ROAR Offshore Powerboat Races Return to Fort Myers Beach This Weekend, First Since Hurricane Ian

Offshore powerboat racing is coming back to Fort Myers Beach this weekend, the first race on the island since Hurricane Ian struck five years ago. Fort Myers Beach Talk, the local paper that covers the island, reported September 8, 2026 that the event has new ownership: Shaun Torrente, the defending UIM Formula 1 H2O super stock world champion powerboat racer, purchased it from former operators Tim and Cyndee Hill.

I am Kris Asquith, Broker Associate at Premiere Plus Realty, and I sell across nine Southwest Florida markets including Fort Myers Beach. A race that last ran here before the storm, now returning under a new owner who races in the field himself, is worth understanding both as an event and as one more marker of where the island stands in its recovery.

According to Fort Myers Beach Talk, the event runs four days. Thursday opens with a welcome party at Margaritaville Beach Resort. Friday brings a qualifying heat from 2 to 3 p.m., followed by a dock party at Bonita Fish Company from 4:30 to 9 p.m. Saturday is the busiest day: qualifying races from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., a pit party in the Margaritaville parking lots where fans can get close to the boats, and a drag racing exhibition at 3 p.m. The championship race itself starts Sunday at 2 p.m.

That is a full four days built around one weekend, which is a different commitment than a single afternoon of racing, and it means the island has several separate points where visitors and residents can take part rather than one narrow window.

Fort Myers Beach Talk described a five-mile course run twelve times for sixty total miles, starting near Margaritaville Beach Resort, passing Lani Kai Island Resort, and turning near Diamondhead Beach Resort and Pink Shell Beach Resort before heading back. That stretch covers a meaningful share of the island's Gulf-facing shoreline, which means the race itself is visible from public beach along most of that run rather than confined to a single vantage point.

The pit party format, held in the Margaritaville parking lots on Saturday, gives spectators a way to see the boats up close between heats, and the Friday dock party at Bonita Fish Company adds a second gathering point away from the beach itself. Between those and the main race viewing along the shoreline, there is more than one way to take in the weekend depending on whether you want to be near the boats or watching them run.

The event runs the super stock class, catamarans between 28 and 40 feet with racing engines built for the category. Fort Myers Beach Talk reported that Torrente's own boat, the STR 966, carries twin Mercury 300R engines and is expected to top 100 miles per hour on the course. Torrente, reflecting on what the sport demands, told the paper: "Every day is a new adventure," describing the constant mechanical adjustments that come with campaigning a boat at that speed.

Racing offshore catamarans at highway speeds a short distance off a public beach is not a subtle thing to watch, which is part of why an event like this draws attention well beyond the racing community itself.

This is the first time powerboat racing has returned to the island since Hurricane Ian, and that gap of five years is its own kind of marker. An event of this scale, drawing race teams and a new owner willing to buy into the island as a venue, is a different signal than any single business reopening. It says something about how the people who run large annual events now view Fort Myers Beach as a place worth committing a full race weekend to again.

That sits alongside other rebuilding milestones on the island, including the ongoing Fort Myers Beach pier reconstruction at Lynn Hall Memorial Park and the steady return of restaurants and resorts along Estero Boulevard. None of these on their own finishes the story of the island's recovery. Together, an event calendar filling back in is one more piece of evidence that the island is being built for the years ahead, not just patched back to where it was.

Nobody can honestly put a number on what one race weekend does to property values near the course, and be skeptical of anyone who tells you otherwise. What is fair to say is narrower: a major annual event choosing to return to Fort Myers Beach, under new ownership willing to invest in bringing it back, is one more sign that organizers and racers see the island as worth building an event calendar around again. That is a different question from what any specific home or condo along Estero Boulevard is worth, and it should be treated as one data point rather than a reason to rush a decision.

An event like ROAR Offshore is a sign of confidence in the island, not a substitute for the numbers that actually decide what a property costs to buy and keep: what has actually sold nearby, what an association holds in reserves if there is one, what flood insurance runs once elevation is confirmed, and what an inspection turns up on the specific address. The home buying process walks through where each of those gets checked, in order, before you are under contract.

If you are weighing a property along this stretch of Fort Myers Beach, including Fort Myers Beach waterfront homes, beachfront condos, or homes with boat access, or anywhere else across the nine markets I cover, get in touch or call (239) 300-1427 for a straight read on that address rather than the island in general.