On the first day of racing during the 2010 Offshore Powerboat Association World Championships in Orange Beach, Ala., I watched the races from the Miss GEICO Cigarette pace boat. I was there on assignment for Powerboat magazine—a good gig for sure—but the truth is I don’t remember much about the racing.
What I do recall was the guy with a distinct Maryland twang in his voice on the radio covering the action, even when there wasn’t very much of it. I’d never heard him before, so I asked the driver of the boat who he was.
“That’s Mikey,” he said. “You don’t know, Mikey? He does all the races. He’s good, isn’t he?”
He was good. Really good. Listening to Mikey—shorthand for Mike Yowaiski—was like listening to a skilled storyteller, an easygoing, approachable guy who had enough confidence in his knowledge to be authoritative without being arrogant. In fact, listening to Yowaiski call the action was better than actually watching it.
and then