Yamaha has a new four stroke ski on the market and boy is it giving everyone a run for their money! Yamaha riders Tony Beck and Chris “The Flyin’ Fish” Fischetti hooked up with Dean’s Team Racing and rode the new GP1800 for the win in Four-Stroke Runabout Stock class during the 2017 Mark Hahn Memorial 300 race.
Mark Klippenstein and Brian Baldwin rode to victory on a Yamaha FX SHVO in the Manufacturers Runabout Stock Class. Baldwin told The Watercraft Journal, “I think being on a bone stock boat really played to our advantage. We are able to lap every single person except for first and second in the Open class.”
The only modifications allowed for Manufacture Stock are handgrips and the seatcover so it is literally a bone stock ski. Baldwin continued, “I rode the first 200 miles straight and then switched off with my teammate Mike [Klippenstein], who was racing two other classes – it’s Mike who I have to thank for getting me out there to compete. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have made it.”
Paul Pham and teammate Derek Diep grabbed first on their Yamaha FX SHO in the Veteran Master’s Open class. What a great day for Yamaha with teams prevailing in three classes.
Conditions were not ideal for racing with 35 mile-per-hour winds wreaking havoc along the 300 mile course. The racers persevered under demanding conditions and Executive Director, Mike Follmer acknowledged this feat by congratulating the Yamaha riders for taking on the 300 mile endurance race in gale force winds and choppy seas.
Yamaha’s Race Director, Scott Watkins had this to say about the GP1800, “We knew the GP on the closed course was going to be the boat to beat in 2017. But with a win in a 300 mile race with rough conditions, it’s clear this model is going to be more than just a champ in the closed course. “We are looking forward to the 2017 AquaX tour where the GP will make its debut on the closed course.”
