77 Lucas Oil SOC :: Key West, FL; Siracusa, Sicily :: Year-end Finale
The 77 Lucas Oil SOC team won the last race of 2010 season in Key West, and is now forging winning plans for the 2011 season in unison with the UIM who are soon to announce their new investor and promoter for the UIM Endurance World Championship series.
Pictured are: Janet Wilson, Angela and Jeff Carles (Lucas Oil), Nigel Hook, Michael Silfverberg, Gabriella Williams, Tret Robertson, Craig Archer, and Dael West.
November Action:
Super Boat International 30th Annual Key West World Championships
Wednesday, 10 November — Although 77 Lucas Oil SOC took first place in this first race at Keywest, the team also collected a 3-minute penalty for a GPS technical infraction that pushed the points awarded down to fourth place.
Friday, 12 November — The next race produced a more conservative second place, as the 77 Lucas Oil SOC finished hot on the heels of 11 Hawaiian Tropic Skater driven by long-time rival Bill McComb and Walt Ottaviano in the Pro-2 class. “I know the Skater V399 very well, and Bill has been racing it for many years. It was a deck-to-deck battle and we thrive on that level of competition,” said Hook, throttleman of the 77 Lucas Oil SOC.
Sunday, 14 November — The final and deciding race started with a tense moment during lap one, corner mark 2, when the bright green Pro-1 29 Cleveland Construction boat barrel-rolled. The rescue helicopter was on the scene, scuba divers were being deployed, and a medical boat was heading across the course to the crash site, so there was no room for error. Hook credited Michael Silfverberg’s driving skills for their first place finish. “Without missing a beat, Michael did not hesitate, and he drove around the incident with precision and confidence. Situations like that prove the mettle of any driver,” said Hook.
Other exciting activities during the week-long event included special 3D videotaping by David Helmly of Adobe Systems, hanging out with Chris and his bird Picaso at El Alamo, and shooting video from the top of the Galleon Resort and Marina.
Super Boat International’s 30th Annual Key West World Championships was the team’s season closer, and the 77 Lucas Oil SOC finished on a high note with a checkered flag in the final race of 2010. A beautiful 60+ page program which documents the Key West story starting 30 years ago features legends from the past. An excellent job was done by Rodrick Cox at Cox Marketing Group. Take a look at pages 31, 38 and 59.
Results of the 30th Anniversary Key West Championships
11/14/10 77 Lucas Oil SOC 1st Place, Final
11 Hawaiian Tropic 2nd Place (Overall winner)
31 Fountain 3rd Place
11/12/10 11 Hawaiian Tropic 1st Place
77 Lucas Oil SOC 2nd Place
31 Fountain 3rd Place
11/10/10 77 Lucas Oil SOC 1st Place – penalty, relegated to 4th Place
11 Hawaiian Tropic 2nd Place – moved to 1st Place
31 Fountain 3rd Place
September Action:
Sicily, Italy – UIM GPS Endurance Final Race
The 77 Lucas Oil SOC team faced another close incident during the last race of the UIM GPS Endurance series across the Atlantic in the Sicilian “Slick Mist” Grand Prix in Syracuse, Italy in September. Tune in to the video and check it out at 2 minutes 6 seconds to see the close call captured on the GoPro during lap 5 of Saturday’s Sprint race. You will see the 77 Lucas Oil SOC in the hunt to chase down 55 Ukrainian Spirit, only to get unintentionally almost swiped by their sister boat 43 Team Ukraine.
Global television coverage of the UIM GPS Endurance races are courtesy Chris Courteyn TV, renowned for World Rally. Television production for our UIM Endurance World Championship series is captured with one stabilized webcam on a helicopter recording in XDcam, three ENG camera crews on XDcam broadcast cameras, and five cameras onboard the boats. Shows are distributed for transmission to Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Australia, and the Middle East.
Lucas Oil is the leading producer of high performance lubricants.
The 77 Lucas Oil SOC wishes to thank its loyal sponsors for the support for the 2010 season and invites you to the following Links:
* Go Pro
* Ilmor
* Premiere Shipping and Packing
Have you visited Nigel Hook’s Powerboat Magazine blog?
Article and picture courtesy of Lucas Oil Scandinavian Offshore Challenge Offshore Racing Team. For more information on the team, please visit http://www.nigelhook.com and http://www.socracing.se
