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Newly christened the King of the Desert at Havasu’s Desert Storm, JBS Racing also heats things up at the Thunder event in Louisville, KY. Photos by Jerry Zegart

This is shaping up to be quite a year for offshore race team JBS Racing. With an impressive racing career already behind them, the team—led by owner/driver Jeff Stevenson,

with throttleman Joe Skrocki and crew chief Jason Borys—were crowned Kings of the Desert after their blistering 188-mph run at Lake Havasu’s Desert Storm shootout.

Shortly before that event, the C5000 Mystic made a few breath-taking passes for an adoring crowd in Louisville, Kentucky, at an event known as Thunder Over Louisville. Unlike Desert Storm, though, JBS was the only race boat on display at this event, which runs in conjunction with the annual Kentucky Derby Festival. In past years, the event’s “E-tickets” have been an air show and a phantasmagorical display of fireworks. For 2010, though, organiz-

ers got the supreme idea of introducing the throngs to some high-speed performance-boating action. We sat down with Louisville native Brandon Weppner, the man who brought JBS Racing to the Thunder arena.

Performance Boats: What’s your background in boating?Brandon Weppner: I got into racing with a couple of friends

from Fort Myers, FL. I’ve always been a bit of a water rat—always watched the offshore races, but never dreamed of being in my own boat. One year, at the Key West World Championships, I met Steve Page of Page Racing. He’s a nine-time World and National champion. I got started with him as a boat washer and had a good time, then began moving up in the ranks over the

Thunderin Louisville

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years. It wasn’t until about 2005 that I was given the chance to get into an MTI and start practicing and seeing what I thought of it. I’d always wanted the chance to, but never thought it would come available. When I finally hopped in it, I did my first run on the Ohio River, doing about 120-130 miles an hour, I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever imagined.

PB: Did you start doing poker runs after that?BW: Yes. I got hooked up with the Pier 57 offshore race team and

started poker running that boat on Lake Cumberland, and that’s something I’ve continued to do every year. I kept growing my roots up in offshore racing, and became a backup throttleman. I did test-ing, broke the boats in, all that kind of good stuff. But I also stayed

The JBS Racing team relaxes in Louisville dur-ing the Thunder mega-event.

JBS RACINGHull:Mystic C5000 Extreme Race Boat

Specifications:Overall length: 50'4"Beam: 12'Weight: 10,500 poundsFuel Capacity: 345 gallonsDeadrise: 16.5 degreesPowertrain: Twin Turbine Marine TM1800 Extreme Turbines

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thunderinlouisville

on the marketing side of things, eventually becoming an offshore racer/promoter.

PB: Is that when you got the bright idea to bring a race to Louisville?

BW: Yes—that’s exactly what I did last year. I got a three-year contract funded for a race on Lake Cumberland, and we are into our second year of that race right now.

PB: How did you get involved in the Thunder event?

BW: For years, I’ve had a good idea up my sleeve. I’ve long attended Thunder Over Louisville—the kickoff to the Kentucky Derby that comprises 77 events that lead up to the two most popu-lar sports of the Kentucky Derby itself. Thunder over Louisville has been going on for years, and they draw millions to the event. That’s just unbelievable, to have a million people at a one day event here on the Ohio River in Louisville. The Ohio runs down the center of the Indiana and Kentucky borders. For Thunder over Louisville, they pulled two barges fully stacked with fireworks down the cen-ter, and put them right through downtown Louisville and down-

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town Indiana, right over Jeffersonville. Before the fireworks, there’s an air show. Then, at about 10 p.m., they shoot all the fireworks off—not just off the barges, but off the bridges as well. The event is so big that they actually close all the surrounding interstates and all the bridges going from Louisville to Indiana, all except one. So two of the three bridges are closed, and basically, everything shuts down. It’s just a colossal event—it’s like 10 Woodstocks in one.

Anyway, I got the idea to call Wayne Hettinger, who produces the show. I pointed out that he had an air show and a fireworks aspect of the show, but never a water aspect. I said, “How would

you like to see a 50-foot rocketship going down the Ohio River, right up against the banks, in front of your crowds?” Of course, he definitely liked that. So we had our first meeting at Bristol Brewery down here in Prospect, and worked out a deal to bring the Geico boat in last year for a fun exhibition. It was the first time we had ever taken a boat that fast on the Ohio River. We did about 182 mph. It was really cool!

Basically, we were given about a 13-minute slot time. We brought the boat down and we did about four high-speed passes, then throttled down and did three big, huge rooster tail passes

JBS owner-driver Jeff Stevenson with JBS

promo girl Kristin Gretchmann.

Thunder’s phenomenal fireworks display.

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trimmed up. Then we popped the top of the hatches, climbed out of the cockpit and went past the crowd of about a million people right up against the banks. It was amazing—I had never had a standing ovation of a million people. It was one of the coolest things we’d ever experienced.

My goal was to put offshore racing on a map that it had never been put on, in front of the largest crowd possible. That million-person crowd exceeded anything that’s ever been at an offshore race—basically, it’s the largest crowd to ever witness offshore rac-ing first hand.

PB: This year, you decided to call in the JBS boat, and operated the throttles.

BW: Exactly. I called Jeff Stevenson with JBS Racing, and brought that boat in this year. We came in at the finale of the air show, through the no-wake zone, hit the hot zone, throttled her up and came barreling into downtown Louisville in front of the million-person crowd to do our passes. As you can see from the pictures, we got as close to the crowds as possible. And it’s just such an exciting thing, because there are something like 188 planes involved, and we’re the only offshore race boat! PB

Stevenson with wife Jaimee.

Brandon Weppner.

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