Many competitors pulled double duty in Key West, but only John Tomlinson finished the weekend with two world championships, proving why he is considered by many to the best throttleman in offshore powerboat racing, https://www.speedonthewater.com/key-west-worlds-finale-twice-as-nice/
The Shocker team was pushing hard as the laps wore down and took a flyer while trying to overtake the 30-foot Phantom, Octane. When Shocker came down and spun, the two boats collided. The Octane boat sustained significant damage, but the canopy did its job. The crew of throttleman Kevin Campbell and driver Brian Lamonica were banged up, but they ended up being OK. Phantom Boats owner Will Smith said the damage to the boat was enough that it would need to be replaced.
Shocker got back under power and finished the race, but Colson said he and Romeo may have overdone it. “We were running out of time to catch Laticrete and we took the turn hotter than we should have,” Colson said.
I talked with Simmons and Brian while they were on the way back to Ohio. Both Brian and Kevin went to the hospital. Brian was knocked out cold when the Shocker boat landed on the canopy. He was out for around 15 minutes and obviously remembers nothing of what occurred after the boats hit. Kevin was not as hurt.
After their trip to the hospital, Brian will not be allowed to drive as his concussion is significant, so Jim lined up another volunteer to assist with the drive home and Brian is along for the ride. Brian's back is also injured but not believed to be a major injury at this time.
They said when Shocker went around on the outside and spun right in front of them, there was nothing they could do it happened so fast. From the sequence of pictures that Pete got, that is pretty obvious.
What an incredible sequence of shots from Pete! :cheers2:
