Round 2 of the 2026 IHRA Offshore Powerboat Championship delivered rough water, a blowover, an engine fire, and a class winner who had finished dead last a fortnight earlier. By the time the awards ceremony wrapped up at Bucktown Harbor, the championship picture across every class had shifted heading into Cocoa Beach.
The Harvey Gulf International Marine New Orleans Powerboat Grand Prix ran from April 10 to 12 at Bucktown Harbor on Lake Pontchartrain in Jefferson Parish, the second round of the new IHRA Offshore Powerboat and Pro Watercraft Championship. Where St. Petersburg had offered calm water and tight qualifying margins, Lake Pontchartrain served up something else entirely. Teams described the conditions as confused and unpredictable, the kind of choppy lake surface that punishes a wrong prop choice and rewards hard-won experience. Michael Howe of Howe2Live Offshore put it plainly before Sunday's racing: "On a scale from one to ten as far as how much that changed things, today's conditions changed everything."
The weekend followed the same programme structure as St. Pete. Friday was reserved for closed-course testing along with Pro Class 1 and Factory Stock qualifying. Saturday brought Super Stock and Super Cat qualifying, the bracket class heats, and Pro Class 1 Race 1. Sunday was reserved for the headline class races and the awards ceremony. The event opened under sunny skies, but by race day the lake was making life difficult for every team on the water.
Before a single race was run, the paddock was alive with talk of JJ Turk and Nick Buis, who had reportedly worked through to repair XINSURANCE North following its violent rollover at St. Pete less than two weeks earlier, turning the boat around to make it race-ready in time.
Pro Class 1: Coil and Miller make it four from four
St. Petersburg had established Monster Energy/M-CON as the dominant force in Pro Class 1, and New Orleans left no doubt about that. Driver Myrick Coil and throttleman/owner Tyler Miller swept both races for the second round running, posting their best single-round aggregate of the season at 106 points: 50 in Race 1, 50 in Race 2, and 6 bonus points. Across two rounds and four races, they have not finished anywhere but the top step of the podium.
Behind them, the standings shifted meaningfully. Outta Pocket Racing (#10) climbed to second overall on 167.5 series points after a steady 87.5-point New Orleans round, leapfrogging MTI/GC Racing, which dropped to third on 165.5. Willie Cabeza, throttling for MTI/GC Racing, had noted before racing that Lake Pontchartrain presented a completely different challenge from the ocean-based events the team typically competes in, with wind cutting across the course and demanding equal attention to both setup and fitness across 13 to 14 laps. The team split their New Orleans results, taking 31 points in Race 1 and 41.5 in Race 2, enough for fourth on the day but a step back from their St. Pete podium.
Turk and Buis in XINSURANCE North (#11), completing the reported overnight rebuild after the St. Pete rollover, gathered 74 points across both New Orleans races, 36 in each. Combined with their 80 points from St. Pete, they sit fifth in the championship on 154, within striking distance of the podium positions. The 13-championship veteran's goal of a Pro Class 1 title remains a live ambition with three rounds still to go.
DMR Performance (#3) bounced back sharply from their St. Pete collapse, scoring 81.5 points in New Orleans to take fourth on the day and sixth in the overall championship. The team that won Race 1 at St. Pete before retiring from Race 2 are finding greater consistency, though at 72 points behind the leader with three rounds remaining, a sustained run of results is now required.
Discrete Offshore Racing (#7) saw their New Orleans campaign end when an engine fire broke out on lap 9 of Sunday's race. Having DNS'd qualifying at St. Pete and collected just 31 points in Race 2 there, the team now hold seventh in the championship on 96 points from two rounds.
Superstock: Wozencraft wins but Bermuda holds the lead
The Superstock class turned its St. Pete result completely on its head. Wozencraft (S-8), who had finished third at St. Pete on 96 points, won New Orleans outright with 115 points, matching the exact score Team Bermuda had posted to win Round 1. Team Bermuda (S-25) crossed second at New Orleans on 104 points, holding the championship lead, but a gap that had looked comfortable after Round 1 is now just 8 points in a 16-boat class with three rounds remaining.
