Steven Bridges and David Selley will be keen to improve on their previous showing at the Thunder on Cocoa Beach in Cocoa Beach, Florida, this weekend.

The local professional powerboat racers were thick in the hunt for honours competing in the Super Stock class in their 32-foot twin-engined catamaran, S 25 Team Bermuda/GL Construction, before retiring due to mechanical failure at last year’s event.

“We raced here last year and was running in second until we broke a prop shaft so was not able to finish,” boat owner and throttle man Bridges told The Royal Gazette.

The pair have already encountered setbacks in the gradual build up to this weekend’s American Powerboat Association Offshore National Series event.

“We went testing earlier this week and caught an issue on one of the motors, so glad we took the time to run before the weekend,” Bridges added.

“The set up will depend on the conditions on the day and we will adjust the weight, choose props and engine heights depending on the conditions.”

Bridges and driver Selley are heading into this weekend’s race high on confidence having secured their first podium finish among the professional ranks after claiming the silver medal on their debut in last month’s 7 Mile Offshore Grand Prix in Florida with a time of 39min 02.2sec.

“Win or lose the team always strives to do their best and produce a great result,“ Bridges said.

“But it’s racing, not winning, so all we can do is our best effort and await the outcome.”

The local team achieved an impressive fourth place on their debut competing in the United States at the Baystar Clearwater Offshore Nationals in Clearwater, Florida, in September 2022 and also did the island proud with a sixth-place finish in the Race World Offshore Key West World Championships in Florida last November.

“It has always been a dream of ours to race out here in the United States, and we were able to make it happen,” Bridges added.

“We put it together pretty quickly, so it was a big learning curve for us.”