The 2nd Stop of the IJSBA-UWP National Tour is in the Books!

Another one bites the dust for the Hydro-Tour UWP-IJSBA National Tour! The second round of the Hydro-Turf UWP-IJSBA Watercross National Tour in Panama City, Florida is now passed and the Jettribe Crew and Riders are getting ready for the next race in Racine, Wisconsin.

It was a beautiful site down at Panama City Beach! The weather and surf were great and the racers were anxious to get on the line! As so many people put it, “it's one of the best stops of the tour” AJ Handler, who has and will be putting the rest of the UWP-ISJBA National Tour races together, really did a great job in Panama City for it could not have been better. Thanks to AJ, the Jettribe crew did not have to make the long trek across the sand with bins of gear and heavy EZ-Ups to set up for the race. He loaned Jettribe his ATV to move the gear and it was very much appreciated! The Jettribe crew consisted of Jess Ybarra from Southern California, Derek Correll from South Carolina, and Jeremy Schandelmayer from Florida. But they were not the only ones to travel for the race.

Derek Correll and Jeremy Schandelmayer

The Sponsors of the 2nd Tour Stop in Panama City Beach, Florida

Jettribe was lucky enough to have 7 riders race at Panama City Beach. Our Team Riders from all around Florida are Brent Venderley, Erminio Iantosca, and Eric Lagopoulos. Rick Sherker is from Pennsylvania and Brock Austin is from ****

In addition, this year we're lucky enough to have two racers traveling from different countries to race here in the United States. Factory Rider Aero Aswar flew “28 hours including domestic flights” from Indonesia to race and Team Rider James Bushell flew 12 hours all the way from the United Kingdom to race.

Team Rider Brent Venderley finished 5th on Saturday and with an unexpected jet ski problem on Sunday still managed to finish “motos two and three in “salvage points””. Brent says “Thanks to Kevin Kennedy (who let me borrow his boat), Mike from Optima Racing (who called my two minute hold), and a whole crew of people that helped me get in the water at the last moment.” Trisha (Brent's girlfriends) explained that right before the race people really pulled through to help try to get his boat fixed. “They were under the hood wrenching and tweaking parts trying to get it fixed.” It's great to hear and see that people and fellow riders were so willing to help out a fellow rider.

Team Rider James Bushell has faced a lot so far this season; with the new weight rules that disqualified him from taking 1st place in Lake Charles, Louisiana he "decided to ride a Stock RXP-X" instead of his See-Doo Centre-built RXP-X at Panama City Beach and won 5th overall in Pro Runabout Open.

Team Rider Rick Sherker, one our longest team riders drove from Pennsylvania to be at the race, one of our Pro-Stand up racers finished 3rd in Pro-am Stock Ski and 3rd in Pro Ski GP.

 

Factory Rider Aero Aswar broke down in Round 1, “but he managed to [take] control of his rented ski built by Troy Snyder's Team. The ski wasn't the missile type of ski but it was perfect for the surf. Moto 1, he started fifth from the gate and made it through the second behind the leader Alfadel from Kuwait. It was quite an epic battle after all. Both of them were leaving the third placer and the rest behind by roughly around 20 seconds. Aero, with only 10 minutes of riding time on that did a great job pulling second place in moto 1 but it was the next day that he had problems. Moto 3, was the last moto of the event. “Getting some problems in moto 2 so I decided to do it all here in moto 3” Aero Aswar started pretty bad he was second to last when he left the gate and he tried to get a way through every rider one by one until he faced his Jettribe team mate Erminio Iantosca sitting in third place. Aero wasn't able to catch him and he ended up finishing at 4th Place and 5th in the current national tour standings.

Team Rider Eric Lagopoulos finished 5th in Pro-Stock after finding out in the second moto that he had a fouled spark plug.

Team Rider Erminio Iantosca had a “mechanical issue in the first moto which left him riding a stock ski for the rest of the weekend. Moto 2 came from a third place start to pass to the front and never look back with a moto 2 win. Then in the final moto of the day he managed to finish a respectful 3rd which helped him get on the podium taking third overall for the weekend even with him breaking down in the first moto!”

Sponsored Rider Brock Austin took “5th in Pro Ski Stock on an old school Polaris octane”. He had “problems with his GP Ski [and] had to race the Octane in Pro GP”

It seems that no matter the surf or weather, these racers put in the effort and still manage to have a great time. Jettribe is proud to have some of the best racers around and lucky enough that these riders choose to wear the Jettribe gear. It's a great way to start the season so far and we look forward to seeing you in Racine, WI!

Spoiler alert: We're having a Jettribe Memorial Day Weekend Sale Sunday May 26th- through Thursday May 30th! So keep your iPhones and Smart phones on and your fingers ready to go online or call in an order and get your discount. Promo Codes: 10MEM13, 20MEM13, 5MEM13