In the early morning hours of August 31, Bill Pyburn, who throttles the XINSURANCE South boat in Pro Class 1 and the Dirty Money boat in Super Cat class, arrived at the Corinthian Yacht Club to take the pre-race physicals for the second day of racing at the Race World Offshore Chicago National Grand Prix. His voice was a little raspy and he seemed a little subdued.

At the RWO Chicago National Grand Prix, the XINSURANCE South and Dirty Money teams continued to dominate the Pro Class 1 and Super Cat categories. Photos by Timeless Aerial Photography copyright Race World Offshore.

That was understandable. The day before, he had raced twice at more than 110 mph for six laps on the 4.9-mile course in Lake Michigan and then hopped in a helicopter to fly to South Carolina to watch his son Jack and the LSU Tigers beat Clemson in one of the featured games of the first big weekend of the college football season. Bill Pyburn then got back in the helicopter to fly back to Chicago to race Sunday afternoon.

In the weekends finale, he and Brit Lilly had to run 12 laps and when the green flag waved, Pyburn slammed the throttles forward, bringing his boat’s twin Mercury Racing 1,100-hp engines screaming to life. Running in second place were Pyburn’s and Lilly’s teammates, throttleman Nick Buis and driver J.J. Turk in the 48-foot MTI, XINSURANCE North. The new generation 48-foot MTI, GC Racing/MTI, with owner/driver Willie Cabeza and throttleman Grant Bruggemann ran third and owner/throttleman Tyler Miller and driver Myrick Coil in the 43-foot Skater, Monster Energy M CON, ran fourth.

By the fourth lap, the two XINSURANCE boats had pulled out to a commanding lead over the third and fourth place boats. In an important move for the national points battle, Monster Energy M CON got around GC Racing/MTI.

With XINSURANCE South running an average speed in 113 to 115 mph range per lap, Pyburn and Lilly held the point position until they earned their fourth straight checkered flag this year. Turk and Buis had their best finish in Pro Class 1 claiming second followed by Monster Energy M CON and GC Racing.

“That’s five for five for the Pyburn family this weekend,” Bill Pyburn said after the race. When asked why he wasn’t in the team trailer taking a nap after his crazy weekend, he said, “I will but when I go down, it’s going to be for a while.”

A Major Endeavour

A total of 21 teams made the trip to the Windy City for Labor Day weekend. Within that number were four Pro Class 1 boats and five Super Cats, which promised good racing in those categories for two days. RWO president Larry Bleil explained the uphill battle he and his team faced to pull off having a race in a large city on a long holiday weekend.

“It wasn’t until last Friday before we got the final approval to put on this race,” he told the teams at the awards ceremony. “We worked for four months calling the city officials every week.”

The Super Cat fleet had a solid showing in Chicago.

He continued, explaining that the support and endorsement the Coast Guard gave RWO helped get the Chicago race approved. “We put on a race in an environmental sanctuary in key West every year,” Bleil said. “We know how to get it done.”

Racing started on Saturday with qualifying for the Pro Class 1 teams at the Race World Offshore Chicago National Grand Prix. Before getting set to launch the XINSURANCE South boat, the crew gave the rudder on the 47-foot Victory a good yank. Imagine their shock when it almost came off in their hands.

Needless to say that Pyburn and Lilly would have to miss the chance to compete for the pole position as crew chief Bobby Adams and his team of mechanics set to work replacing broken rudder post bolts.

That left the other three boats in the class to vie for the coveted inside lane for Saturday afternoon’s race. When the spray settled, XINSURANCE team owner Rick Lindsey was still smiling because XINSURANCE North toured the 4.9-mile course in 2:52:23, claiming the inside lane. Miller and Coil in Monster Energy M CON ran 2:53:62 to take lane two and Cabeza and Bruggemann clocked in at 3:00:58 in MTI, GC Racing/MTI.

