VELOCITY's Dominate Sun Coast Grand Prix / Team
VELOCITY - Youngest Driver in History /
Neck-and-Neck with V&M Motorsports
The following
supplied By
TOM BALOG, Sarasota Herald Tribune,
tTom.balog@heraldtribune.com
The Kildahls ran a classic
neck-and-neck race with friends and Velocity
rivals, Sarasota's V & M Motorsports. But the
younger Kildahl, in the driver's seat for only
the third time in his fifth professional race,
made a bold critical move to keep Team Velocity
ahead.
He steered the 28-foot
Velocity to the inside lane ahead of the first
turn and never allowed V & M to take it from him
over the 6.4-mile course.
"Winning this race with Stephen, it's one of the
greatest days of my life," said Steve Kildahl,
who has run all 23 Suncoast Offshore Grand Prix
races.
"I dreamed about winning this race all my life,"
said Stephen Kildahl, a Cardinal Mooney High
sophomore who as an infant attended the race in
a stroller. "All the faster class boats took off
and I dove to the inside lane for the first
turn. I kept looking over my shoulder to see
where the competition was."
His father kept instructing him through their
helmets' intercom, not to let V & M get inside
of them.
"I told (Stephen) today that he can get in a
boat with me anytime he wants," said Chris
Volosin, the owner-throttleman of V & M. "His
dad should be proud of him."
Volosin and driver David Murphy were once
teammates of Steve Kildahl, winning two APBA
Offshore 'A' world championships together.
"Two hometown guys going head-to-head racing, it
doesn't get much better than that," Volosin
said.
