Ready, set ...

Bryce Alderton

From his high school days of motocross racing to his current

affiliation with the Yamaha Motor Corporation and personal

watercraft, Newport Beach resident Mike Follmer has had racing in his

blood.

And Follmer will race again today for the ninth time in the ninth

annual Long Beach-2-Catalina & Back International Jet Sports Boating

Association National Offshore Championship.

Follmer, 46, along with more than 100 riders, start the race at 9

a.m. from Long Beach Harbor venturing 23.6 miles to Catalina, where

they make a U-turn at the Avalon Vessel & Fuel Barge and return to

Long Beach.

The race should take less than two hours to complete if one racer

is near the lead, according to Follmer, whose best finish in the race

is 12th, which took less than an hour and a half. He looks at the

race as a chance to gain points in the IJSBA Baja Promotions Offshore

Endurance Series, where he finished second overall last year.

Last year Follmer won the IJSBA National Team Endurance

Championship after taking first place in the Team Endurance 300, a

six-hour race covering eight miles of ocean off of Long Beach.

Follmer completed the race in 6:07, with his watercraft consuming 92

gallons of fuel.

Navigation skills in today’s race will be the difference in who

races well and who doesn’t, according to Follmer.

“The biggest factor is navigation skills and knowing where you’re

going,” Follmer said. It puts everyone on a more level playing field

than having a fast boat and a good rider. It can be like a cork in a

bathtub out there.”

Follmer signed as a factory sponsored rider with Yamaha for a

fourth consecutive season in 2001. He has two wave runners and

changes which one he rides depending on the race.

For today’s race he will use his slower watercraft, an XL 1200

Limited Personal Watercraft (Wave Runner) with a top speed of 64 mph

to save fuel because racers can’t refuel during the race. Among the

items Follmer uses to track his progress and stay on course in the

water include a compass, Global Positioning Systems and a cell phone,

but he mainly relies on the compass to stay on track.

“The numbers are bigger and are mounted on a higher part of the

boat so you can see it easier without having to slow the boat down to

look down at a GPS console in a plastic bag,” Follmer said.

Unsuspecting winds and strong currents can make this an

unpredictable race, according to Follmer.

“The main thing is staying on track and getting a good rhythm

going and knowing what you’re doing when the weather swells up

because these currents can really make the (watercraft) turn around,”

Follmer said.

In last year’s race Follmer said the ESPN helicopter flew overhead

for two miles so he said he knew then that he was on the right path,

but he takes nothing for granted.

When Follmer made the turn at Catalina last year, he said he saw

none of the other racers on the water, which isn’t unusual.

“You think you’re lost but you might see a jet ski off in the

distance and ask yourself, “‘Should I follow him?’” Follmer said.

Last year Follmer earned five titles within the 13-race BP

Motorsports Offshore Endurance Series.

He races in three series, GranPrix, LongCourse and Team Endurance.

GranPrix races are two-hours on five to 10-mile courses with a

solo rider allowed two fuel stops held on oceans or lakes. LongCourse

races are 90 minutes with a three-and-a-half mile layout with a solo

rider and one fuel stop held on lakes and reservoirs.

There are three Team Endurance competitions of the 13-yearly

races. One race is three hours which Follmer’s team of four won

earlier this year at Lake Perris. Another race is four hours that

Follmer and crew competed in a month ago. They led at one point but

their watercraft suffered a crack in the hull and had to retire. The

final Team Endurance race is the six-hour, eight-mile Team Endurance

300 coming up in October off of Long Beach.

In 2001 Follmer won five championship titles and earned the No. 2

position in the overall race standings. Follmer gets to carry the No.

2 plate during the 2002 season.

Right now Follmer has a four-point lead in the overall BP

Motorsports Offshore Endurance standings. At the same time last year

he was 13 points behind the leader, but managed to finish second in

his most successful year racing watercraft to date.

At the age of16 Follmer began competitive racing in motocross and

eventually raced professionally with the Maico Motorcycle --

Motocross Racing Team. In 1978, Follmer won eight of 11 races in the

Formula Super-Vee series and earned the Southern Pacific National

Championship title the very next year.

He owns his own business, Mike Follmer Specialties, which consists

of sports and corporate promotional products.

He now lives year-round in Newport Beach with his fiancee Kay

Carder, who was the original owner of Farmers Market at Fashion

Island. The two met through one of Carder’s sons who rides a jet ski.