FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 20, 2005
Contact: Nelson Holmberg (nelson@noslencommunication.com) (360) 521-1590

Superior Racing Team History

Superior Racing Team is just as much a part of hydroplane history as any other team is, and it is all because of Dr. Ken Muscatel, who began the team more than a decade ago, and has kept it going through it all.

The U-25 hull the team is currently running is the fourth different boat run by the team since it's beginnings in 1993. That year, Muscatel joined forces with Mike Jones and Tom Moore to form the team. The trio bought a former Winston Eagle hull from Steve Woomer, which Jones and Muscatel co-drove as the U-55. The next season, Muscatel bought out his partners and changed his boat number to U-14 and moved on alone.

In 1996, Muscatel bought a newer, faster hull - the former T-Plus - and stayed with the team through the 1998 season, which was the team's most successful year. That racing schedule produced three fourth places and a second place finish, keeping in the national championship race all season long.

While still running the U-14, Muscatel and Rick Campbell together formed Northwest Unlimited Motorsports in 1997. Over the next two and a half years, they built a brand new turbine powered unlimited hydroplane. Borrowing heavily from the very successful Fred Leland-designed hulls, Campbell and crew added many modifications, including widening the running surface of both sponsons, and designing a new, larger reinforced cockpit to adapt with the F-16 canopy.

Midway through the 1999 Hydros Tour, the U-14 made its first appearance, and despite "newboatitis", the team made a successful run through the rest of the season, making three finals. Muscatel was sixth in the APBA Gold Cup and at the General Motors Cup in Seattle.

It was with the same hull that Superior Racing Team made its now-famous June 2000 record run of 205.494 miles per hour on a statute mile, setting the APBA-sanctioned world record for a mile straightaway. That record still stands today.

Before the 2001 season Muscatel again bought a different boat, picking up the 1997 Truck Gear hydroplane from the Woomer estate. After the ups and downs of learning a new boat, the team worked all winter to add more under the hull by widening the boat, installing a new and bigger front canard and taking out nearly 500 pounds in the hull.

After all that work, the team enjoyed the fruits of its labor with some success early in the 2002 season. Unfortunately, an accident near the end of the final in Tri-Cities put a quick end to the season for the U-25. Muscatel borrowed hulls from Fred Leland and Kim Gregory to finish the season, honoring his sponsorship commitments, but there was lots of work to do to the real U-25.

After the season-ending accident in the Tri-Cities, the team rebuilt the boat, changing the rear end of the boat significantly. The changes seemed to improve the boat's performance the following season, as it moved up two spots in the 2003 standings.

Once again, the team has had to rebuild the boat after it flipped again in San Diego during the final race of the 2003 season.

The 2004 season brought tumult across the series, not just within one team or another. The series' governing body fell apart and the result was the need to step back and reorganize during the offseason. That didn't take long.

Behind the leadership of Muscatel, Sam Cole, the race sites, and many others, the American Boat Racing Association (ABRA) was born and became the new sanctioning body of the unlimited hydroplane racing series. A new TV deal with the Outdoor Life Network was struck, and the teams rallied together to guarantee each of the race sites would have a minimum of eight boats at each site in 2005.

Superior Racing Team struggled with gear box troubles, shaft problems and other gremlins that sometimes sneak up on racing teams, but despite that, the boat did run well at times, too. Some famous pictures are out there of Dr. Ken leading the powerful Oberto team in one heat at Tri-Cities, and the 2005 favorite Llumar team in another heat at Seattle. Ken was up front in preliminary heats several times during the 2004 season, proof that the team has loads of potential for the upcoming season.

During the winter of 2004-05, Muscatel hired Jay Leckrone of his crew to spend his time working on the boat, addressing many of the issues that the team dealt with the previous season. Leckrone handled it dutifully.

The boat not only got a new red, yellow and black, paint job, but Leckrone moved the engine back nearly three feet, giving the boat a better center of gravity. He also helped engineer a new lightweight cowl, realigned the shaft and gear box, rebuilt gearboxes and engines, moved the strut back, and much more, getting the boat ready for an even better year.

There's excitement about the inaugural season of the ABRA, and Superior Racing Team plans to be a big part of it all.

— U-25 —

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