The broader standings reveal how tightly the field is bunched. Celsius/Valvoline (S-43) finished third at New Orleans after placing fifth at St. Pete, and sits fifth overall on 162 series points, just 31 behind the leader. From first to sixth in the national standings, the margin covers only 59 points.
The weekend started badly for Club Car Wash (S-45), who began taking on water while dockside on Saturday before racing had even begun, ending their round. Having scored 26 points at St. Pete, those are the only series points the programme now carries. It was a second difficult weekend in succession for the team.
Cameron Turk and throttleman Owen Buess, competing in the XINSURANCE (S-74) Superstock boat, brought fresh interest to the class. Cameron is the son of XINSURANCE North Pro Class 1 driver JJ Turk, and the self-described youngest team on the grid used the New Orleans round to debut the new Mercury Racing 300 ROS engines fitted with an updated 15-inch midsection. Sabrina Kowalik, new driver for Team Allen Lawn Care and Landscaping (S-17) alongside throttleman and owner Billy Allen, contested her second race of the season at New Orleans, continuing to build experience in one of offshore racing's largest and most competitive grids.
Leanna Shadlow and Chad Havens of Team Demon Bikini (S-33) improved from 14th at St. Pete to 9th at New Orleans, building their series total to 97 points. Gregg Reichman and David Whelan of XINSURANCE Moxie Racing (S-88) moved from seventh to tenth across the two rounds, sitting on 127 total points as the season develops.
Factory 500: Last to first for 151 Express, and a scary moment for Lake Wylie
No class produced a sharper single-round turnaround than Factory 500. 151 Express (#F-66), who had finished last at St. Pete with 67 points, won New Orleans outright with 105 points, the same score Jackhammer had posted to claim Round 1. That 38-point swing is the largest recorded by any team across either event. Jackhammer (#42) still leads the championship on 191 points, but the gap back to third-placed 151 Express has shrunk to just 19, with Say Less MF (#F-21) sitting second on 180.
Jay Rudisill and throttleman Rusty Williams of Say Less MF had a difficult build-up to Sunday's race. A rear escape hatch opened mid-qualifying lap and ripped off, letting water in before the team could get back to the ramp. They patched the boat overnight and finished second in the race, a result that carries extra weight given the circumstances. Rudisill and Williams are the reigning Factory Stock World Champions from Key West 2025, and they are proving they belong at the front of the class again in 2026.
The most dramatic moment of the Factory 500 weekend came from LWR Lake Wiley Racing (#F-44). Driver Joe Spoloric and throttleman Garrett Coonrod went up and over during the race, both walking away safe. The team had impressed at St. Pete, recovering from a one-minute weight penalty in qualifying to finish second. At New Orleans, Spoloric said the boat had been running on rails and competing for the lead when a headwind on the exit of a turn lifted the bow and left the crew with nothing to grab onto. "That was a first-place boat for sure," he said. The team confirmed their entry for Round 3 at Cocoa Beach before they had even dried off.
Caleb Mead and throttleman Johnny Tomlinson of the MTI-built MFR/Mead Family Racing (#F-5) scored 79 points at New Orleans, exactly matching their St. Pete result, and sit fifth in the championship on 158 points. Goodboy Vodka (#F-25) finished sixth for the second round running, consistent if not yet on the podium.
Super Cat: CR Racing redeems St. Pete pole
The Super Cat class saw St. Petersburg's fastest qualifier finally convert. CR Racing (#8) had taken pole at St. Pete and finished fifth. At New Orleans they won the class outright with 104 points, one of the standout individual round performances across the full field.
Despite not winning either round, C.J. Grant Racing/Graydel (#54) leads the Super Cat championship on 187 points, having finished second at both events and built a base of consistency that neither round winner has matched. Dirty Money Racing (#3) and CR Racing (#8) are locked on 177 points in second and third, separated only by their round result countback. Wicked (#6), the St. Pete podium finisher, did not compete at New Orleans and holds sixth in the championship on their 86-point St. Pete total.
