The cool Lake Michigan water was still dribbling off the Reliable Carriers catamaran, and its driver, Tom Abrams, was already eagerly anticipating next year.
"This is the best of all the races we come to," Abrams gushed. "This is the best place to view, the best people, the hospitality is great. We loved it here.
"And obviously a victory helped."
OK, so a rookie driver celebrating his first national victory Sunday might not have been the most objective person at the lakefront. But Abrams' words were echoed all over Veterans Park as the first GMC Offshore Grand Prix of Milwaukee concluded.
Officials of the American Power Boat Association and competitors, alike, lauded the venue for its fan-friendliness, the city for its hotels and restaurants and its people for the warm reception they offered to strangers participating in an unfamiliar sport.
Abrams teamed with veteran throttleman Jerry Gilbreath to win the 18-lap race for the Super Cat class, the top category for twin-engine, twin-hull catamarans. The victory was the first for Abrams and the first-year Reliable team, and came in a hard-fought battle with series leader Bacardi Silver.
In the other featured class, Super Vee, for the fastest traditional v-bottom boats, Doug Valentine drove and Lee Murray worked the throttles as class-leading Team Donzi scored its first victory of the season. Donzi won the first race of the day after early pace-setter Spiderman succumbed to a broken propeller.
A crowd count was difficult because no admission was charged, but turnout Sunday appeared to approach 5,000.
"This was a good way to put the foot in the door with the town and sample it, and hopefully next year when we come back, (the fans) understand a little bit more about the sport, remember it and it'll be even bigger attendance," Valentine said.
"The people in this town are like nobody I've ever met. The nicest. Always a hello. It's just unbelievable."
The GMC Pro Grade National Series spends much of its time racing along the Florida coast, but the APBA is attempting to enter new markets and run shorter "stadium-style" courses.
The circuit inside the breakwater ran a little less than 5 miles, and the turns off Veterans Park allowed spectators an unusually close view of the boats in 130 mph competition.
Work has already begun to bring offshore powerboat racing back next year, said Michael Allweiss, chairman of the APBA.
"Coming into this event, we thought this was going to be the premier venue for this in the United States, if not the world, and now there's no question about it," Allweiss said.
"The fact that it was, frankly, so lightly promoted and so lightly covered by the media right up until the weekend, to have crowds like we had - enthusiastic, cheering the winners, seemed to know what was going on - we're blown away."
Is there room for improvement? Sure.
A buoy broke loose, resulting in the first race being ending under the yellow flag.
The venue lacked grandstands, which would become even more important if the crowd were to grow two- or threefold, as Allweiss hopes.
And it could only have helped the fans' understanding if they had could have heard the public address feed that went to the hospitality areas.
But in general, the event seemed to come off well, with no serious accidents on the race course, with pleasant weather, happy competitors and fans who enjoyed easy access to the participants.
Wisconsinites even had a home team for which to cheer, the Tommy Bahama Super Cat team of Mark and Paul Nemschoff, a father-son pairing from Sheboygan.
"It's an absolutely phenomenal for us to be able to race in front of our home-state fans," Paul Nemschoff said. "We've been doing this for eight years, so we have eight years of fans built up that have wanted to see us race, so it really is an incredible deal."
Normally a front-runner, the Tommy Bahama team struggled Sunday, and that lack of competitiveness left the Nemschoffs and their fans disappointed. But in this case, there's always next year.
"We'd like to see this a 100,000-person-attended festival," Allweiss said. "People have told me it's possible, that people in this area get fired up about stuff."
GMC OFFSHORE GRAND PRIX
Super Cat - 1, Reliable Carriers (Tom Abrams, Jerry Gilbreath); 2, Bacardi Silver (Hugh Fuller, John Tomlinson); 3, Popeye.
Super Cat Light - 1, In Contempt (Paul Whittier); 2, Liquid Metal (John Talley, Bob Teague); 3, White Knuckles (Troy Wood, John Trotto).
Super Vee - 1, Donzi (Douglas Valentine, Lee Murray); 2, Ettore (James C. Richardson Jr., Dennis Sigalos); 3, Miccosukee Indian Gaming (Brett Lee Furshman, Todd Easton).
Super Vee Light - 1, Extreme Vortec (Gary Deciucies, Steve Miklos); 2, High Noon Racing (Richie Legouri Jr., Richard Legouri, Sr.); 3, Way 2 Krazy (Graham Purpura, Scott Utah).
Factory 2 - 1, Audacity Racing (Phil Semel, Joe Skrocki); 2, Snap-On-Talk 'n Tools (Wilma Ross, Brian Ross); 3, Sirius Satellite.
From the Aug. 11, 2003 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel