This is the longest PWC (personal watercraft) race in the world, covering a total of 300 tough miles in 30 successive laps of a ten mile course, starting off the beach at Crazy Horse and running north along the Arizona shoreline, turning towards Havasu Landing and running down the California shore nearly to Site Six, and back to Crazy Horse to complete a lap. The race features the only true Le Mans start currently in motorsports of any type. In this, the racers are lined up along the beach, holding up their safety “key” while their crew chief holds their PWC in the water with the engine off. At an undetermined time during a two minute window, a shot gun is fired and the riders run to the water, jump on their PWC, start their engine (hopefully quickly) and race off toward the north turn, a few miles up course. This start not only adds excitement (the atmosphere is so heavy with adrenalin before the starting gun that you can cut it with a knife) it also provides a level of separation for the racers adding a safety factor.
Like the Baja 1000, this is a team competition unlike any other PWC race. You need a real pit crew because like NASCAR, this is the only race where the boat is brought onto the shore and refueled during the race–multiple times. One team will walk away with the coveted Sea-Doo Team X Pit Crew award in recognition of their efforts. This is the endurance race to end all endurance races and here you will earn the ultimate bragging rights. Most competitors share the riding duties as it is terribly punishing for the five or so hours it takes for the first boat to complete the 300 miles of the race. School chums, father and son, and husband and wife teams abound.
If you like riding your PWC fast this may be the ultimate personal adventure for you! No special training or experience is required. And a factory stock PWC is the best bet for racing. Stock reliability usually trumps high horsepower custom hot rods in this race. You have to be still running 300 miles after the start to finish the race, let alone win. This is a single-day event, running on the last Saturday in February (the 25th in 2012) and is in its 8th year. It is run in honor of the late Mark Hahn of Phoenix. He was a PWC endurance racer of note who died during a race at Parker of a non-race related circumstance. It features a great awards banquet hosted by Mark’s long time friend, Mike Follmer. Just to sweeten the pot, there are great giveaways and even a cash purse for the winners to go with the biggest serving of bragging rights in “JetSki” racing world wide.
Although the event was born here in Havasu it is covered by international boating media enhancing the bragging rights even more and our field of 48 racers competing in the 2011 event included an amazing 20 percent from foreign nations. These are people who left their country on a ticket purchased just to come to Havasu to compete in this race! We had entries from France, Belgium, Indonesia, Japan, the UK, Slovakia, Australia and believe it or not Russia! How do you even get a ticket from Vladisvostok to Lake Havasu?
When the shot gun fired signaling the end of the race in 2011, the overall winner was the team of Jean Bruno Pastorello and Pierre Carlier from France. The next boat to finish was the team of Sylvain Ente and Roland Maeck of Belgium. The first US team to finish was the entry of Ross Savage and Andrew Myers of California in third place. So the crowns for the top two positions were taken home to Europe, along with the prize money generously posted by Hot Products, the title sponsor of the event for the second year with help from Days Inn, Sea Doo, Budweiser, Radio Central and more. Perhaps the US riders can regain the title in 2012.