In a rare move, the LSB/Hurricane of Awesomeness cockpit duo of owner/driver Brit Lilly and throttleman Kevin Smith will be going their separate ways during the Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix, which is set for Sunday, June 27. Travis Pastrana, who will be driving for the Class 1 Miss GEICO team in the Southwest Florida contest, will throttle alongside Lilly in the new 29-foot Extreme Stock V-class raceboat that Lilly built in house at Lilly Sport Boats in Arnold, Md.

Brit Lilly and his longtime friend Travis Pastrana will share the cockpit of the Stock V-class LSB/Hurricane of Awesomeness raceboat in Sarasota, Fla., later this month. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

Smith with throttle the old LSB/Hurricane of Awesomeness raceboat—now LSB/Tug It—in the Mod V class with driver Jim York, the owner of the Pit Viper team.

Fans of the LSB team need not worry—the move isn’t permanent. Lilly and Smith are going their separate ways for the Sarasota event to bolster the Stock and Mod V ranks. Both single-engine, canopied V-bottom classes have seen a dip in participation in the first two APBA series races so far this season and will run together at the famed venue.

“I think some of the low boat-counts in those classes so far had to do with COVID—positively and negatively,” said Smith, who has shared the cockpit of raceboats full-time with Lilly since 2018 and has been out just once (for Travis Pastrana Invitational in January) since. “Some team’s businesses took a hit and they couldn’t justify spending the money. Others are just too busy with their businesses.

Kevin Smith is teaming up with Jim York in LSB/Tug It, the LSB team’s former Stock V-class raceboat, in the Mod V ranks.

“There are also quite a few boats that just weren’t ready so I still think you’ll see a pretty high count in Sarasota,” he added. “There are 10 Stock V boats in the Offshore Powerboat Boats Association in Point Pleasant Beach (N.J.) this weekend, and that’s awesome.”

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