The History of Team Mean Racing… (A short but true story)

Christine and I (Louis), have been involved in personal watercraft in some way shape or form for many years. In fact PWC had a large influence in our meeting and ultimately getting married! Way back in 1991, I had a 1989 Kawasaki TS (yes a TS?) and Christine had a 1992 Seadoo SPI 580. Friends introduced us, and a competition started that led us both on a quest to be faster than one another. We actually attended a few Busch Cup races back in the day… Islamorada, the tiki bar… etc…anyway to skip a lot of boring details, we got married. We went through a variety of different Seadoo’s and even a Yamaha for a while. There was a very dark period when we thought it would be a good idea to get an actual boat… HUGE mistake.. Back to Seadoo’s we went. Well by trade I am a tuner, actually a machinist – fabricator - engine builder, turned race engineer (see championracing.net for more) so as a hobby I am constantly taking things apart and putting them back together trying to build a better mouse trap.

Christine and I used to take my time off of work, while the kids were in school, and drag our X4 785 seadoo’s to the lakes around here and enjoy days of rec. riding and playing around. Occasionally we would throw out a few buoys and chase each other around. Over time it just got kind of boring. One day Late 2006, we were having just one of those days, but something was different. We got bored with it !! We actually loaded up the boats early and were leaving the lake. Next to us on the launch ramp was a guy tuning a really mean looking GPR, obviously fully race prepared, and sounding very nice. That guy turned out to be Don Anderson. I think I remember the first words out of his mouth being “do you ever get tired of this?” Ironic, I looked Christine right in the eyes… We talked a while, and he handed us a business card for the “Hot Water Tour”, and one of his own.. We spoke for a while and then we left. Christine and I had never actually considered racing. Interesting…

We went home, put the boats away, and went online and did a bit of research. A few e-mails back and forth with Don and Susan Anderson, and they invited us out to the practice lake in WPB that coming Sunday. We decided to go. We were not going to bring the boats out, but Don talked us into it. We arrived, and were promptly introduced to Jeremy Schandelmayer, Petrina Easton, Susan Anderson, Ana and Alan Walker, Tony Kwolec, Danny and Scotty Biggs, Dr. Lee Smith, and many others. It did not take long before Susan offered Christine her spare helmet to come out and give the buoys a try. That took 10 seconds of convincing, and the helmet was on, and off she went.

There was no turning back from there, she was hooked !! With good advice from good friends, we started looking for a Seadoo 951 XPL. We found one in all black and she fell in love with it. Our worlds have revolved around tuning it and preparing Christine and her boat for racing ever since.

Team Mean Racing came about because we all have different skills and abilities. Don has experience with PWC racing that cannot be gained in short order, Alan Walker is a great tuner / rider, Jeremy is a great tuner / rider, and I have the Machinist skills, and resources to make things happen quickly.. I am leaving many things out here, but to get to the point, working as a team, and thinking like a team, was to be a key to success. The riders on the team are all very talented, and can and will all win races, buy by pooling the resources of the tuners, we can give them all the tools they need to win rapidly !!

The actual name “Team Mean” is kind of a spoof, as I think we are the nicest group of people you will ever meet, probably too kind at times. So we tried to come up with something to “toughen” us up a bit… We drew the logo on the computer one night, and decided to add the mad face.. and BANG.. that’s it!!

In the end, Christine and I, above and beyond all the competition, and fast boats, most of all were hoping to meet some great people, and make some good friends. That so far has been the greatest success for us.

Thanks Team..

Louis, Christine, Laura, and Jessica