It’s that time of year again, and all of us at The Watercraft Journal are fighting to catch up. That’s right, it’s the week between the Panama Beach and Pensacola, Florida races (Rounds 1 and 2) of the Pro Watercross Tour. Yes, we’ll have our coverage soon (so hang tight), but as a taste, we recently got a press release from our friends at Yamaha who were more than happy to spread the good news that this past weekend’s racing welcomed a whole slew of Yamaha racers to the podium:
Yamaha’s official press release stated:
Round one of the 2018 Pro Watercross Tour returned to Panama Beach, Florida; looking a lot like 2017 with Yamaha watercraft racers and the Yamaha GP1800 sweeping the premier classes.
In Pro Stock racing, the starting line was a who’s who of the best watercraft racers in the world led by the Aswar brothers Aero Aswar and Aqsa Aswar, Eric Francis, and Brian Baldwin.
Racing under the Dean’s Team Racing Yamaha banner, the Aswar brothers and Francis swapped holeshots and top-3 positions in the three moto event. When the final points were tallied, it was Aero Aswar who finished first overall, followed by Aqsa Aswar, and Eric Francis. Yamaha racer Brian Baldwin was right there in the mix finishing in fourth.
In Pro Open action, Brian Baldwin flipped the script on his 90-mph GP1800 finishing first overall. Aqsa Aswar and brother Aero finished second and third on Pro Stock GP1800 WaveRunners, and Eric Francis finished fourth overall.
Congratulations to all of the Yamaha racers, their families, and Dean’s Team Yamaha Racing for a successful tour opener.
The Pro Watercross Tour is off to Pensacola Beach, Florida for round 2 on May 12-13.