For Scott Begovich and Marc Granet, the men inside Miss GEICO's cockpit, renowned crew chief Gary Stray (of former UIM Class 1 Victory team glory), and the rest of the team, their boat is the ride of a lifetime.

GEICOPROMO-01

With new power in their cat, this could be most important season ever for the Miss GEICO offshore racing team.



But it hasn’t always been a smooth one. Three years ago, the team lost its primary financial backer. Last year, its turbine-powered raceboat burned to the waterline. This year, the team is running promising but unproven new Mercury Racing 1650 piston engine power.

The 2013 season could be most pivotal in the team’s eight-year history. And even with an unknown quantity beneath the 44-foot cat’s engine hatches, the Miss GEICO crew has set a high bar.

“Our goal is to win a world championship this season,” says Begovich.

Read the rest of the story in the July/August issue of Speed On The Water.

All photos by Jay Nichols/Naples Image

Written by: Matt Trulio
Matt Trulio is the co-publisher and editor in chief of speedonthewater.com, a daily news site with a weekly newsletter and a new bi-monthly digital magazine that covers the high-performance powerboating world. The former editor-in-chief of Sportboat magazine and editor at large of Powerboat magazine, Trulio has covered the go-fast powerboat world since 1995. Since joining boats.com in 2000, he has written more than 200 features and blogs.