With 23 teams spread across seven classes, last weekend’s Eastlake Grand Prix likely will end up as the smallest event of the 2021 Offshore Powerboat Association season. But for teams vying for the OPA Northeast Championship title, that didn’t make the first-year Ohio event any less important, especially given the recent cancellation of the Solomons Grand Prix in Maryland. The loss of the Solomons event reduced the number of races in the Northeast series from six to five.

Running uncontested to a Bracket 400-class Victory, Old School was one of 15 teams that competed in last week’s Eastlake Grand Prix.

Excessive debris in the water forced the organizers to move the course farther offshore than originally planned to the open waters of Lake Erie, which in turn forced them to cancel real-time, shore-based video coverage via Facebook live. But it also added four- to-six foot seas to the mix for all of the competitors.

Here’s a quick look at the results in the multiple boat classes:

• Stock V—1. You Gun Learn. 2. N. Myrtle Beach RV Resort. 3. Shocker.
• Bracket 500—1. May Racing. 2. Wicked. 3. Shoreline Plumbing.
• Bracket 600—1. Rum Runners. 2. Punchin Hulls. 3. Wicked.
• Bracket 700—1. The Punisher. 2 Hangin and Bangin. 3. Nauti Boys.

Running uncontested to victory was Knucklehead Racing in the V Extreme class, Batman in the Bracket 200 class and Old School in the Bracket 400 class.

Ed “Smitty” Smith, the president of the Offshore Powerboats Association, described the weekend at the new site as challenging but successful.

“A big storm during the week had debris floating down the Chagrin River to Lake Erie,” he said. “With the Great Lakes Offshore Powerboat Racing Association and the Offshore Powerboat Association staffs working together for the first time, we pulled together a perfect day of racing right on time.”

The next race in the Northeast Championship Series is the St. Clair River Classic, July 30-August 1, in St. Clair, Mich. The event also is among the six contests in the American Powerboat Association Offshore National Championship Series.

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