#40 YOU'RE IN COMMAND RACING TAKES HOME
ANOTHER CHECKERD FLAG IN SARASOTA , FL
The # 40 YIC Racing team looked forward to traveling south to race in the 23 rd Annual Sun Coast Offshore Grand Prix on the waters off Sarasota, FL, which has been said to compare to the Indy 500 of Offshore Racing. The #40 Team was coming off a 2 nd place finish in Ocean City, MD and has been working on the 39 Dragon's set up for the challenging waters off Sarasota, which in the passed has caused a number of accidents and ejections of crew members from there boats. “The waters out here have always been hard to read, with a number of holes out there we have found ourselves running in 3 to 4 foot seas and then hit a hole and finding us lunching off 6 footers said driver Gino Marrone.
The team took the start on the outside and found themselves in 3 rd place going into turn 1, but coming out of turn 2 the leaders of Team Still Got It took a wrong heading to turn 3 and corrected but now put themselves, Team Red Line and YIC Racing on a converging course all going into turn 3 at over 90 mph deck to deck in the 4 foot seas, but coming out of turn 4 the #40 Team moved into 2 nd place and in a deck to deck battle with the California team of Red Line Racing. After trading the led over the next 22 miles the #40 YIC Racing team made the pass on the outside coming out of turn one and held on to the lead to take the checkered flag. “The water today was not that ruff and was easy to read which is not usually the case here in Sarasota, but the haze made it hard to find the turn buoys, we found ourselves using the GPS a lot to get a good heading to the next turn buoy” said Gino Marrone.
The #40 YIC Racing Team heads to St Clair, MI for their next race on July 28 th -29 th .
#40 YOU'RE IN COMMAND RACING FINISHES IN 2ND PLACE AT THE GEICO OFFSHORE GRAND PRIX
The #40 You're In Command Racing team traveled north to the waters off Ocean City , MD for the GEICO Offshore Grand Prix on June 24 th . In the 2006 Ocean City race the waters turned ruff on race day and the 6 to 8 foot seas took there toll on more then 65% of the race teams retiring them before they finished the race and it looked like 2007 would be no different as on Thursday, 3 days before the race the sea's reached 9 to 10 feet off the beaches of Ocean City and teams were setting up there boats for another battle with the big sea's in Ocean City. But to many racers surprise, the sea's calmed down to 3 to 4 footers catching some teams off guard in there set ups.
The #40 Y.I.C. Racing Team found themselves in a battle for 1 st place going into turn 1 with 3 other boats and in a blink of an eye and running threw rooster tails at over 85 mph coming out of turn 2 they fell into 3 rd place, we knew once we got out of turn 2 we could go to work and make our move to 1 st place said driver Gino Marrone, and by lap 3 the Y.I.C. Racing Team moved into 2 nd place and battling for 1 st place with the local and team favored of #377 Team WANTED Racing, the 2 teams battled for over 40 miles in the 3 to 4 foot sea's but the Y.I.C. Racing Team could not make the pass for 1 st place and found themselves 15 seconds behind the 1 st place of Team WANTED going into the last lap. The Y.I.C. Team had one last shot at 1 st place and tried running the outside lane and leaving the throttles wide open and to take the turns as fast as they could and try to carry as much speed coming out of the turns without flipping the boat, coming out of turn 4 with just a little over a 1 mile to the finish line the Y.I.C. Team found themselves within 7 seconds behind 1 st place and in a drag race to the finish with slower boat traffic in front of both teams, Team Wanted took the inside and Y.I.C. Racing took the outside splitting the slower boats and at the finish line Team You're In Command finished in 2 nd place just 4 seconds behind the 1 st place team of WANTED Racing.
The #40 You're In Command Racing Team will set there sites on there next race in Sarasota FL. on July 1 st .
THE #40 YOU'RE IN COMMAND RACING TEAM TAKES 1 ST PLACE
IN ST. CLOUD, FL.
The #40 You're In Command Racing Team took to the water on April 1 st for the season opener in the SBI/APBA Offshore Series divisional race in St. Cloud, FL. with a 1 st place finish.
With the race teams getting ready for the National series to begin in Miami, FL on April 20 th – 22 nd , some of them use the divisional race as a warm up before the National Series kicks off.
The #40 Team has made a number of changes to the boat since last years 3 rd place finish in the OPA
World Championships in Destin, FL in November 2006. We will needed to make a lot of changes to find out what this boat likes, its taken a lot of time to get her were we are today and we still have a lot of work to do to get us running up front said driver Gino Marrone.