Mod Vee: Clouatre Cartel takes the win, championship race tightens
Clouatre Cartel Racing (#74) reversed their St. Pete result, moving from third to first with a 102-point New Orleans victory. NMB RV Resort (#33), who won Round 1, came home second, while Boatfloater.com/Scott Free Racing (#2) completed the podium for the second consecutive round in third place.
In the championship, NMB RV Resort leads on 193 points with Clouatre Cartel Racing just 8 back on 185. Stephen Kildahl and his father Steve sit third in the Mod Vee standings on 174, consistent across both rounds and within reach of either leading team.
Bracket classes: familiar winners and a new name in Class 600
The bracket class heats ran on Saturday afternoon at Bucktown Harbor, with the higher-numbered classes leading the programme.
Pist'n Broke (#744) again won Class 700, claiming back-to-back victories to extend their championship lead to 208 total points. Dirt Legal Velocity Factory Racing (#789) improved from third to second, while Team Progression REDRUM (#730) dropped from second to third. Those two teams are locked on exactly 178 championship points, level on total but separated by round result.
Class 600 produced the biggest change from St. Pete. Hammerheads (#628) moved from third at Round 1 to first at Round 2, the most significant bracket-class shift of the round. New entrant Islandscapes (#605) made an immediate impression on their first IHRA round appearance, finishing second and pushing Ride Legal (#611) back to third. Hammerheads lead the championship on 189 points, with Ride Legal second on 179.
In Class 500, Back inAction (#576) and Damon Marotta's Fuel 1 Team (#588) exchanged positions from St. Pete. Back inAction, who won Round 1, crossed first again to consolidate a championship lead of 209 points. Fuel 1 Team, who bring relentless energy to the class according to the team's own description of their programme, dropped from second to third at New Orleans, with YabbaDabbaDoo (#577) jumping from fifth to second.
Class 400 produced a position reversal at the front. Shocker Offshore (#421), third at St. Pete, won New Orleans outright. Team 407 Offshore, competing as Team UK (#407) at New Orleans, dropped from first to second on the day but still leads the championship by 8 points over Shocker Offshore, 193 to 185. Kyle Dietzen and throttleman Chris McElwee of Burning Man Offshore Racing did not appear in the New Orleans results.
OC Racing (#221) retained its Class 200 title, claiming back-to-back victories and the championship lead on 205 points. New entrant Victory USA (#269) finished second in their first New Orleans appearance. Justice League (#208) dropped from second to third after their St. Pete runner-up result.
Class 300 did not feature at New Orleans. WeHaulBoats.com and Team Woody Racing carry their St. Pete points totals of 101 and 90 into the remainder of the season.
Championship standings: two rounds down, three to go
Monster Energy/M-CON's dominance of Pro Class 1 is the clearest championship picture in any class, leading by 39 points from Outta Pocket Racing, 206.5 to 167.5. With MTI/GC Racing just two points further back on 165.5, there is no room for complacency at the front.
Superstock remains the most open title fight on the programme, with just 59 points separating first from sixth across a 16-boat field. The Super Cat lead group is similarly unresolved, with only 10 points covering second and third in the standings.
The teams building the strongest championship positions are those who have won both rounds. Back inAction leads Class 500 on 209 points from two wins. Pist'n Broke heads Class 700 on 208 with the same record. OC Racing leads Class 200 on 205 points with back-to-back victories. All three positions will be tested when the series arrives at Cocoa Beach.
Round 3 of the 2026 IHRA Offshore Powerboat Championship moves to the Space Coast of east central Florida for the Thunder on Cocoa Beach, scheduled for May 14 to 17. The venue is known for traditionally rough Atlantic conditions, the kind of water that sends race boats skyward. After New Orleans tested every team on choppy lake water, Cocoa Beach will present a different challenge entirely. LWR Lake Wiley Racing have already confirmed they will be on the startline.
