While the news that Brian Forehand was planning to race his Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats SV 29 canopied V-bottom came out as few months back, Forehand wasn’t ready to announce what his first race would be or who would be driving the boat with him.

The Marker 17 Marine Outerlimits raceboat owned by Brian Forehand recently received a fresh paintjob courtesy of Stephen Miles Design.

That’s not the case any longer as Forehand, who owns Marker 17 Marine in Wilmington, N.C., is going to be joined by teammate Vinnie Diorio of Wisconsin in this weekend’s Race World Offshore Great Lakes Grand Prix in Dunkirk, N.Y. The newly formed teammates are going to be competing in the ProStock Vee class against Team Octane, the only other entry in Sunday’s race, which is going to be live streamed on the Race World Offshore website.

“I’ve had a couple of days in the boat setting it up since it returned from being painted by Stephen Miles Design,” said Forehand, whose last race in the SV 29 was the world championship he and Michael “Doc” Janssen—the previous owner of the boat—won in the Super Boat International Superboat Vee class in Key West, Fla., in 2016. “We’re planning to use this weekend as a test race for the boat before we take it to the SBI races in Clearwater, Fla., and Key West.”

Diorio, who owns a well-known Outerlimits SV 43 V-bottom powered by twin Mercury Racing 1350 engines that he takes to poker runs across the country, said he’s wanted to race for a long time.

“I talked to Brian about racing a couple of years ago when he bought Doc’s boat,” said Diorio, who also had discussions with the late Joe Sgro about maybe racing a boat with him one day. “Fortunately Brian called me several months ago and said ‘Hey midget, you want to race?’ And the rest is history.”

Diorio said he was excited to get some seat time in the boat with Forehand in the Marker 17 Marine boat this weekend. He was also excited to have their familes, including their infant sons (pictured at right, click to enlarge), spend some time together.

“I’ve driven boats with Brian before so we have a good feel for each other, but it’ll be different on the racecourse I’m sure,” said Diorio, who owns Rollin Transport, one of the team’s sponsors. “I can’t wait for Clearwater and Key West. I couldn’t ask for a better teammate. Between him and Mike Fiore—those two are the king of V-bottoms.”

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