first; graphically. St. Pete is a great town and we have a big hometown presence and this is the kind of event where you can come see it for free," said Miklos. He says it's also an opportunity to introduce the sport to new fans. 

The races kicked off Saturday morning at the St. Pete Pier and will continue through Sunday afternoon.

Traffic will be closed on Bayshore Drive.

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See the Unexpected Results for St Pete Powerboat Grand Prix

Published: September 28, 2021 | Author: Rose Godwin | Comments: No Comments

Route sponsored DoublEdge Motorsports in the St. Petersburg, Florida powerboat races over Labor Day weekend! The St Pete Grand Prix (hosted by P1 Offshore) featured fierce competition of 40 teams over 10 different classes of racing.

On Sunday Sept, 5th “with a one-foot chop and a gentle breeze, conditions were ideal for the cats at St Petersburg,” said P1 Offshore. The DoublEdge Motorsports 30-foot Skater Powerboat was slated for race 2 in the super stock class.

Results: To their surprise, due to mechanical malfunctions, the DoublEdge Motorsports team was not able to finish the race. “The mechanical gremlins got us yesterday but we will be back,” said DoublEdge Motorsports on Facebook.

See a replay of the races here .

Rose Godwin

Rose is the Marketing and Communications Manager for Route Transportation and Logistics. She has been with Route for over 5 years, and holds a Bachelor's Degree in Marketing from University of South Florida.

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P1 Offshore;

Powerboat P1 is the fastest growing marine motorsport series in the world and has a long term commitment to growing and developing the sport of power boating at all levels. The Powerboat P1 team works closely with the sport’s governing bodies, the UIM, APBA and the IJSBA. P1 has delivered more than 85 world championship events in over twelve different countries for more than a decade.

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