You couldn’t have asked for a better backdrop then Panama City Beach’s pure white sand, emerald surf, and perfect mild weather to start off the first round of the Hidden Trails Sea-Doo Pro Watercross National Tour presented by Jet Lift. Promoter AJ Handler and his staff has things clicking early as the riders meeting got underway on time Saturday morning at 8:30am. Immediately following, as is customary, Team Faith delivered the their riders’ meeting devotional, which was well attended.
Something not customary was the lack of big surf for this venue. Regardless, racing was exciting as the erratic chop wreaked havoc on many of the competitors, including some heavy hitters. Major players convened on the Florida beach this weekend, including multi-time national and world champions Chris MacClugage, Dustin Farthing, Craig Warner, Dustin Motzouris, Mark Gomez and many, many more on the line.
When the Pro Show commenced all the class’ starting lines where healthily populated with strong showings from veteran racers and newbies alike. The Pro Runabout box stock and GP classes saw the return of multi-time Champ “King D” Dustin Farthing aboard a blacked-out RXP-X 300 and Kawasaki rider Craig Warner representing Team Green all the way. The two battled throughout the weekend with Farthing just coming out on top of Warner for the top spot on the podium, sharing the spotlight with Erminio Iantosca who claimed third.
Multi-time champ Chris “the Mac Attack” MacClugage partnered with Broward Motorsports and Kommander Industries to put his new K1 through its paces early on Saturday in Ski GP. Unfortunately, on this day he wouldn’t even get a lap in Moto 1 due to a mechanical issue, thus registering a DNR ruining his chances to keep his well-documented Mother’s Day winning streak alive. He’d later rebound the next day to take a second in Moto 2 (despite a big get-off) and rounded out the weekend’s racing finishing with a win in Moto 3 for a final tally of fifth overall.
Top praises went to Jimmy Wilson who won both Ski Stock and Ski GP on his Judge Motorsports-built machine. David Redinger and Tyron Motzouris had strong showings for Kommander Industries also, filling out the podium. The elder Motzouris suffered an injury that frustrated his weekend, stating: [it was a] tough weekend for me in Panama. First moto I came from 6th to 3rd in half a lap and then tried to make a run for 2nd and stepped off down the back straight and destroyed my back (but came back to 5th).
The Sport classes continue to grow and are easily the biggest classes outside of the Pro Ski classes. Sam Nehme on his Broward Motorsports/Wamilton’s Customs-built WaveBlaster proved once again that living in south Florida and riding year ’round has its advantages as he took home the top spot in both Sport Stock and Sport GP. Team Faith’s Kelly Smith kept Nehme honest though throughout the weekend in Sport GP and it can be argued that their battles were the most exciting as they swapped leads upwards of four times in Moto 1 and multiple times in Motos 2 and 3.
Johnny Smith, (no relation) got in the mix as well bettering Kelly who got tangled with a lapper on the last lap in Moto 1 and then coming from the back of the pack after a dead engine start in Moto 2 to pass Kelly on the last turn of the last lap. Kelly Smith would take the top spot after getting by leader Sam Nehme in the final Moto earning himself a second overall making the Sport GP podium look like Johnny Smith in third, Kelly Smith in second and Sam Nehme in first.
All in all it was a great start to what looks like is going to be a great tour this year. If you haven’t been to a Pro Watercross Tour event you owe it to yourself to go check one out! Next week the Tour makes it way just down the road to Pensacola Beach, FL for Round 2 this coming weekend.
Hidden Trails Pro Watercross Tour – Round 1 Panama City Beach, FL Results
Pro-Am Runabout GP: 1. Dustin Farthing, 2. Craig Warner, 3. Erminio Iantosca, 4. Brian Baldwin, 5. Tim Ducat, 6. Trey Frame, 7. Claude Clayton, 8. Dylan Osborn, 9. Dennis Mack, 10. Cameron Frame; Pro-Am Ski GP: 1. Jimmy Wilson, 2. Tyron Motzouris, 3. David Redinger, 4. Brock Austin, 5. Chris MacClugage, 6. Josh Block, 7. Dustin Motzouris, 8. Broc Harris, 9. Bill Haig, 10. Pete Zernik, 11. David Cabrera, 12. Dave Davidson, 13. Jordon Carroll, 14. Dustin Higdon; Pro Freestyle: 1. Mark Gomez, 2. Chris Langlais; Pro-Am R/A Box Stock: 1. Dustin Farthing, 2. Craig Warner, 3. Shante Bukes, 4. Tim Ducat, 5. Troy Snyder, 6. Dylan Osborn, 7. Jeff Dyckowski, 8. Billy Dearman, 9. Claude Clayton, 10. Michael Borges; Pro-Am Ski Stock: 1. Jimmy Wilson, 2. Callaway Turner, 3. David Cabrera, 4. Mark Gomez, 5. Marchall Brown, 6. Dave Davidson, 7. Gage Schoenherrr, 8. Jules Hopkins, 9. Dustin Higdon; Amateur Freestyle: 1. Justin Sylvain, 2. Peter Waldron, 3. Steven Coatney, 4. Jeff Luther; Sport GP: 1. Sam Nehme, 2. Kelly Smith, 3. Johnny Smith, 4. Keith Dill, 5. Robert Sayah, 6. Billy Dearman, 7. Jules Hopkins, 8. Kyle Hayes, 9. Jeff Mcphail, 10. Cody Mccallum, 11. William Beers, 12. Andrew Bezan, 13. Morgan Beers, 14. Shawn Reynolds, 15. Dirac Barbee; Sport Stock: 1. Sam Nehme, 2. Keith Dill, 3. Chad Eggleston, 4. Phil Mosrie, 5. Ken Waddle, 6. Jeff McPhail, 7. Logan Hayes, 8. Kyle Hayes, 9. Bobby Cardone, 10. Kevin Benjamin, 11. William Beers, 12. Shawn Reynolds, 13. Gage Schoenherrr, 14. Morgan Beers; Amateur Ski Stock: 1. Matthew Richuk, 2. Marchall Brown, 3. Branden Edwards, 4. Chris Saxon, 5. Aj Luinstra, 6. Erin McConkey, 7. Niki Turner, 8. Hans Krajc, 9. Kyle Hayes; Veteran Ski GP: 1. Pete Zernik, 2. Ralph McGregor, 3. Dan Masters, 4. Kevin Redinger, 5. Erin McConkey, 6. Stu Vaught, 7. Marchall Brown, 8. Brian Edwards; Junior Ski Stock 10-12 YR: 1. Haden Skellett, 2. Sammy Nehme, 3. Devin Farthing, 4. Taylor Skellett; Junior Ski Stock 13-15 YR: 1. Aj Luinstra, 2. Matthew Richuk, 3. Wyatt Hayes, 4. Bret Underhill; Amateur Ski GP: 1. Matt Barbee; Runabout N/A Spec: 1. Cameron Frame, 2. Robert Greenwald, 3. Kevin Sullivan; Veteran R/A Box Stock: 1. Jeff Dyckowski, 2. Shawn Compton; Amateur R/A SS: 1. Kevin Sullivan, 2. Travis Moore; Amateur R/A Box Stock: 1. Juan Rada, 2. Shawn Compton, 3. Michael Borges; Runabout Rec: 1. Eric Gabryel, 2. Justin Gabryel, 3. Sean Miles; Womens R/A Box Stock: 1. Shante Bukes; R/A 1000 CC & Under: 1. Kevin Sullivan; Womems Ski Limited: 1. Niki Turner; Beginner Ski Stock: 1. Clay Jones, 2. Taylor Johnson
