Fountain Worldwide™ Comes Stateside In Search of Competition
Key West, FL – November 13th, 2007

Team Fountain Worldwide, still celebrating their recent crowning of the P-1 World Title, converged on Key West for the unified APBA/ SBI/ U.I.M  World Championships. Despite having less horsepower than all other boats in the class, the decision was made to run in the prestigious “Super V Unlimited” class against the biggest and fastest super V’s in the world.  The premier team in this class was the almighty “Cat Killer” a 46’ Fountain with 3100 horsepower.

Team Fountain Worldwide was the underdog of this class, sporting only (2) 625 horsepower engines. These were the very same Ilmor V-10 625 hp engines that pushed the team to nine first place finishes out of a possible thirteen in Europe this year. Everything on the boat was exactly how it left Portugal (the last race of their World Championship season) with the only exception being that the boat was now 1000lbs lighter.  (Needed to comply with P-1 specs)

At the beginning of race one the Super V Unlimited fleet lined up alongside the pace boat, a fleet which included two Fountains with over 2000 hp, one Skater with 2400 hp, a Phantom with 1900 hp and the infamous “Cat Killer” Fountain. These boats, flanking the Team Fountain Worldwide boat, had seemingly dismissed whatever challenge might come from the less powerful boat. Time would soon tell and as the green flag dropped Team Fountain Worldwide showed the world that the Ilmor / Twin Disc -Arneson Surface Drive / Fountain package would make believers out of those whom doubted their chances.  An amazingly strong race and second place finish would ensue for Team Fountain Worldwide. 

Disbelief was on all the fellow competitors’ faces and sheer excitement on that of the spectators as the sound of the Ilmor V-10’s was still echoing around the race course. The hype was not about how fast Cat killer was, or how outrageous the Bud Select boat was, it was “did you see Team Fountain Worldwide?”, “did you see how great it ran with only twin 625 horsepower engines?”

Even Throttleman Craig Wilson was a little surprised about the hype:”Wow!!… The boat ran so good today. We really had no idea how we would compare to some of these bigger powered boats. Straight line speed means nothing here in Key West as you have to get around three of the most difficult turns in powerboat racing, and do it as fast as possible. We proved once again, that the Ilmor / Twin Disc -Arneson Surface Drive / Fountain package is truly the way to go!”

Friday’s race would prove to be a carbon copy of the first race with Team Fountain Worldwide taking the checkered flag in second place. Only this time the crowd was ready and had their eyes glued on the Fountain Worldwide sponsored boat. With average lap times nearing triple digits, even Reggie Fountain was gleaming with excitement as he personally congratulated the team on their amazing achievement. “Reggie radioed through to us through the onboard intercom and was yelling with excitement about how good the boat looked.” Commented Craig Wilson. “It makes all the teams efforts worthwhile when someone of Reggie’s stature gets excited like he was.”

The third and final race would prove a little harder for Team Fountain Worldwide as the other boats where determined not to be outdone by them. Team Instigator, with its two 850 Hp Mercury engines, was pushing hard from the green flag and, although they were behind Team Fountain Worldwide, it was by the smallest of margins. “I radioed through to Craig and James and told them they had to pick up the pace as Instigator was pushing hard,” commented Mark Wilson, Crew Chief and Team Owner. “The reply they gave me was, “they should be with all that horsepower.””, continued Wilson.

Pushing the boat to its limits, Craig and James were driving a flawless race, and with this the advantage over Instigator was growing resulting in a comfortable 20 second lead. Now the goal was to keep Cat Killer in sight, with the small chance that should any mechanical problems occur, Team Fountain Worldwide might have the opportunity to pull off the win of the century.

Unfortunately, Cat Killer never missed a beat and crossed the finish line in first place for the third consecutive time, but all the hype, once again, would be about the “little boat that never quit”. Team Fountain Worldwide took second for the third straight time, which gave them second overall in the Super V unlimited class.

This is a year to remember for Team Fountain Worldwide what with taking the Powerboat P1 World Title and using the same boat across the Atlantic Ocean to race in a class where everybody said it didn’t belong.  After all was said and done Team Fountain Worldwide has logged over 1600 racing and testing miles throughout the season on one set of engines, drives and gearboxes. This was all accomplished in 6 different countries on two continents. “There is no other team that can boast about similar accomplishments to what we had this season,” commented Mark Wilson. “The Arneson Surface Drives are the way to go, and the Ilmor engine matches them perfectly with hardly any maintenance all year long.  We changed oil once on both engines and drives all season. That’s unheard of!”

Team Fountain Worldwide is already planning for the following season overseas with Powerboat P1. Plans for a multiple boat team are in the works, with intentions of taking the three podium places in both the Evolution and Supersport class.