The Pro Watercross National Tour kicked off in Panama City Beach, FL. Bright skies, beautiful water and gorgeous weather made for a great race site. The anticipation for this season has been looming overhead for months now, and hundreds of racers convened to fight an epic battle on the water.
The build up to this race has been tense, with the debut of two new GP hulls and several of the top racers coming to the tour this year, everyone has been anxiously waiting. Dustin Motzouris brought the new Kommander K-1 hull to the line and Rob Flores brought his new FR-2. Unfortunately Rob would encounter engine trouble and he would resort to racing his stock spec Yamaha SuperJet. Motzouris and the Kommander team would have some gremlins to fight on day one. The duckbill came loose from the ski and kept Motz from having a perfect day. On day two however, Motz opted not to “push it” but still came out with a third place. Jimmy Wilson ran strong and solid all weekend and came out in second place, and congrats are in order for Chris MacClugage, who performed like the champ he is and won the overall on Sunday. Other racers who showed their skills this weekend included Brock Austin and Kody Copenhaver, Rick Sherker, David Redinger and Bill Haig.
Team Yamaha would dominate the runabout division as Abdulla Alfadhel would win Pro Runabout Open, Brian Baldwin would win Pro Runabout Stock and Rob Greenwald won Runabout N/A. While Yamaha put on a great show, Eric Francis would nab the Pro AM Runabout Box Stock win on his Kawasaki.
The Sport Stock class had a massive line up in Panama City. Sam Nehme put down some nearly flawless laps and went on to take the win. Team Faith’s Kelly Smith swept the Sport GP class for the overall win and was followed by Keith Dill in second place and Johnny Smith in third place.
The Junior 10-12 class was full of bottle rockets this weekend; Osric Llar raced his way to a first place finish, followed by Sammy Nehme and Haden Skellett. In the Junior 13-15 class was won by Matthew Richuk, followed by Mason Kotara and AJ Luinstra.
The freestyle riders had an epic weekend in Florida, Daniel Martin crushed another record by completing 5-consecutive back flips in the pool at Club La Vela. Martin would go on to take second place in Pro Freestyle, and Jason Stoyer would take the win. Jace Forest would round out the podium in third place. Chris Langlais won the overall in Amateur Freestyle, and Peter Waldron placed second.
The Pro Watercross circus travels to Pensacola, FL for the next weekend of racing. This event will be next weekend, May 15-16.
Check out some photos from the race site and stay tuned for an action packed gallery from our correspondent, #MrsRSRacing !!