Stiff Competition
While the crew worked on the Pro Class 1 boat, Lilly and Pyburn strapped into the cockpit of Beau and Tiffiney’s 38-foot Skater, Dirty Money, for the first race of the afternoon on Saturday, taking on four other boats in the Super Cat class.

Lanes were determined by a playing card draw earlier in the day and the 36-foot Skater, EWB Racing, with driver Ron Gibbs and throttleman Kelly Krais had the pole. The 39-foot Outerlimits, Rollin’ Transport, with owner/throttleman Vinnie Diorio and driver Sean Conner was in lane two with Dirty Money in the third slot. Owner/driver Rob Unnerstall and throttleman Casey Boaz were in lane three in the 38-foot Skater, CR Racing, and owner/driver Chris Grant and throttleman Jay Muller were in lane five in the 38-foot Skater, CJ Grant/Graydel.

The Super Cat Graydel earned a strong second-place finish.

The scoring for Super Cat and Pro Class 1 was set up so that the teams would run six laps on Saturday. Super Cat would then run seven on Sunday while Pro Class 1 would run 12 and the combined results would determine the winner.

When the green flag on Chuck Buis’ 38-foot Cigarette Top Gun pace boat went up, Dirty Money flew to the front with CR Racing giving chase. Fighting the uphill battle of lane five, Graydel ran third with Rollin’ Transport fourth and EWB fifth.

While Dirty Money held the point, Graydel got around CR Racing for second. The positions were unchanged for the balance of the six laps, giving Pyburn and Lilly their first win of the weekend.

On Sunday, RWO officials pulled out the playing cards again and Lilly had the lucky hand, drawing lane 1, while Diorio pulled lane two, Muller got lane three and Unnerstall wound up in lane 4.

Not surprisingly, Pyburn and Lilly took advantage of the pole position and pulled out to a lead they would not surrender for the seven-lap finale for the class. Graydel ran second for the few half of the race, but the escape hatch in the deck of their boat unexpectedly opened, showering Grant, Muller and the cockpit with spray. The engine screens blanked out and despite the team’s best efforts to continue, Rollin’ Transport and CR Racing got around them. When the checkers flew, Rollin’ Transport had one of the boat’s best runs in recent memory, taking second and CR finished third with Graydel in fourth.

Though they haven’t spent a lot time in the cockpit together, the Rollin Transports team of Vinnie Diorio and Sean Conner feel they get strong every time they do.

That resulted in the second, third and fourth place boats all tying for points. The tiebreaker came down to distance covered, speed and number of boats beaten. In the final tally, Dirty Money took first followed by Graydel, CR Racing and Rollin’ Transport. EWB didn’t run on Sunday because of an engine failure. One Factory Stock class boat ran with the Super Cats on Sunday. Bruggemann and Cabeza ran their 39-foot MTI, GC Racing.

For national points scoring, the rules let a team drop one race, so Grant said his team will most likely drop its Chicago result. The always optimistic Canadian driver said, “When the hatch opened it really sucked. As the race would have gone on, we would have gotten lighter and faster.”

Will Cabeza and Grant Bruggemann had MTI catamarans in tow classes last weekend.

Diorio and new driver Conner used the Saturday race to get used to each other and figure out faster ways around the course. “I found more speed with the way I was trimming,” he said. “We found a better line through the corners.”

Unnerstall was happy with his team’s progress Chicago was the first weekend that the boat had completed all the required laps. “We started all the way outside and Vinnie had a good run today,” he said. “I’m happy we finished.”

Stay Away From the Fans
To give the XINSURANCE South team more time to complete the rudder repairs, RWO officials re-arranged the Saturday races and the bracket classes ran in the second competition of the day. J.J. Turk and Nick Buis ran unopposed in Mod-V in the 29-foot Extreme, XINSURANCE/Statement, while their sons, Cameron Turk and Owen Buis did the same in Cat 300 in the 24-foot Wicked, TFR/XINSURANCE. Mike and Joey Dacey were the only entrants in Bracket 500 in their 29-foot Warlock, Pump It, and Keith and Cade Herbott in the 38-foot Fountain, Herbott Racing, ran solo in Bracket 200.

