Heading down to Solomons for the Solomons Offshore Grand Prix October 2-4? Four local boats will be competing in the Super Vee Lite class: Tug It and LSB from Baltimore, Steady Pumpin’ from Arnold, MD, and Punisher from Huntingtown, MD. We reached out to their drivers and owners to see what’s new with their boats this year. Father and son team Sean and Charlie McCarthy will be at the throttles and helm of Punisher. Photo courtesy of MMC Racing Scott Glockner of Tug It Racing writes: “This will be our third year racing in Solomons, and we’ve won the past two. Over the off-season, throttleman Kevin Smith had Brit Lilly of Lilly Sport Boats do some major work on Tug It. Not only did Brit and the rest of LSB strip and repaint the boat, they also re-did the entire cockpit, removing the original seat pods, seats, dash, and center console. They installed new, state of the art shock seats (to help protect the racers from the effects of rough water, and to keep them in a safer position while in the boat), re-configured the dash, and re-rigged the entire cockpit. Brit had over 400 hours of time working on the boat this off-season, and the amazing paint job shows it. “Over the past year and a half, Team Tug It has teamed up with Team LSB on and off the race courses to form one team: The Hurricane of Awesomeness! Lilly Sport Boats has done all the work on Tug It to prepare it for each race, and LSB’s crew chief, Dan Hensley, has the difficult task of making sure that both Tug It and LSB are ready for racing at each site. We cannot thank Brit Lilly, Amanda Majstorovic, Art Lilly, Renee Lilly, Dan Hensley, and the rest of the crew of Lilly Sport Boats for all their help and support over the past year." Look for Tug It's new paint job, seen earlier this year in St. Clair, MI. Charlie McCarthy of MMC Racing writes: “We broke out on the scene last year with a Class 5 boat Dirty Sutphen, but quickly realized we wanted to move up to the SVL class. We acquired a 2014 30-foot Phantum hull and spent the whole winter and spring custom fabricating, setting up, and rigging Punisher. We’re a father/son team with Sean “Pop” McCarthy on throttles and “Chopper Charlie” McCarthy driving. With only two test runs, Team MMC headed to our first race in St. Clair, MI, and Punisher placed second out of seven. We were ecstatic.” Jimmy Jernigan onboard Steady Pumpin’ is somewhat new to the SVL scene, but both he and his boat have been around long enough to know how to get things done. 2013 was their first year racing, and they came in a respectable fourth place. This year, some major upgrades are going to make a difference in the 1997-year boat. Jimmy says, “We upgraded all the electronics, and finally got a new motor: a Mercury Racing Shield 525. We’ve upgraded to two different props, and did some bottom modifications over the winter, lightening the boat up a few hundred pounds. We just cut things out that didn’t need to be there in order to be more in line with the weight restrictions. And finally, we got it wrapped with a new paint job through Donny Fox and the crew at Lilly Sport Boats.” For more on the boys and their boats, click solomonsrace.com.