The inaugural round of the new IHRA Offshore Powerboat Championship produced the kind of racing that leaves lasting impressions: a last-to-first comeback, a championship contender’s Race 2 retirement, qualifying order overturned by race day, and one boat posting the highest aggregate score of any competitor across all 11 classes.
The Monster Energy 6th Annual St. Pete Powerboat Grand Prix Presented by Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, held March 27 to 29 at the St. Pete Pier and Spa Beach Park in Florida, made history as the first round of the International Hot Rod Association’s newly acquired offshore powerboat and Pro Watercraft championships. Following the IHRA’s acquisition of its former promoter in late 2025, the series opened a new chapter with a record-setting $2 million total prize purse, backed by $650,000 in tow money and a separate $250,000 fund for the personal watercraft fleet.
Around 50 elite powerboats took to the water across 11 offshore classes, reaching speeds in excess of 100 mph on a circuit set just off the St. Pete Pier. The weekend opened on Friday night with a free Pit Party at Albert Whitted Park, where fans got up close to the boats and met the teams before the main racing began on Saturday and Sunday.
The offshore classes split across both race days, with the numbered bracket classes (200 through 700) running back-to-back heats on Saturday afternoon and the headline classes, including Factory Stock, Super Cat, Superstock, and the second of two Pro Class 1 races, filling Sunday’s programme.
Pro Class 1: Coil and Miller Convert Qualifying Silver into Gold
The marquee class provided the weekend’s defining narrative.
Friday afternoon qualifying established DMR Performance (#3) as the class benchmark, with the quickest qualifying lap of the event at 2:55.22. Monster Energy/M-CON’s driver Myrick Coil and throttleman/owner Tyler Miller in Monster Energy/M-CON (#6) qualified second, just 0.38 seconds back at 2:55.60, a margin that barely registers at these speeds. MTI/GC Racing (#32) locked in third at 2:57.77, covering the top three in just 2.55 seconds. XINSURANCE North’s JJ Turk and throttleman Nick Buis in XINSURANCE North (#11) did not complete their qualifying run due to a rollover, while Discrete Offshore Racing (#07) did not take to the course.
Race 1 on Saturday afternoon ran largely to the qualifying sheet at the front. DMR Performance took the race win, converting pole into 50 Day 1 points. Coil and Miller in Monster Energy/M-CON crossed second (45 points), with MTI/GC Racing third and WHM Motorsports (#5) fourth. Turk and Buis recovered from their qualifying DNF to fifth, with Outta Pocket Racing (#10) retiring before the finish and Discrete Offshore Racing again a non-starter.
Sunday’s Race 2 rewrote the round. Coil and Miller won the second race outright, while DMR Performance, who had led every meaningful session to that point, failed to finish and collected zero for the day. The swing was decisive. Monster Energy/M-CON‘s aggregate of 45 plus 50 points across the two races, combined with 5.5 bonus points, delivered a round total of 100.5 and the overall class win. MTI/GC Racing claimed second overall on 91, with Turk and Buis’ consistent 38.5-38.5 scoring across both races earning them third on 80.0.
Miller, who runs the Monster Energy/M-CON programme from the land as well as from the cockpit, brought the same sharp, calculated approach that has produced national and world title results. Coil, the team’s driver and a veteran of offshore racing’s highest level, is one of the sport’s most recognisable competitors, and the St. Pete result puts the team firmly in front of the 2026 championship field.
For JJ Turk, the podium was a constructive start. Turk has 13 championships across multiple classes and carries an explicit goal of a Pro Class 1 victory in 2026, competing alongside throttleman Nick Buis on what he calls his most ambitious programme to date. The note from IHRA that Sunday was a “bad day for XINSURANCE North” due to their rollover. The team left with unfinished business, but points are on the board.
DMR Performance‘s weekend served as a harsh reminder of offshore racing’s volatility. Fastest qualifier. Race 1 winner. Zero in Race 2. Sixth overall.
Superstock: Team Bermuda Top All 72 Competitors
Superstock lived up to its status as the fleet’s deepest class, drawing 16 boats to Saturday morning qualifying and providing the event’s headline aggregate result.
Team Bermuda (S-25) qualified on pole and converted it into a race win with 100 Day 2 points plus 15 bonus points, giving a total of 115, the highest score of any competitor across all 11 classes at the event. Allied-STR Powerboats (S-54) recovered from a qualifying fourth to finish second overall on 104 points. Wozencraft (S-8) took third on 96.
The class told several compelling personal stories across the field.
Ignite Celsius driver Chris Hopgood and throttleman Jay Muller (S-43) arrived at St. Pete off the back of a breakout 2024 campaign that included Hopgood’s first career win at Lake of the Ozarks. Hopgood grew up around boats, got his first competitive start in a 24-foot Bat Boat in 2003, and has spent his time in the class building toward a national championship. He finished eighth at St. Pete, working through what is one of the largest and most competitive starting grids in offshore racing.
Leanna Shadlow, driver of Team Demon Bikini (S-33), and throttleman Chad Havens returned for 2026 as an established crew, having first raced together at the 2024 Key West World Championship. Shadlow, who held the distinction of being the only female driver in the Super Stock class in 2025, carries credentials that include Fastest Solo Female at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout and a resume that extends to the Desert Storm Shootout. She and Havens finished 14th at St. Pete; Havens’ meticulous pre-race attention to fuel numbers, prop setup, and weight balance has built a programme focused on consistency rather than headlines.
Billy Allen, throttleman and owner of Team Allen Lawn Care and Landscaping (S-17), brought new driver Sabrina Kowalik to the class for her first season of offshore competition. Allen is a former Offshore World Champion whose career spans decades, from dirt stock cars in the 1980s through to multiple title campaigns on the water. Introducing Kowalik to a 16-boat grid in one of offshore racing’s toughest classes at the very first round is a bold call; the team finished 11th.
