Powerboat P1/OPA are submitting a Request For Proposal (RFP) to Key West city officials to hold the annual race this November, reports Speedonthewater.com, the Official Media Partner For the APBA Powerboat P1/OPA Offshore Series.

The organisers have already put together a 6 round APBA Offshore Championship for 2019, Azam Rangoonwalla, the chief executive officer of Powerboat P1 told speedonthewater.com:

Key West won’t be part of the six-race series but it will be run, if we’re awarded the races, by the same P1/OPA management team.

We want to keep consistency within the sport and Key West is almost like a missing piece of the puzzle.

If you look at the RFP, securing the races requires a promoter with a lot of experience and between Powerboat P1 and OPA we definitely have it.

It was thought that Powerboat P1/OPA would get behind Larry Bleil’s Race World Offshore (RWO) bid, however, they will now apply separately to host the event for the next 5 years.

John Carbonell’s Super Boat International (SBI) organisation’s 5-year contract to run races in Key West expired after last November’s event and he has also submitted a proposal, bringing the current list of bidders to three.

Photo: Paul Kemiel