It's funny; my family never had boats growing up. I was introduced to offshore boats in the 80's through a friend who owned a Velocity. Fast forward 15 years and I'm living on the Gulf of Mexico with my family (wife and 3 children) and the proud new owner of a 31 ft Formula. Easy access to open water meant I was logging countless hours (and motors) practicing what I saw when I went to the races with my local offshore club the OPBA. The Formula was traded for a new 36 Outlaw and I once again set out to learn as much as I could. World Champion racer Mike Flanagan gave me my first real "cat" ride and I knew I was destined to own and drive one of these exotic machines. On a chance meeting with local boat builder Jay Pilini champion racer and owner of Spectre Powerboats I commissioned a brand new 36 Spectre Offshore Cat. I spent the next two years learning what real speed was all about. Ironically, the day my new cat was delivered idling past Todd Werner's home the 3 time World Offshore Champion called out from his dock and asked if I wanted to learn how to "run that thing". My first cat lesson came late 2001 from a one of the best in the business. I was taught to learn from others mistakes and respect the water.

Two and a half years later I sat down with Jay Pilini again and built a new 30 ft cat with twin outboards. At the same my poker run partner Rob Garcia had a 46 Skater with twin turbines delivered which introduced me to extreme speeds and the feel of a true race boat. Needless to say I was hooked with Turbine power. Local racer and Regional Champion, Dan Lawrence and I had been getting the urge to enter some races and test what we had learned after 2 years of poker running and "street racing" our 30 OB cats with the big boys. The 2005 season in the "SHARK" was a tremendous season for two rookie racers boasting 4 first place finishes and a total of 8 podium finishes. In 2006 John Haggin took a chance on two "little guys" believing he could build a winner he hired both Scott Begovich and myself to drive his million dollar race boat. If you could have heard us in the cockpit the first time we lined up next to Bud Select, CRC and Cintron...like giggly schoolboys. With GEICO onboard and Turbine Marine handling the technical side, Miss GEICO became a crowd favorite.

The 2007 44’ MTI cranks out 3700 plus horsepower which propels her to speeds of over 180mph. Our backup boat is a 40’ turbine powered Platinum. The boats have won multiple National and World Championships. Also on the list are 2006 class Champion at LOTO and the POPRA "King of the Delta" kilo run.

We have recently set the world speed record between Annapolis and Baltimore with a time of 14 minutes and 7 seconds. The rest of 2007 will hold the breaking of additional world endurance records for Miss GEICO team, which has switched to Bio-fuel to power her through the rest of the season.

I fortunate to have learned a lot from some very experienced racers (you know who you are) and encourage anyone who has "the dream" to race to follow it.

Scott Begovich's love of boating was inherited from his father, who worked as the dock-master at the Kings Grant Inn Marina in New Jersey . Growing up on the Metedconk River in Brick, New Jersey meant a short and often chilly boating season, but Scott was in a boat every chance he could get. Following in the footsteps of his father and his uncle, who raced a boat called Sneaky Pete in the Hennessy Grand Prix and Brass Monkey races, Scott began racing boats in 1995 after purchasing a Jersey Speed Skiff named Double Trouble.

He raced the APBA Inboard circuit in Florida for a year. Scott moved up to a 24' Pantera in 2000, earlier named GiGi Motorsports, now KEAN University , that he drove and throttled, Scott entered his boat in the P5 category of APBA Offshore racing. His boat number – 12 – reflected his football number in both high school and college.

After 4 years of racing and many first and second place finishes, Al Chesley, owner and throttle-man of F1-52 Offshore Addiction, was looking for a driver for the upcoming Daytona race. Scott stepped up as the driver with no time to test prior to the race. The pace lap of the Daytona race was Scott's first time in Al's 29' purple Warlock. Since then, Scott has raced and won numerous races in both the Pantera and Warlock under the sponsorship of Kean University. Most recently he won the Deerfield Beach National Championship race and the World Championship title in 2004 at the Fountain Powerboat Key West unified World Championship. When running the Pantera, Monty Palma serves as Scott's navigator and Laura Hanner is the team's devoted crew chief.

As part of the AMF Offshore Racing Team, in 2005 Scott will once again be campaigning his 24 Pantera and Al's 29 Warlock in SBI/APBA as well as teaming up with John to run AMF's 51' twin turbine Outerlimits on the OPA circuit. For the past ten years Scott has worked in sales and recruiting. He and his wife Liz live in Jupiter, Florida with their three-year-old daughter Olivia.

2006 OSS World Champion Turbine Extreme Class

2006 OPA/POPRA World Champion PX Class

2006 OSS National Champion Turbine Extreme Class

2006 Class Champion LOTO Shootout

2006 King of the Delta Pacific Offshore POPRA