Photo:  Chris Denslow

Team website:  www.missmadison.com

The community owned Oh Boy! Oberto -Miss Madison race team claimed first-place honors in the National High Point's championship for the second year in a row in 2009.

Owned by 12,004 citizens of the city of Madison, Ind., 2010 is the Miss Madison Racing team’s 50th consecutive year. Under the sponsorship of Oh Boy! Oberto meat products (Kent, Wash.) for ten years, Miss Madison Racing plays host each year to the Madison Regatta, claiming a pair of victories on home waters - the 1971 American Power Boat Association Gold Cup with driver Jim McCormick and the 2001 Indiana Governor's Cup with Steve David behind the wheel.

Driver Profile

STEVE DAVID:  A Florida realtor by trade, 2010 marks Steve David’s 22-year as an unlimited class driver. As the pilot of Jim McCormick’s Pocket Savers Plus boat in 1988, he was named unlimited “rookie of the year.” Behind the wheel of the Oh Boy! Oberto since 2001, David captured national high point driver championships in back-to-back years -- 2005-2006 and 2008-2009. David won the Lamb Weston Cup in Kennewick, Wash. in 2008 and 2009. His consistency and years of experienced helped the team win their second national championship. In January 2010 David was inducted into the American Power Boat Association’s Hall of Champions.

Steve David Victories:
(1) 1993 - Lewisville, TX (Texas Hydrofest) with MISS T-PLUS (U-2)
(2) 1993 - Honolulu, HI (Outrigger Hydrofest) with MISS T-PLUS (U-2)
(3) 1995 - Kansas City, MO (Hydrofair '95) with T-PLUS ENGINE TREATMENT (U-2)
(4) 2001 - Madison, IN (Indiana Governor's Cup) with OH BOY! OBERTO (U-6)
(5) 2005 - Evansville, IN (Thunder On The Ohio) with OH BOY! OBERTO (U-6)
(6) 2007 - Seattle, WA (Chevrolet Cup) with OH BOY! OBERTO (U-6)
(7) 2007 - San Diego, CA (Bill Muncey Cup) with OH BOY! OBERTO (U-6)
(8) 2008 – Pasco, Wash. (Lamb Weston Columbia Cup) with OH BOY! OBERTO (U-6)
(9)  2009 – Pasco, Wash. (Lamb Weston Columbia Cup) with OH BOY! OBERTO (U-1)

Owners' Representative

Representing the population of Madison, Ind. on behalf of Miss Madison Racing is Robert D. Hughes. For more than three decades, Hughes has served as president of the board of directors of Miss Madison, Inc., the corporation that administers the community-owned race team. Hughes won the Unlimited Sportsman of the Year Award in 1983 and the prestigious Gar Wood Award in 2003. Together with team manager Charlie Grooms, Hughes oversees all of the Miss Madison Racing program.

2009 Recap

The consistency and wisdom of the Miss Madison Racing team and driver Steve David helped the team win their second straight National Championship in the team’s history dating back to 1961. Not since 1982-83 with Atlas Van Lines has a Non-Miss Budweiser team won back-to-back National High Point Championships in H1 Unlimited hydroplanes.

Going into the final race of the season, the Oryx Cup UIM World Championship in Doha, Qatar, David was only 316 points ahead of the U-5 Formulaboats.com and its driver Jeff Bernard. The closest margin going into the final race of the season in modern history.

During preliminary heat 4-A David flipped his boat 360 degrees in the back stretch landing right-side up. As a result of the flip and subsequent disqualification for causing the heat stoppage David was now behind in points. David was slightly injured but he and the boat were ruled able to compete in the winner-take-all final.

In the final, David was running third which would not score the team enough points to secure the national championship. Suddenly the U-16 Ellstrom Elam Plus developed engine problems. As the sun set on the horizon in the Middle East and the Ellstrom Elam Plus shooting flames out the back of their motor David passed the Ellstrom boat moving into second place behind U-7 Graham Trucking and J. Michael Kelly. The second place points scored in the Oryx Cup final by David and the Oh Boy! Oberto team earned them enough points to win the Martini & Rossi national championship trophy.

It was David’s fourth driver’s national championship in five years.

David was top qualifier in Evansville, Ind. and was second fastest qualifier behind U-16 Ellstrom Elam Plus at each of the other races. In 20 preliminary heat races David drove the U-1 Oh Boy! Oberto to nine first-place finishes and was on the podium 18 times –finishing second eight times.

The Oh Boy! Oberto won their second consecutive Lamb Weston Columbia Cup in Tri-Cities, Wash

2009 Season Highlights

Indiana Governor’s Cup (Madison, Ind.)
Third Place Finish
Second Fastest Qualifier-154.296 mph
Second Place- Preliminary Heats 2-C, 3-C
Third Place-Preliminary Heat 3-C

American Power Boat Association Gold Cup (Detroit, Mich.)
Second Place Finish
Second Fastest Qualifier – 157.379 mph
First Place-Preliminary Heats 1-A, 2-B, 3-B, 4-B

Lamb Weston Columbia Cup (Kennewick, Wash.)
First Place Finish
Second Fastest Qualifier – 161.957 mph
First Place-Preliminary Heats 1-A, 2-A, 3-A

Chevrolet Cup at Seafair (Seattle)
Sixth Place Finish
Second Fastest Qualifier – 152.548 mph
First Place-Preliminary Heat 3-B
Second Place-Preliminary Heats 1-B, 2-A

Thunder on the Ohio (Evansville, Ind.)
Third Place Finish
Fastest Qualifier – 155.215 mph
First Place-Preliminary Heat 2-A
Second Place-Preliminary Heat 3-B

Oryx Cup UIM World Championship (Doha, Qatar)
Second Place Finish
Second Fastest Qualifier – 145.096 mph
Second Place-Preliminary Heats 1-B, 2-A, 3-B
360 degree flip, Preliminary Heat 4A


Second straight H1 Unlimited national high point team championship. Boat runs the ’10 season as U-1, an honor bestowed onto the team that wins the previous years point totals.