Tavares Press Release

America’s Sea Doo City

The 9th and 10th rounds of the Sea Doo Pro Hydro-X Tour presented by RIVA Racing and Hydroturf were held on June 25th and 26th at Wooton Park in Tavares, Florida.  Tavares, also known as “America’s Sea Plane City” became “America’s Sea Doo and Sea Plane City” on this particular weekend according to Bill Neron, who works with  the city tourism commission.  “It’s always nice to have the Jet Skiers come back to town”, said Neron, who received a special award from Tour Promoter, Mike Young.
                This was the fourth year that the races have stopped in Tavares and it has become a “racers favorite”, as the town rolls out the proverbial red carpet.  Although racing was cut short on Saturday due to rough weather, racers seemed to have a great time with the new track design by Course Marshall, Randy Scott.  The course featured a right handed start with a complete loop and then it turned into a left-handed track with a split, in which there was a lot of passing during the weekend.  It also featured a penalty buoy so that racers would not have to turn into traffic if they missed one.  The weather on Sunday was perfect and the racers were granted a lot of laps in order to train them for the IJSBA World Finals.
                On to racing…The Pro Runabout Open Class was won both days by Team Jettribe racer, Jeremy Shandelmayer of Delray Beach, Florida, who’s Sea Doo boasted nearly 500 HP, according to his mechanic and friend Louis Milone.  Dave’s Autobody/Kawasaki racer, Eric Francis bested the field in the Pro Runabout Stock Class, and Presley Minimi took the Pro Ski Stock honors.  In the Amateur Divisions, Mountain Motorsports racer, Michael Bellamy and Team Mean racer, Susan Anderson enjoyed success, but for the first time in the history of the sport we had three family members take first place in different classes!  Not only is that cool, but they are all LADIES! Christine, Laura, and Jessica Milone became the first Mother-Daughter trio to take the checkered all in the same day…I don’t know how Louis Milone finds time to go to work for the Champion Porsche Team with the wrenching he must be doing for his fast female posse!
Finally, the Freestyle Competition on the Sea Doo Pro Hydro-X Tour has been outstanding this season, so good, that there are now three Divisions…Junior, Amateur and Pro.  Beginning with the Junior Class, 11 year old Jessica “j-Fish” Milone won the Junior Division on both days on her newly painted pink Yamaha Super Jet.  The Amateur Division was a split with Chris “And a Jet Ski” Anyzeski and Michael Petro trading wins and in the Pro Class the competition was thick with two former USA National Champions, Jason Stoyer and Michael Ratti,  with a new  rising star, Lucas Vasconcelos going head to head for two minutes of being flippin’ crazy!!  Saturday’s extended competition was won by Stoyer by just .2 points, but Sunday it was Vasconcelos who would have the upper hand as Ratti filled the podium on both days.
The event was sponsored locally by Lake County, The City of Tavares and the Best Western.  Our national sponsors include BRP/Sea Doo, Hydroturf, RIVA Racing, Blowsion, Thrust Innovations, Rick Roy Products, Ronnymac.com, Jettribe, and Exotic Signs.  The final race on the tour will be held in Acworth, Georgia, on Labor Day Weekend, however, the next scheduled show will be at Dauphin Island, Alabama, on July 14th featuring Freestyle and an Extreme Ski Show!  Hope to see you there!   Mike Young