The skies were gloomy and overcast as the P1 Aqua X rolled into St. Cloud, Florida. This was the fourth year of AquaX using east Lake Tohopekaliga and the city of St. Cloud as a venue. Each year there has been some sort of rain in the forecast and P1 wanted to get as much racing in before the skies opened up. After the mandatory rider’s briefing, the racers did their last minute adjustments they needed to get done and started launching their skis into the water while the P1 Superstock boats were finishing up their morning races.
This round of racing was strictly the Amateur racers and the professional racers were not slated to race this day. With a total of 33 riders, the racers took to the race course for the start of the first race of the day. The question for this round would be if Chris Saxon, Tommy Olswang, and Chad Saxon would pick up where they left off in the previous round in Daytona.
With this being a lake race the riders wouldn’t have to deal with the huge waves or chop of ocean riding. This made it a mad rush of full wide open throttle to see who would take the hole shot and if no mistakes were made, maintain their position to take the lead and hopefully the win. Cody Tetreault came away with the win in the 300 class. Alejandro Mora took the win in the 250 class and Chad Saxon claimed the win for the first race of the day.
The skies were cloudy for most of the first race but the sun was trying to make an appearance throughout. After the racers had lunch and prepared themselves for the second and final race of the day the sun decided to bless the race course with full sunshine and proved the weather forecasters wrong. With no rain in sight the racers took to the water again.
Cody Tetreault claimed the hole shot and maintained the lead for the majority of the second race, however, he couldn’t keep back Richard Lopez who took the overall win for the weekend in the 300 class. Chris Saxon who had dominated the previous two rounds in the class just couldn’t catch up to the winner as he had taken a swim at the first turn buoy and lost valuable positions in the field.
In the 250 class, Tommy Olswang, who placed fourth in the first race of the day, took the overall win for the weekend and continued his winning ways so far this season. The 200 Class was won by Daniel Steele to round out the top winners for the day.
In a predominately male field, there was one woman who made an appearance on the podiums for the first time this year; Jennifer Nolan finished third overall in the 200 Class and showed that she can keep up with the guys. All had fun and it was a great day of racing. Next stop on the race schedule is Sarasota, Florida at the beginning of July, which will have a stacked lineup, as the professional racers will be back on the water as well as the amateurs.
