Image: RonnyMac
In April of this year, The Watercraft Journal announced that longtime Sea-Doo affiliate racer Erminio Iantosca had fulfilled negotiations to bring the veteran athlete over to Yamaha. Maintaining strong ties with RIVA Racing and tuner Dean’s Team Racing, Iantosca was received with open arms by other fellow Yamaha racers – including those from rival teams like Broward Motorsports and Snyder Built.
“I’ll be racing P1 AquaX on a 2021 Yamaha FX SVHO and Pro Watercross on a 2021 GP1800R SVHO,” Iantosca told WCJ in April. Equipped with a single FX SVHO to compete with throughout the entire P1 season, Iantosca’s game had to be on point. Risking injury to himself or his solitary WaveRunner would put him out for the season. For Iantosca to survive, he had to play things smart.
Coming into this past weekend’s P1 AquaX St. Petersburg Powerboat Grand Prix, Iantosca was in contention for the overall US points, facing off against 44-year-old Chris MacClugage and 18-year-old Tory Snyder. Iantosca explained, “The race was crazy. Macc and I going back and forth for the championship was just awesome.”
[During the] first moto, I got 4th. Macc won, so that gave him the points lead,” Iantosca detailed to WCJ. “Then in Moto 2, I got second and Macc got third, so I tied the points back up. Then in the last moto, I got second and Macc got 4th, so I won the [overall] championship.”
Iantosca claimed the US National Championship eking out both Snyder and MacClugage by 5 points (203 total); each earned a tied 198 points, landing the two 2nd and 3rd in the nation, respectively. “I have to thank Yamaha, my buddy Dean Charrier from Dean’s Team for all the hard work on my FX all year and RIVA Racing for all their amazing parts and support they have given me all year.”
Additional photography provided by P1 AquaX via RonnyMac with written approval
