Myrick Coil: The Freak of Fast
Not even 40 yet, the Osage Beach resident and Illinois native has three significant race championships to his credit.
By Dan Field
Myrick Coil is an up-and-coming name in the world of offshore boat racing.
Not even 40 yet, the Osage Beach resident and Illinois native has three significant race championships to his credit - he won 2015 Shootout Top Gun honors with a speed of 208 and two weeks ago he, his crew won the seventh annual Space Coast Super Boat Grand Prix Superboat Class in Cocoa Beach, Fla., in mid-May and he took home top honors at the Powerboat Grand Prix in Sarasota, Fla.
They'll be going to the Marathon (Fla.) Super Boat Grand Prix later this month.
He's the local favorite to capture his class in this Saturday's Lake Race, which takes place near Bagnell Dam in Lake Ozark. He'll be piloting a 388 Skater - the same boat he raced at Cocoa Beach - with legendary throttleman Johnny Tomlinson at his side, just like in Cocoa Beach.
The custom-built Skater, powered by twin 750-horsepower Sterling engines with Mercury Racing outdrives, is owned by Performance Boat Center's Mark Waddington and Brett Manire and sponsored by Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches.
Coil's name may sound familiar to those more tuned in to offshore racing as he was part of world champion Dave Scott's Anheuser Bush race team for several years before AB dropped its sponsorship and Scott retired a few years ago.
Myrick Coil is an unassuming, hands-on boat racer. As shop foreman at Performance Boat Center, he's involved with nearly every aspect of not only PBC's racing endeavors, but also the day-to-day management of the shop. During a recent interview, he took a call from a fellow mechanic who wanted to tag-team a problem.
Coil called it teamwork, a necessity for the type of success expected from owner Waddington.
"Mark wants to succeed," Coil said, "and he understands he has to get the best of everything to succeed."
Getting there
Coil started as a technician on the Anheuser-Busch team, and was Scott's crew chief for several years in the early 2000s. He was a backup driver for the Bacardi Silver boat with Tomlinson at the throttle, and eventually drove or worked on all of Scott's boats.
Then Don Onken, another boat owner, came to Coil and asked him to drive the American Ethanol boat that won the Shootout last August.
But his interest in boat racing started before that and has its roots in the Lake Career and Technical College.
Like so many full-time residents of the Lake today, Coil's family owned a small cabin on the Gravois Arm that they visited in the summers from their small Illinois town. He was in high school then, and dabbled a little in boats but never considered it a career path. He was more involved in electrical work and plumbing, which he realized later were fundamental to boating.
It was at a Shootout event around 2000 at Shooter's 21 when he caught the racing bug. He'd been told he had a propensity as a boat mechanic, but didn't take it seriously until the excitement of the Shootout.
After the Shootout, he discovered he'd lost his wallet and didn't have enough money for gas to get home. He found a job to get cash for fuel, and then someone suggested he check out LCTC's marine technology course. After visiting with instructor Larry Whittrock, he enrolled a day late but quickly caught on.
He first won an area marine tech competition, then a regional contest followed by state after which he drove to the national competition in Kansas City, which he also won.
He soon began job shadowing at Advanced Marine in Rocky Mount near his parents' Lake home.
"The owners took me under their wing," Coil recalled fondly.
Advanced Marine also happened to be where Dave Scott took his boats, and when Scott expanded his crew he turned to Coil.
He also credits time as crewmember for the late Bob Morgan's Big Thunder race boat.
And so it was, about two years ago, with the Anheuser-Busch and Big Thunder eras in Coil's wake, that PBC's Waddington and Manire approached Coil about becoming part of their team. It was an easy decision as Coil learned of the owners' drive for racing success and to operate a top-quality facility.
Does he ever fear for his safety as he leapfrogs from wave to wave on the open ocean, or nudges for space on a tight racecourse corner?
Yes, of course. When the first of his three children was born he became more aware of the risks involved. But his confidence in the boats, his throttleman and his own skills quickly push those concerns to the back of his mind.
He and his wife, Missi, have two boys and a girl.
When he gets on the course behind the pace boat, and the white flag drops, the risks seem to go away.
At that point, it's all about winning.
Entire Article and Photos: http://www.lakenewsonline.com/articl...NEWS/160609707
