Quite frankly it happened on a lark, with a quip made between The Watercraft Journal’s Editor-in-Chief Kevin Shaw and Kawasaki Product Manager Bret Snider during our test ride of the new 2014 Kawasakis, challenging him to race the intimidating Long Beach-to-Catalina Offshore Championship happening every year in Southern California in late July. Little did we know that Kawasaki would call us out.
That conversation sparked a no-holds-barred effort to charge the Long Beach-to-Catalina Offshore Championship (or LB2CAT for short) as Kawasaki agreed to equip The Watercraft Journal will a brand new 2014 Kawasaki Ultra 310R JetSki for the 56-mile open ocean race. Soon after other manufacturers stepped up to the plate to provide support for The Watercraft Journal’s invasion of the biggest offshore race in the United States.
With that, we want to announce with great aplomb our supporters: First to the bat was Western Power Sports, the fastest growing distributor of powersports products in the nation, with over 120,000 products including off-road and street motorcycle, ATV, snowmobile, and watercraft parts and accessories.
WPS pitched in an awesome Fly Racing F2 Carbon Trey Canard Replica helmet made from the same carbon fiber/Kevlar technology as the Formula brain buckets. WPS also provides us with an amazing Fly Racing Pro Lite Carbon Leatt neck brace and a pair of Dragon Alliance MDX Hydro goggles (with extra lenses no less!).
Covering the rest of our riding gear, we’re very excited to welcome JetPilot who provided us with a fantastic setup of an Apex Race John and Apex S/E vest, a pair of Immersed shorts, gloves and JetPilot’s Race Boots.
Lastly, we’re excited to announce that Derrick Kemnitz Jr. of Hurricane Industries will be providing us a custom wrap for our 310R’s hood.
It’s exciting stuff to have all of these awesome companies behind us as we compete in the lauded Manufacturer Stock class. That’s right, we’re going stock-for-stock, so expect a heck of a showdown – especially as PWCOffshore.com and other racers and supporters have ponied up an impressive $1,200 purse for the class championship!
[…] you do differently?” It doesn’t take a whole heck of a lot of looking to learn that we at The Watercraft Journal are particularly fond of offshore racing. The challenges of offshore racing are unlike those found elsewhere – apart from an ironclad […]
[…] Richards intends on his SHO to tout the largest Yamaha engine in the world – totaling 1,987cc and producing in excess of 600 horsepower. He recently recapped, “It is my intention this year to win the [Triple Crown] offshore races.” Although Richards and his wild Yamaha didn’t make it to February’s Mark Hahn Memorial 300, he does intend to be present at the upcoming Long Beach to Catalina Offshore Championship. […]
[…] Gossip” but we wanted to squeak this one in before this weekend as we prepare for the annual Long Beach to Catalina Offshore Championship happening this Sunday, July 20th. The race, as it stands, is the longest, most challenging open […]