Blog

The P1 Season kicked off this past weekend in Miami at the historic Miami Marine Stadium. What looked to be a promising start to the season turned into a long weekend with little racing.

The weekend was plagued by marine wildlife holds, which halted racing for the majority of the event. Dolphins consistently made their way into the course, which caused racing to be stopped until they left. 

Saturday marked the first time P1 had 40+ entries in the Am 300 class resulting in qualifying heats to determine the fields starting positions for the main moto. The field was broken down into about 22 boats in each heat, with the top 10 from each heat moving on to the main moto.

The remaining boats would still race, however they would start in a 2nd wave 30 seconds behind the leaders, essentially ending any chance at victory.

PWCParts Rider Joe Johnson was in Qualifying Heat 1, while Justin Taylor ran in Heat 2. Johnson, aboard the #91 Yamaha GP1800 started Heat 1 in 14th place after lap one, and worked his way through the field up to 9th. The 9th place finish marked Johnson's best P1 finish to date, and provided a 19th place starting position for the Main Moto.

In Heat 2, Justin Taylor aboard the #75 SeaDoo RXP-X 300 got a great holeshot and came around in 4th place after lap 1. During the 2nd lap Taylor made some power moves to propel himself up to 2nd. With the leader in sight, Taylor gave it all he had to track him down. Over the course of the remaining 13 minutes of racing, Taylor would use talent and skill alone to close within 2 boats lengths of the leader on several occasions. However, the leaders top speed on the backstretch was more than Taylor's raw talent and skill could overcome. He finished 2nd which provided a great starting position for the Main Moto.

The Main Moto was cancelled for Saturday, due again to Marine holds on the course. With Sunday the sole remaining chance to race, the only opportunity at racing would be for 1 Moto, for all the glory. Unfortunately the marine wildlife activity did not subside, and the P1 race organizers were forced to cancel all Am 300 racing on Sunday.

The weekend wouldn't be all for naught however, as P1 organizers announced they were willing to assign points to each finisher based on their Qualifying finishing position. In a strange turn of events, the majority of racers voted NOT to receive points for their finish, and the decision was final.

The PWCParts race team leaves Miami with 0 points (as does the rest of the field) and no official record of even having raced at all. The disappointing finish leaves the PWCParts racing team looking for redemption in St Cloud.

"Its really a shame we weren't able to get some racing in this weekend." said Johnson after the race, "Everyone puts a lot of time and effort into this deal, you just hate it for all the guys back at the shop, the whole team. We tried our best to get a good starting position, wish we could have ran a few laps in race trim."

The PWCParts team will be back in action Saturday May 12th in St. Cloud Florida for round 2 of the P1 AquaX Tour.