BRADENTON, Fla. (WFLA) — The 2024 Bradenton Area River Regatta kicked off in Manatee County.
“Boat racing, it’s music, it’s kid zones, it’s food, just about anything you could possibly imagine, it’s all world class entertainment and it’s all free,” Michael Dongilli explained.
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Picture this, drivers racing down the Manatee River in Formula 2 powerboats that can go up to 120 miles per hour.
Also returning this year, the lighter and smaller “formula lights” powerboats, showing off both speed and razor sharp precision.
“I’m really excited to be here,” said one of the drivers, Becky Nichols. “I came out here last year as a spectator and part of the America Power Boat Association.”
“This year I’m here as a driver,” she continued.
Nichols said she had to put in “quite a bit” of work into the event.
“This is our first year really campaigning an SST-45,” she said. “We’ve races in multiple other categories in the America Power Boat Association, so it’s been a lot of ground work all the parts collected, getting a new boat together, so we’ve been working on this for probably the past few months.”