The Pro Watercross season came to an end after an exciting weekend in Sugden Regional Park in Naples Florida with The Hidden Trails/Sea-Doo Pro Watercross World Championships. The beautiful park played host to the Flyboard World Championships to begin the week and that was just the beginning to the high flying action. The extremely calm waters and technical track led to some top notch racing something we have come to expect from the pro show. The Hidden Trails/Sea-Doo Pro Watercross World Championships would not disappoint.
The first class to hit the water was the Pro Am Ski Stock class. Team Mean/Broward Motorsport rider David Cabrera has been staking claim on this class all season and nothing would change in the qualifier after grabbing the huge win setting him up great for the main. In the main, Cabrera jumped out to the early lead but that doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be some suspense. Cabrera thought the race was over with one lap left and young gun, Team Faith rider Gage Schoenher, made the pass for the lead as Cabrera backed out of the throttle.
Schoenher’s luck wouldn’t last long though as Cabrera made the exciting pass on the last corner to lock up the World Championship. Third place went to Apex, North Carolina’s own Callaway Turner after a great weekend of riding. On a side note the only female rider in the pro classes this weekend, UK’s own Sophie Perrin, had a great ride to finish up fourth.
In Pro Am R/A Box Stock, Yamaha FZR rider Jeff Dyckowski put in an amazing heat win after fending off Hidden Trails/Sea-Doo rider Tim Ducat for all ten laps. In the main, it was more of the same but Monster Energy/Kawasaki rider Eric “The Eagle” Francis was added into the mix. It was a three-way battle for 10 laps in the main with mere seconds separating the 3 riders but Dyckowski put in a rock solid performance and locked up the world championship followed on the podium by Ducat and then Francis.
The biggest class of the weekend out of the Pro classes was once again Sport GP. After dominating all season, Broward Motorsports rider Sam Nehme had a rough start to his weekend and red flagged in the heat race pushing him to 10th place. But that opened up the door for a big time heat race win for Rich Taylor out of Christmas, Florida. Nehme had different plans for the main after the rough start to the weekend.
Judge Motorpsorts rider Billly Dearman pulled an amazing hole shot with Nehme in tow. After a bobble by Dearman, Nehme took the lead and never looked back on his way to a world championship. After the bobble, Dearman got back on the gas to finish second. Third place went to heat race winner Taylor.
Pro Am Ski GP was as exciting as ever. Naples’ own Monster Energy/Broward Motorsport rider Chris MacClugage – aboard his K1 hull – grabbed the heat win to set himself up with great line position in the main. MacClugage was dominant this weekend as he has been for the majority of his career and won the main as well in front of his home crowd. Kommander rider Derrick Helm finished second behind Macc and seems to have really caught fire towards the end of the Pro Watercross season, so look out for him in 2017! Third place went to somewhat of a new name to the GP class podium for the year Jordan Carroll.
Pro Am Runabout GP class had another of Naples own and who seemed to be the crowd favorite, Jettribe/Sea-Doo rider Ermino Iantosca. Iantosca broke in the heat and that gave Dean’s Team/Factory Yamaha rider Brian Baldwin the big win in the heat. Iantosca would get his motor back together after a long night of wrenching and gave the crowd something to cheer about in the main on Sunday and he led from wire to wire taking home a world championship, which he dedicated to his hard working father.
Second place went to Baldwin who just couldn’t hunt down Iantosca in the last race of the Pro Watercross season. Third place turned into a battle late in the race after Kawasaki rider Eric Francis pulled his lanyard and gave life to Sea-Doo rider Tim Ducat’s quest for a second podium of the day. Francis missed a buoy late in the race to give Ducat third aboard his stock Sea-Doo RXP-X.
The second annual Hidden Trails/Sea-Doo World Championships was a major hit. There are rumors of a $100,000 purse for next year in 2017, we hope this brings out the brightest stars of the watercraft racing world and allows this to become the pinnacle of the racing season.
All results from the 2016 Hidden Trails/Sea-Doo Pro Watercross World Championships from Naples, Florida can be seen HERE.
