PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania – 4th of July, 2008 – Shaun Torrente earned the pole and never trailed by surviving a final two lap shootout and winning the 27th Three Rivers Regatta in front of tens of thousands of fans along the Alleghany River in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The driver from Miami, Florida earned pole position after finishing 3rd and 1st in his two heat races and led from the drop of the flag around the 4-pin 1.25 mile (2 kilometer) course on the rough and wide historic race course that has seen F1-ChampBoat racing since its inception in 1982. Torrente, held the inside of the first lap forcing two time Pittsburgh winner Tim Seebold of the Bud light Seebold Racing Team  to the outside and in chase mode for the rest of the afternoon getting close at the end finishing just 1.2 seconds behind Torrente at the end of the night.

Torrente had build up an 8 second margin when two laps from the end both Lynn Simburger and Billy Joule came to a stop coming out of both turn one and turn two on the west end of the race course on the 48th tour. Shaun and the rest of the race field was forced to go back to the start dock for a final two lap “dash for cash” to determine the winner of the Grand Prix.

Shaun got the start just right holding off Tim and past winner Terry Rinker of the Amsoil/Rinker Racing for the final 2.5 miles to take his 3rd straight victory of the season and his 4th of his 4 year career. “We had an excellent setup but it was a wild ride the final 10 laps as the boat got light and with the big waves and many holes on this really challenging course,” said Shaun. “We now want to keep the pressure on the rest of the field and hope we can keep our luck alive one more racing going to St. Louis.”

Terry Rinker’s 3rd place has him now 90 back of series leader Torrente who leads the drivers championship with 1711 points. Elsah, Illinois driver Simburger has fallen to 3rd in the championship with 1574 after failing to finish the race and taking 7th in the event before he heads to his home race in St. Louis.

Jeff Shepherd driving his Shepherd Construction Pugh designed boat finished a fine 4th place one lap off the top 3 pace and sits fourth in the championship with 1518 points. Fifth was Brian Venton’s best race of the season pushing strongly from his 8th starting position in his Clearview Federal Credit Union sponsored Gran Prix boat.
Randy Rinker was 6th in his Amsoil sponsored boat while Billy Joule failed to finish and was 7th in his B&B/Joule Marine Transport sponsored Seebold hull coming back from retirement after four years out of the sport.
Thailand’s Nithat Kunjeng was trying to get comfortable in his new Blaze boat built in Milan, Itlay coming home 9th in his Singha Beer/Thailand Tourism sponsored boat. Rookie Mark Johnson failed to finish as did Matt Sadl of Pacific, Missouri took the final position failing to get to the end of the event.

So, the F1-ChampBoat Series heads off to another historic race event for the Bud Light St. Louis Grand Prix for the weekend of August 2nd and 3rd at Creve Coure Lake. Can native son Tim Seebold get back in the winners circle at his home race, or will Floridian continue his winning streak and win for the 4th straight time. These are just two of the many questions that will be placed when the series heads west in the month of August.

Pittsburgh Tribune Review Article