Three weeks ago, the 14th annual Hot Products Mark Hahn Memorial Havasu 300 (Presented by Yamaha) was held, and to those on site, it was one of both upset, surprise and all-out endurance. The morning started with blistering 15-20 minds that churned the water in to a broiling white wash of chest-high waves. Yet, and to those familiar with Lake Havasu, bizarrely, winds and conditions actually improved over the course of the 5-hour race, favoring those skis with quicker, flatter-bottomed hulls.
In the standup ski division, much of the field was filled with late-model 1500-series Kawasaki SX-Rs, save for the man who took home the Ironman award in Standup class: Brock Austin. The seasoned racer battled the brutal weather and the grueling hours of racing to complete 15 laps (Brock made 17 laps but had missed a essential buoy docking the racer the needful 2 laps) and all aboard a vintage Polaris Octane ski!
Here’s the complete press release issued by Austin:
Wow what a long day it’s been! I raced my Polaris Octane today in the Mark Hahn Memorial Race and I finished 17 laps for close to a total of 170 miles in the Iron Man category(solo team). I followed some faster racers the first 2 laps and I ended up missing a buoy both laps so I only got scored for 15 laps but I don’t race this race to win a trophy so scoring doesn’t matter to me.
I raced this race as an Iron Man to push myself and my equipment to its limit and I feel like today I accomplished that! I raced my Polaris because it’s the first ski I ever won a race on when I was a junior and it has so much history with my racing background. I also wanted to push this ski for as many laps as I could and as hard as I could because I built and tuned the engine and I wanted to test my 2 stroke engine building skills in an endurance race.
I have so many people to thank but first off I have to thank my close friend John Bonkowski who always told me that you’re not a man until you have raced this race as an Iron Man and that is why I will only race this race solo. John has taught me so many lessons in becoming a racer mentally and physically and I owe him a huge thank you for his lessons and support. I wanted to dedicate this Iron Man trophy to Pigdog Racing and my great friend JB.
Huge thank you to all of my sponsors that made this race possible for me! Thank you to: Bullet Racing, Hydro-Turf, Jettribe, Jet Renu, Jetlift, Skat-Trak, Hurricane Industries, 3,2,1 Kawasaki, Devas Bling, Shark Energy, Cryoheat, Ryno Power, KMG Racing.
Can’t thank my team enough for the most incredible support out of any team out there! You guys pushed me all day long and I wouldn’t have been able to make it as long as I did without their endless support!
Thank you to everyone that cheered me on at my last pit stop and pushed me to finish my last lap when I was ready to collapse! I felt so much love and support from some amazing people thank you so much!
