Brit Lilly is far from the only offshore powerboat racer dealing with a fractured season thanks to the International Hot Rod Association’s managerial and financial implosion. For everyone involved, it was a wild and sharply disappointing ride.
Brit Lilly (far left) will once again celebrate father his father with friends and family on the Chesapeake Bay. Photos by Stephen Victor copyright speedonthewater.com.
Still, Lilly had a more interesting journey than most. On the plus side, he’s been the season-long driver for DMR Offshore Racing—the most dominant team in the Super Cat class—alongside throttleman Bill Pyburn.
On the not-so-plus side, a blow-over the during the Shootout Offshore event at the Lake of the Ozarks in June destroyed the Pro Class 1 catamaran he also shared with Pyburn. The boat was a total loss.
Pyburn has since teamed up with veteran driver Darren Nicholson of Australia to campaign another Class 1 catamaran in the Union International Motonauqtiue World Championship Series being produced by Race World Offshore. So Lilly is down to one catamaran ride, albeit a very, very good one.
The son of offshore racing legend Art Lilly, who was 77 years old when he died in March 2024 from Parkinson disease, Lilly learned by example how to take the sport’s high and lows in stride. Plus, he has plenty of Super Cat races ahead of him this season. And he’s finishing the season as the driver for the Mod V-class El Bandido Yankee Tequila team with owner/throttleman Steve Miklos
But best of all, come August 14-15 he’ll be in the mix at the second-year Art Lilly Memorial Poker Run—hosted by the Chesapeake Bay Power Boat Association—in Maryland. The inaugural 2025 event raised $5,000 for the Parkinson Foundation and will continue in that vein this year.
“I’m super-excited,” Brit Lilly said. “My dad has been gone a few years, and to see that everyone still cares enough to want to do it is amazing.”
“And I believe it is already booked out,” he added.