Fast cat promises thrills off St. Pete Beach

By TERRY TOMALIN
Published November 4, 2005

When the green flag drops at St. Pete Beach this month for the Offshore Super Series World Championships, all eyes will be on the big cats and one of the winningest teams in the history of powerboat racing.

Mike DeFrees and Jeff Harris of Team CRC started off 2005 with a win at Biloxi, Miss., and quickly established themselves as the team to beat. Not since Clearwater's Hugh Fuller and Miami's John Tomlinson raced together in the APBA's Super Cat class have a driver and throttleman been so successful.

DeFrees and Harris won the first three races of the season, settled for second in St. Claire, Mich., then bounced back with another win in Orange Beach, Ala. The racers clinched the national championship with a last-minute win at Corpus Christi, Texas, on Oct. 16.

The two have also shown they are above the politics that has torn the sport apart in recent years. In August, DeFrees and Harris crossed the imaginary line in the sand and competed against their APBA/SBI brethren at a race in Greenville, N.C.

It was at that race that DeFrees and Harris set a new speed, or "kilo run," record that shattered the old mark by 23 mph.

"We went out there at 9:30 in the morning and hit 158.7," DeFrees said. "I told Jeff that we were so close to 160 that we should try it again."

DeFrees and Harris made a few adjustments to their new propellors and went back and tried a second run. "The GPS kept climbing and climbing," DeFrees added. "We couldn't believe it."

The final result: 160.986 mph.

"I know people will be looking for us know," said Harris, the throttleman. "But we will be ready for them."

In the tour's second largest fleet, OSS Vee, look for a showdown between arch rivals Spiderman and Instigator. The former, the reigning national champion, won the title on points but dropped out of the Corpus Christi race before it could settle once and for all who has the fastest vee bottom in offshore racing.

Spiderman's Ken Bowen and Scott Conrad picked up four consecutive first-place finishes in 2005. Joe Sgro and Peter Meyer of Instigator raced on the rival SBI/APBA tour.

A rematch between these two boats has been a hot topic on internet chat boards and should be a crowd pleaser.

[Last modified November 4, 2005, 19:40:48]