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Art Lilly's racing career spans over 20 years and includes drag boat, circle, and offshore competition. His credentials are impressive: 56 total career wins and 36 victories alone captured in offshore racing! Art's move into offshore racing was a natural extension of his business ventures. For two consecutive years, he was the largest Fountain dealer in the country. The everyday test-driving soon became addictive. His first offshore race was the 1984 World Championships in Key West, competing in Stock Class. "The Joker" placed third and the rest they say, is offshore history! He raced three years in Stock Class and later moved to Offshore B Class. Lilly was the original owner of Heartbeat, a 33' Fountain that later went on to claim the title of the "Winningest Boat in Sport Class!" In 1986, Lilly throttled Stock Class "Joker" to an 82 MPH record in New Orleans. In 1994, Art Lilly teamed up with Ron & Sue Reith and the invincible Dragon Lady. It proved a successful merger with the trio wrapping up two successful seasons in two very competitive classes: Offshore B and Offshore D. in 1995, he throttled the B Class "Dragon Lady" to a record speed of 100.1 MPH at the Fountain Kilo Record Runs in Washington, North Carolina. Owner/driver Jack Carmody of Carlos' n Charlie's refers to Lilly as "The Best of the Best" and rightfully so. The talented Art Lilly currently holds five kilo records. After a incredible season with Jack and the Carlos' n Charlie's team in 1997 both Art and Jack were inducted into the APBA Hall of Champions.

Art has been a key member of the Pier57 race team for the past four years setting numerous kilo records and winning National Champions for 1999 and 2000 as well as World Champions for the 2000 season. For the 2001 season Art and David Woods (Owner of Pier57) decided to break into the Super Cat class and build a Randy Scism MTI 42' Victory Cat at the Fountain factory in North Carolina. The World Champion Pier57 Super V hull was sold to the Love Muscle team who is currently in 2nd place in points this year. The Super Cat is "Getting there" according to Art, "Dialing this boat in is all new to us, but we will get it done." We have brought in Bobby Moore and his son to manage the process of making this boat a real winner. Watch for us on Speedvision and TNN.

As owner of Lilly Sport Boats and Indian Landing Marina which are located near Annapolis, Maryland, Lilly's 26 years experience in the boat rigging business speaks for itself. He has rigged and maintained some of offshore's winningest boats, including Heartbeat, Dragon Lady, Carlos' and Charlie's, Pier57, FireWater, and Fountain USA. The business has expanded over the years and now has a custom graphic design shop, in addition to maintaining the marina's boats. No one can set up a V-Bottom better than Lilly and his crew.

Lilly's Blue Printing of Bottoms and unique understanding of equipment and hull design has led him to numerous kilo records including:

  • 1995 B-Class Dragon Lady @ 100.1 MPH
  • 1995 D-Class Dragon Lady @ 115.5 MPH
  • 1997 Rebroke B-Class record @ 104.66 MPH
  • 1997 Worlds Fastest V-Bottom record @ 131.94 MPH
  • 1999 Rebroke V-Bottom record @ 140.12 MPH
  • 2000 Worlds Fastest V-Bottom record @ 142.9 MPH
  • 2001 Factory II Boat a 94.3 MPH speed record