Contrary to this story’s just-for-fun headline, Justin and Melissa Hook of Mancelona, Mich., did not get tricked into joining the offshore racing community this year. The Snooks, who own an impeccable 42-foot Fountain V-bottom dubbed Dead Man’s Hand, are seasoned performance-boating enthusiasts. They’re also avid offshore racing fans and they know enough people in the sport to understand its time-and-money consumption realities.
Yet despite that sobering knowledge, the Snooks are all in for their first season, which is slated to start late next month with the International Hot Rod Association Offshore National Championship Series in St. Petersburg, Fla., as they told me last month during a Northern Michigan snowmobile adventure.
The Snooks have partnered in a Bracket 500-class offshore racing team named Whiskey Throttle Racing with their Southwest Florida-based friends Chris and Jennifer Hayes. Justin Snook will throttle their 28-foot Zero Tolerance V-bottom, which he purchased from current offshore racing team-owner Win Farnsworth. Chris Hayes will drive.
“We have been doing poker runs all over the country for four years and I feel like we’ve hit a lot of them,” Justin Snook explains. “We haven’t done as many as would have liked—I still want to do the 1,000 Islands Charity Poker Run and a few others on the list—but we’ve done bunch. I wanted to try something different and maybe a little more interesting. We plan to do all eight IHRA races this season as long as the boat holds up. We have to do four to qualify for the national championship.”
Melissa Snook seems as if she’d be an ideal rookie raceboat driver. She’s enjoyed various motorsports such as snowmobiling throughout her life and has an acute need for speed. She likes rough-water boating even more than her husband does. She is an accomplished horseback rider accustomed to handling large and sometimes unruly beasts.
Who better to get behind the wheel of an offshore raceboat?
But for practical reasons she will remain on the sidelines. The Snooks own and operate Mancelona-based Snook’s Quality Collision business a couple.
“To have one of us down for any reason would be bad,” Justin said. “To have both of us down would be disastrous. It would have been awesome to race together, but we just didn’t think it was a good idea.”
The Snooks understand more than offshore racing’s cost- and time-demands. They understand its risks.
Justin paused for a moment, then flashed his joyful smile, a killer grin that along with his ever-positive attitude will serve him well as he navigates the highs and low of offshore powerboat racing.
“It has always been dream ever since I was a kid,” he said. “Now, I get to go do it.”