The 39' Dragon spent the off season in Tarpon Springs, FL where the changes were made. The boat will still under go a number of changes before the Miami race this month.
The boat is running faster speeds than we have ever got out of it and is handling very well, we ran speeds of up to 94+ mph in the turns in the St. Cloud race Marrone said. This was with Mike Gordon, a veteran Offshore racer on the throttles for the first time racing with Gino Marrone. The comfort level of having Mike in the boat is a huge plus said Marrone.
The #40 You're In Command Racing Team will be racing in both the SBI/APBA and OPA Racing Series during the 2007 season and finishing the season in Key West, FL for the 2007 World Championships.
We will be posting the 2007 racing season schedule for the #40 You're In Command Racing Team very shortly.
#40 YOU'RE IN COMMAND RACING TAKES 3 RD PLACE IN THE OPA CLASS 3 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
The You're In Command Racing Team traveled to the great city of Destin, FL for the 2006 OPA World Championships in November. The Y.I.C. Racing Team spent a large part of the 2006 season making changes to the 39 foot Dragon race boat in Tarpon Springs, FL for the upcoming 2006 Worlds event.
On the first day of the World Championships the Y.I.C. Racing team took the lead going into the 1 st turn but found out the gremlins had returned half way threw the first lap. With the boat loosing horsepower for intervals of 10 to 20 seconds before returning to its normal 5400 RPM's the team fought back and forth just to keep the boat in contention. At the end of the 55-mile race, the team still managed to finish in 3 rd place for the 1 st race of the Worlds. The team returned to the pit area and had a day to work on the boat to find the problems before the 2 nd race on Saturday. After spending 7 hours of tracing electrical wiring and changing all fuel lines and fuel pumps the team went out during happy hour testing on Friday to see if they found the problem. While the boat was still a little short on power it would have to do for the final race on Saturday.
On race day the Y.I.C. Racing team found themselves leading going into turn 1 again and fell back to second coming out of turn 2 and maintain that position till lap 3 when the #377 Team WANTED came up to challenge them for 2 nd place, the battle was on and on lap 4 Team WANTED got by but the battle would continue for the remainder of the race. The Y.I.C. Team would have to settle for another 3 rd place, which gave them an overall 3 rd place for the Class 3 World Championships.
#40 YOU'RE IN COMMAND RACING TAKES 4 TH PLACE IN EDISON OIL OFFSHORE RACE
The #40 You're In Command Racing Team had there hands tied behind there backs going into Saturdays testing session off Ft. Myers Beach , FL. The team encounter a major problem with there steering which would not pass inspection for testing on Saturday, The team work all day and thru the night on Saturday to fix the steering along with the assistance of the Mercury Racing technicians. The team decided to race a new set of props that have not been ever run on the Dragon, with the bigger diameter in the new props, it was a good set up for the gear ratio in the 1 to 2 foot seas for Sunday's race. “We new at the start going into the first turn the set up was not going to work, the engines would only turn 5150 rpm's vice its normal 5400 rpm's” and we would be 2 to 3 mph off the pace” said Gino Marrone the driver of the #40 race boat.
After the start the #40 Team fell back to 7 th place and on the 1 st lap on the 6 mile course the race went to a full course caution after the #37 Twisted Metal Racing Team flipped over going into turn 6 and found themselves upside underwater, within 15 seconds the divers were deployed from the helicopters and assisted the 2 crew members to the surface, On lap 4 the green flag dropped again and the racing resumed, the # 40 team found themselves moving threw the field and on lap 6 moved into 4 th place and in a battle for 3 rd with the #30 Miccosukee Indian Gaming team, after some deck to deck racing on lap 7 the # 40 You're In Command Racing team made the pass and took over 3 rd place and putting some distance between them and the #30 boat, On lap 10 the team had the gremlins return to there boat, coming out of turn 5, Marrone notice a large amount of steering fluid at his feet and running out of the back of the dash. With the steering becoming harder to turn the team was losing its lead on the # 30 boat and on lap 13 of the 15 lap race the team could no longer hold off the # 30 racing team for 3 rd place, The #40 team tried to make a number of attempts to close in on the #30 boat but was unable. The #40 You're In Command team finished just 11 seconds behinds the #30 Miccosukee Indian Gaming team which finished in 3 rd place.
The race boat is back at the Factory in Melbourne, Fl. and undergoing a number of chances and replacing the steering system, The team will have a number of test sessions prior to the 22 ND Annual Suncoast Offshore Grand Prix in Sarasota, FL. on July 2nd .
