It's always a good sign when you hear that all the Casinos are sold out, unless of course, you are still looking for rooms!

The first race was just for the vee-hulls, with twelve boats at the start. The pace lap outlined the long and narrow track, designed to run entirely in the channel and in front of all the sponsoring waterfront casinos. The green flag flew precisely at 12:30pm.

After coming off the east end corner, with the inside position, the #7 LUCAS OIL grabbed an early lead, immediately challenged by #8 Spiderman. Jumping to the inside lane, #99 The Switch was gaining ground quickly as all the race boats headed west to the sweeping right hand turns in front of the new Beau Rivage Casino.

Holding onto third place, the #7 LUCAS OIL team with driver Nigel Hook and his new throttleman, Nick Pavlicheck, were getting used to the complex arrangement common in offshore racing, whereby one person controls the speed and the other controls the direction.

"We got a lot of test time yesterday during Happy Hour practice," remarked Captain Nigel Hook, "and it's just going to take time to develop that synergy in the cockpit under such tremendously competitive conditions." The team managed so much continuous testing on Saturday, that the Sun-Herald landed them on the front page of the Sports Section for the Sunday edition.

The battle for first place changed hands many times during the race, with four boats laying claim to the lead at varying stages, but it was the "other" red boat #8 Spiderman that was dominating until a broken propeller blade took them out of contention.

During the last few laps the real battle was for third place with the #7 LUCAS OIL holding off a repetitive challenge from the #22 National Marine. For complete results see the OSS website.

Over thirty of the top race boats in the country turned up for this event, the inaugural venue for the newly formed Offshore Super Series. For safety and simplification to the race fans, only four classes are part of this organization with each class getting it's own race. The four classes are Vee, Vee Light, Cat and Cat Light. All classes have mandatory fully enclosed safety canopies and five point restraint harnesses. (See our newly remodeled boat below.)

"This was a successful event for us," commented driver, Hook. "We were on the podium, we got great prize money thanks to the sponsorships from the five major casinos, and most of all I felt Nick and I really clicked." He went on to say, "Biloxi, has always been good to us. We won the APBA World Championships here in 1998 and by getting on the Friday 6:00pm local TV news people in town seemed to recognize us — or at least the new super bright LUCAS OIL race team livery!"

The RaceWater team wishes to thank title sponsor LUCAS OIL Products for their continued support, with the relationship now in its fourth year. LUCAS OIL is the World's leader in high performance and heavy-duty lubricants and additives.

A huge thanks also goes out to Associate Sponsor, the Alton Truck Manufacturing , maker of the finest custom trucks; and ALCOA Wheels — Hot Forged Aluminum Wheels for the truck, trailer and motorhome; GOODYEAR TIRE AND RUBBER Commercial and Consumer Divisions — truck, trailer and motorhome tires;, KODIAK trailer disc brakes — stainless steel disc brakes for the trailer; Active Technologies — patented ActiBrake electric over hydraulic trailer brake actuator; PPG — paint for the trailer and the raceboat; and hosenow.com — custom hoses and belts for the "new" boat.