http://keysnews.com/278675098847860.bsp.htm

Races to run without APBA titles
BY MANDY BOLEN

keysnews.com

KEY WEST -- The November power-boat races in Key West will be missing a
four-letter acronym this year -- one many people consider important enough to
force some race teams to compete in Alabama rather than Key West.

The American Power Boat Association, or APBA, will not be sanctioning the
November races in Key West and will not recognize the winner as the world
champion. Association officials announced Tuesday that the APBA Offshore World
Championships will take place in Orange Beach, Ala., the week before the Key
West races.

The change is the result of disagreements between APBA officials and local race
promoter Lee Mills, who owns Offshore Worlds and is organizing boat races
called Key West Offshore Worlds, which will take place in the harbor the week
before Thanksgiving.

"The management of APBA Offshore and myself have not been able to agree on the
terms of the sanctions," Mills said, adding that the association would not
guarantee the prize money offered or the airing of the races on television.

Michael Allweiss, chairman of APBA Offshore said the association has always
guaranteed prize money and the airing of the races.

Allweiss said that Mills would not sign a sanction agreement or pay the $75,000
sanctioning fee.

This is not the first controversy involving Mills and powerboat races.

Mills created conflict in Key West in 2001, when he brought the
then-APBA-sanctioned races in a week after John Carbonell's Super Boat
International Promotions races, which had a standing 20-year tradition in town.
With a history of personal conflict between the two men dating back to the
mid-1990s when Mills helped Carbonell promote the Super Boat races, Carbonell
moved his event to New Orleans the following year.

Mills acknowledged that this year some race teams will opt to compete in the
sanctioned Alabama race rather than Key West, but said he is confident that the
other non-APBA teams will make up the difference and said he expects even more
boats than last year's 110.

"It's not sanctioned by anybody," Mills said. "We are expecting a tremendous
fleet of boats to race, and we will be racing under the APBA competition model
with all the same APBA classes, while also adding other classes."

Mills is also planning a Florida Keys Offshore Triple Crown event next year for
power boats, which would feature races in Key Largo, Marathon and Key West
beginning in May.

"While we wish APBA the best of success in Alabama, we're somewhat puzzled
about why they picked a place with 50-degree temperatures and an average
November rainfall of five inches," Mills said. "We're getting tremendous
support from our fans and our teams."

But not everyone is as confident.

"I can't see anybody coming to Key West. I don't know why they would the week
after the world championships in Alabama," said one racer, who asked not to be
named.