Gregg Reichman and driver David Whelan of Moxie Racing/XINSURANCE (S-88) qualified eighth and finished seventh, adding early points to a programme Reichman operates to a professional standard. He has rigged and set up the boat himself across his career and holds an official APBA kilo world speed record among his results. His goal is simple: to win in every class the team enters.
Factory Stock: Jackhammer Claims Pole and the Win
The Mercury Racing 500R-powered Factory Stock class saw Jackhammer (#42) take Friday qualifying honours with a time of 3:25.81, backing it up with a race win on Sunday morning. LWR Lake Wiley Racing (#F-44) finished second, and Say Less MF (#F-21) completed the podium.
LWR Lake Wiley Racing‘s driver Joe Spoloric and throttleman Garrett Coonrod had one of the weekend’s less-noticed storylines. Their qualifying run of 5:15.11, well off the leading pace, came with a one-minute time penalty for missing weight, making their effective qualifying position last among those who ran. Their second-place finish on race day was one of the quietly impressive results of the round. Spoloric came to offshore racing from the spectator banks at Key West, where he spent years watching the sport before getting his own seat. That perspective shapes how he approaches the paddock, and a second-place result in just his early career is not nothing.
Caleb Mead, driver of the MTI-built MFR/Mead Family Racing boat (#F-5), competed alongside legendary throttleman Johnny Tomlinson, the team arriving at St. Pete having fully repaired the MFR following a blowover at Turn 2 during the 2025 Key West World Championship. The rebuilt MTI performed, and the team took fourth. Goodboy Vodka (#F-25) put in a notable performance, qualifying DNS before recovering to a fifth-place race finish.
Super Cat: Dirty Money Racing Wins From Qualifying Second
Super Cat qualifying on Saturday morning produced an outcome CR Racing (#08) will want to revisit. The pole-sitter finished fifth on race day, while second qualifier Dirty Money Racing (#3) took the race win. C.J. Grant Racing/Graydel (#54) finished second, with Wicked (#6) completing the podium after qualifying sixth of six.
The full field reversal between qualifying and race day, with three of the top four qualifiers ending the day in different positions, underlined the point that offshore racing rarely finishes in the order it starts.
Mod V: Kildahl Continues a Family Story
NMB RV Resort (#33) won the Mod V race on Sunday morning, with Boatfloater.com/Scott Free Racing (#2) taking second and Clouatre Cartel Racing (#74) third.
Stephen Kildahl, driver of Boatfloater.com/Scott Free Racing alongside throttleman and father Steve Kildahl, finished second in a class he entered as a teenager once he reached the minimum age requirement. Now in his 19th season, Kildahl has won races, national championships, and a world title in Mod V, and his crew relationship with his father remains the foundation of the programme. The second-place result at St. Pete was a consistent start to what he describes as a season where competing alongside his own children has become part of the broader picture.
Bracket Classes: Six Classes Open the Saturday Programme
The bracket classes ran back-to-back on Saturday afternoon, with Classes 600, 700, and Super Cat in the first heat, and Classes 200, 300, 400, and 500 following in the second.
Class 500 produced the day’s largest bracket field with seven starters. Back inAction (#576) won from Fuel 1 Team (#588) and Whiskey Throttle Racing (#549).
Class 600 went to Bad Attitude Racing (#688) from Ride Legal (#611) and Hammerheads (#628).
Class 700 went to Pist’n Broke (#744), ahead of Team Progression REDRUM (#730) and Dirt Legal Velocity Factory Racing (#789). Safe Cash/Xinsurance (#742) competed but returned a zero total, suggesting a post-race penalty.
Class 400 was won by Team 407 Offshore (#407) ahead of Hartman/Xinsurance (#409) and Shocker Offshore (#421). Kyle Dietzen and throttleman Chris McElwee of Burning Man Offshore Racing, campaigning their Larry Smith-designed Speedster (#421), took third. Dietzen has been involved in the sport since 1999, built Formula Powerboats into an F2 and F1 force, and won national and world championships with Simmons Racing in 2009-10. McElwee, who worked as a crew hand for the F2 Team Aquanator from 1999 before stepping back from the sport for more than two decades, returned to racing in 2025 with a class win in St. Clair, Michigan. Their third at St. Pete was a solid opening-round result.
Class 200 went to OC Racing (#221) ahead of Justice League (#208) and LM Marine (#269).
Class 300 produced the weekend’s tightest grid: just two boats. WeHaulBoats.com (#313) won from Team Woody Racing (#327).
Vinnie Diorio and Sean Conner of SV Offshore Racing/Rollin Transport made their return to competition at St. Pete following a difficult rollover on Day 2 of the 2025 Key West World Championship. Their presence in the paddock was noted across the offshore community.
Damon Marotta, a veteran racer with multiple world championships and an undefeated season among his career highlights, also returned to competition at St. Pete in the Mod V class. Marotta has competed across Open AMT Stock, Classes 200, 400, 500, 600, and Mod V over more than two decades, approaching every race with the same pre-race ritual: watch off, necklace removed, wallet pocketed, quiet prayer, and then to work.
Round 1 in the Books
Monster Energy/M-CON and Team Bermuda lead their respective classes after Round 1 of the 2026 IHRA Offshore Powerboat Championship. With a $2 million prize pool at stake across the season, the St. Pete event delivered the kind of racing the new era demands: fast, unpredictable, and full of stories that carry into the next round.
Full results: ihraoffshore.livemotorsports.com
Sources: IHRA Offshore Series official results; St. Pete Powerboat Grand Prix Daily Schedule of Events; IHRA qualifying results; IHRA Offshore Series official post-race statements.
