Full Throttle

In my thirty plus years around race tracks - short straight ones, ovals and those with “twisty bits” - I’ve seen my share of novel race ideas by promoters to fill the stands.

I’m sure the ever popular demolition derby was some local promoters idea at one time that spread like wild fire. In pre-Danica days Janet Guthrie’s exploits at Indy spawned Powderpuff Derbies. Their have been chain/train races where groups of cars are chained together with the lead car providing the motive power and the “caboose” giving the train the only brakes available.

Two of my favorites, although not strictly of the “side show variety,” are the Australian Pursuit and the Double “O”. The pursuit takes the top ten qualifies and inverts them for a ten lap heat. If a car is completely passed by a car behind, the overtaken car is eliminated. As I remember it the Double “O” was 25 laps in length and was run on a track that consisted of a 1/2 and 1/4 mile ovals. Drivers had to alternate each lap going from the 1/2 to the 1/4 back to the 1/2 etc.

All this brings me to this story out of South West Florida and Punta Gorda’s Charlotte County Speedway. This all makes perfect sense - if you’re slightly insane - when you realize the track is nearby to the Peace River and a stones throw to the Gulf of Mexico. That makes the obvious choice of marrying short track auto racing with boats and boat trailers a win-win situation for the promoter. And I should note, it was held on the figure 8 track. As if getting just your vehicle through the intersection isn’t hard enough these guys had to drag a Boston Whaler through also!

About 10 Southwest Floridians last Saturday night hooked trailers loaded with boats to eight-, six- and four-cylinder cars and raced for a whopping 20 laps at speeds up to 40 mph.

The winner in this case was the only guy whose sedan, trailer and boat were still intact by the end. He was the only guy to finish, actually. He was Dan Benoit of south Fort Myers.

Wait, don’t be shocked - Benoit makes his living in the junk car business. Relying on his 8 cylinder 1979 Lincoln netted him a cool 500 bucks for the win. And how appropriate is that? That era of Lincoln’s and Caddies were always tagged with the moniker of Land Yachts.

It wasn’t all peaches and cream for Dan, “On the way to the track, he got two flat tires,” said Benoit’s wife, Kim. And he seemed a little reluctant to truly embrace the boating crowd. “I hate boats. I hate water. I like showers, but not boats,” Benoit said when asked if the experience would help him next time he tows a boat.

Oh well, at least he’s got 500 bucks, and the promoter can be proud of one hell of an idea!

Image via New-Press.com