#40 YOU'RE IN COMMAND RACING TEAM TO APPEAR IN SAFETY HARBOR , FL
The #40 You're In Command Racing team will be on display on March 17 th and will be promoting boating safety during there annual canoe race in Safety Harbor, FL.
The Y.I.C. Racing Team will be promoting the importance of wearing life jackets while canoeing and recreational boating. The Race boat will be on display along with the Coast Guards new 25-foot patrol boat, with both vessels being available for hands on tours.
This is a great opportunity to promote the importance of wearing life jackets when canoeing, the fatalities involving caners has been on the rise with the large increase in popularity of the hobby said driver Gino Marrone.
The Y.I.C. Racing team will kick off there 2007 race season at the end of March in St. Cloud , FL.
#40 YOU'RE IN COMMAND RACE BOAT TO BE ON DISPLAY AT THE PHILADELPHIA BOAT SHOW
From March 23 rd – 26 th the #40 You're In Command Super V Race Boat will be on display at the Pennsylvania Convention Center for the Philadelphia Boat Show. Since the teams testing sessions at the Mercury Racing testing facility in Panama City , FL. in Nov. 05 the race boat has been at the teams rigging facility located in Va. Beach , VA. During this time the boat has under gone a number of changes to improve the boats speed and handling for the upcoming 2006 racing season, which starts in April. “It was a guessing game last year, the first time the race boat touch the water was the day of our teams first race in New York City in September. This is the first race boat ever built by Dragon Powerboats and we're still learning the boats likes and dislikes at the speeds and water conditions were racing in” said driver Gino Marrone. The race team has also added a new testing facility that's located in Washington , NC .
The race team will be doing a number of appearances between there testing schedule prior to this years racing season, you can get the dates and locations in the events section of our website which is updated weekly.
U.S. COAST GUARD PARTNERS WITH WORLD CHAMPION RACERS
FOR 2005 POWERBOAT RACE SEASON
The United States Coast Guard announced today that it is entering into a partnership, in support of recreational boating safety, with World Champion Racers, Gino Marrone and Craig Barrie for the 2005 race schedule. The race team will take an active role in promoting the Coast Guard's national outreach initiative, “You're in Command. Boat Responsibly!” at Super Boat International and American Powerboat Association (SBI/APBA) and OPA Racing venues.
Gino Marrone, 2003 APBA/U.I.M World Champion and Craig Barrie former president of Cigarette Racing Team are joining forces with the Coast Guard in asking all boat owners and operators to help reduce fatalities, injuries, property damage, and associated healthcare costs related to recreational boating accidents.
”Powerboat racing is well known and highly respected not only among the fans but much of the boating public we are trying to reach. We believe that many boaters will listen to what they have to say. The ‘You're in Command' initiative places responsibility where it belongs – on the owner and operator. It asks safe boaters to boat even safer by changing their behavior, said Capt. Scott Evans, deputy director of Coast Guard Operations Policy.
The launch of this collaborative effort will take place at the 21 st annual Suncoast Offshore Grand Prix Festival in Sarasota , Fla. during the Fourth of July weekend. Sarasota has become one of the longest continuously running offshore race sites and will be welcoming powerboat racers from all over the world. July has historically had the highest number of boating accidents and fatalities. In 2003, 16 percent out of a total of 703 fatalities for the year occurred during the month July.
“We are very excited about supporting the Coast Guard in this important effort.” said Marrone. “As professional boat racers, we absolutely understand the significance of ‘being in command', at all times! We are hopeful that by encouraging people to ‘boat responsibly', by example, we shall truly make a difference in saving lives on the water.”
Essential steps of the ‘You're in Command' initiative include always wearing a life jacket and requiring passengers to do the same; never boat under the influence; successfully complete a boating safety course; and get a vessel safety check annually from local U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, United States Power Squadrons®, or your State boating agency's vessel examiners. The U.S. Coast Guard reminds all boaters, "You're in Command. Boat Responsibly!"
The U.S. Coast Guard is asking all boat owners and operators to help reduce fatalities, injuries, property damage, and associated healthcare costs related to recreational boating accidents by taking personal responsibility for their own safety and the safety of their passengers. Essential steps include always wear a life jacket and require passengers to do the same; never boat under the influence ; successfully complete a boating safety course; and get a Vessel Safety Check annually from local U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, United States Power Squadrons(r), or your state boating agency's vessel examiners. The U.S. Coast Guard reminds all boaters, "You're in Command. Boat Responsibly!"
For more information on boating responsibly, go to www.USCGboating.org or call the U.S. Coast Guard Infoline at1-800-368-5647.