That left four boats to battle in Bracket 400 and three in Bracket 700. While it appeared that Rob Hartmann and John Iezzatti in the 30-foot Phantom, XINSURANCE Hartmann, ran to a commanding win in the class, the team was disqualified for running on plane through the spectator fleet. That moved the 34-foot Phantom, Simmons Marine, with throttleman Jason Zolecki and driver Jake Coons, to first place. They were followed by driver Kyle Dietzen and throttleman Chris McElwe in the 32-foot Speedster, Burning Man Offshore, and driver Jimmy Wessel and throttleman Bruce Dudley in the 30-foot Phantom, Miss Stress, in third.

In Bracket 700, it appeared that driver Brad Christopher and throttleman Connor Langheim in the 22-foot Velocity, Dirt Legal/Velocity, won on the course, but the GPS cards the teams have to turn in at the end of the race said otherwise. The 22-foot Progression, RedRum, with Derek Dawson and Robert Barneschi took the win, followed by the 22-foot Activator, Blind River Bar, with driver Dustin Clouatre and throttleman Brady Martine. Dirt Legal/Velocity was credited with third.

The Sunday Finale
With their rudder repaired, on Saturday, Lilly and Pyburn took top honors in the six-lap Pro Class 1 sprint followed by GC Racing/MTI, Monster Energy/M CON and XINSURANCE North, which had to pull off the course with a broken transmission.

For the weekend’s final race on Sunday afternoon, the four Pro Class 1 teams returned to the course with lanes determined by Saturday’s finishing order. XINSURANCE South had the inside slot with GC Racing/MTI in lane two, Monster Energy/M CON in lane three and XINSURANCE North in the outermost lane. Crew chief Gene Greber and the XINSURANCE North crew put in extra work having to replace both of the boat’s Velvet Drive transmissions.

The XINSURANCE South team had a strong outing in the Pro Class 1 contest.

The Pro Class 1 starts have been a bit of a conundrum this year because the category is the only one using two green buoys on the course and the green flag on the pace boat. Some teams thought they were supposed to accelerate when the green flag went up. Others were under the impression that they couldn’t go until they reached the green buoys.

XINSURANCE South appeared to jump out to an insurmountable lead from the start with XINSURANCE North showing its best pace of the year, running a strong second. GC Racing/MTI was running third, but MTI founder Randy Scism explained that the team hurt the props it wanted to use on Sunday in Saturday’s race and didn’t have the right sized wheels for Sunday. After starting fourth, Monster Energy M CON got around GC Racing/MTI on the sixth lap of 12, and steadily pulled away for an important third place finish.

When the spray settled, XINSURANCE South continued its winning ways followed by XINSURANCE North, GC Racing/MTI and Monster Energy.

An obviously tired Pyburn gave all the credit to his team. “From the truck driver to the mechanic, it’s a really good team,” he said. “Brit and I have the privilege of strapping in and trying to break it.”

Miller said his team set up the boat the way he and Coil wanted and as he always does, Miller credited his driver with running an excellent race. “It was just the start that was bad,” said Miller, who explained that he started at the green buoys because that’s what he heard he was supposed to do in the driver’s meeting.

For the first time in his 11-year career, Miller is protesting the result because of the start and the results are unofficial as of the morning of September 1.

Because the second, third and fourth place finishes were mixed between Saturday and Sunday, they all tied for points, which race director Rodrick Cox called “amazing and fantastic.” In the unofficial tally, GC Racing/MTI wound up second, followed by Monster Energy/M CON and XINSURANCE North.

For Turk, the learning curve of the last three years has been steep with him stepping out of an open-cockpit Bracket 500 boat to the 29-foot Extreme to the 48-foot MTI.”I had never driven a cat in my life,” said Turk. “That turned out to be a good thing because I didn’t have any bad habits that Nick and the crew had to teach out of me. The boat tells me what it wants. I’m not telling it what I want.”