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Team AMF unveiled its new sponsor Geico. |
Here's Johnny | There’s one dynamic that both groups share, John Haggin and his troop of AMFies. John spent his first two years of racing with OPA and the Jersey Boyz before starting up the Turbine Team and spending most of the summer with OSS. John seems to be the bridge between the two groups. The AMF camp is always open and welcoming, especially when something is cooking. It’s the on site clubhouse for any racer or fan in need of some fun and food.
In Destin, Haggin had the most impressive surprise of all. The AMF Team announced they had recently landed Geico Insurance Company as a major sponsor for the AMF fleet of Turbine Powered boats. We asked Haggin how he managed to land such an outstanding sponsor. “I looked at what Bernie Little did with Miss Budweiser and after watching the Geico commercial for the tenth time one evening I came up with the Miss Geico concept. We made up some Miss Geico Racing Team Jackets and marched into Geico armed to the teeth with promotional material and a PowerPoint presentation. Scotty and Mark did an incredible presentation that just floored the folks at Geico.”
Did you know someone that made the introduction or was this a cold call? “An old partner of mine works at Geico and opened the door but we sold the deal. I think they might be looking at insuring boats in the future so this is a natural fit.”
Let’s talk about the live video, what’s the long-range game plan? “I’m not here to sell anything. I’m just trying to make sure the wives, girlfriends and fans that can’t make these races can at least watch from home. Obviously it’s very expensive to produce a live event so any sponsors that we can find to help take some zeros off the bill would be great. Now that we can do the live uplink, we can go after larger corporate sponsors. The sponsors will filter money down through us. I’d like to create a slush fund to help all the race teams.”
What’s going to happen to AMF in 2007? Haggin looks away and then comes back with a big smile, “Maybe we’ll have to be like Madonna and reinvent ourselves again with the new sponsor. Right now the most important thing is to perfect this live video feed. We need TV coverage to get boat racing back on the map and I’ll do what I can to get us there.”
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Dave Villwock shares some ideas and a few secrets with John Arruda, Scott Begovich and Marc Granet. |
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Old school racers Chief Savering, John Begovich, Richard Devlin and Bob Teague proving that they Still Got It. Or maybe it’s the Viagra that helps them get it up… and flying. No one has more fun than this crew. |
OSS Cats | The final race of the week was the Extreme Cats and OSS Cat class. This is what it’s all about, unlimited horsepower, high RPM’s, big roostertails and speeds that are downright scary to watch from the cheap seats. There were four boats in Destin that fit this bill, Budweiser Select, CRC, Team Geico and Team Cintron. When these guys get the green flag, water flies.
The best part of the race is the run to turn one. Bud Select laid it down and set the pace running down the two mile front straight hitting speeds in the 170’s, in fact, their first lap average was over 130mph. These are record book speeds for a lap average in an offshore race. They ran at a blistering pace for three laps before retiring to the infield, letting CRC take the win and the Championship. Geico gave chase and Cintron retired early, of course Miss Geico raced in the Turbine Class but she still runs with the gas-powered boys.
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The winners are Nichols Offshore with Todd Werner and Billy Moore aboard Team Typhoon takes the win in OPA’s Class Five while John Haggin wins EBM’s Extreme Boater of the Year and poses with his hero, Al Copeland. |
Season Finale | Once it was all over, everyone made their way to AJ’s for the awards ceremony. We were honored to have Al Copeland and Alan Laird as the trophy presenters.
Between the award presentations, it was to Extreme Boats Magazine to name our Extreme Boater of the Year. From what we’ve seen over the last twelve months one man has clearly done more than any other to further the sport of performance. Extreme Boats Magazine named John Haggin as our Extreme Professional Boater of 2006, he’ll be tough to beat in 07 too.
The 2006 World Championships races in Destin offered racers and race fans a glimpse into the future of Offshore Racing. For the first time ever, offshore racing was delivered real time to the entire world via an incredibly sophisticated TV quality broadcast over the internet. We may have just witnessed Offshore Racing’s finest moment… so far… stay tuned, there’s more to come.
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