Team

The Team

The Seebold family has been a leader in American powerboat racing since 1938. Seebolds have won 12 North American championships just since 1989.

It all started when Bill Seebold Sr. started building boats and racing on the Mississippi River in 1938. Bill Sr. became a champion and passed his passion for speed on to his son, Bill Seebold Jr., who became one of the most successful boat racers in history.

Bill Jr. won more than 900 races and 60 world or national championships in a 46-year career that ended in 1997. He was a member of the 1999 class inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in Novi, Mich. In February 2004 he joined the members of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in Springfield.

Now a third generation of Seebolds leads the pack. Sons Mike and Tim Seebold have won 30 of the 59 major Formula 1 and Champ races contested since the beginning of the 1995 season. The brothers have won seven North American Champ boat titles.

Before retiring, Bill Seebold won North American championships in 1989, 1993, 1994 and 1997. Mike won the title in 1982, 1992 and 2000. Tim was the champion in 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004 and 2007.

Today, Seebold boats are raced by 40 percent of teams competing in North America and 30 percent of those contesting the Union of International Motorboating Formula One circuit that covers Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Team Seebold delivers marketing power. The 2008 season marks the 27th anniversary of the partnership between Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light Brand as primary sponsor for Team Seebold, one of the longest running in motorsports today.

The Owner

After 46 years of winning just about every race and championship in the sport, Bill Seebold finally stepped out of the cockpit. But he hasn’t stepped away from the water.

Bill began his racing career as an 11-year-old from the working-class town of Granite City, Ill. He won his very first boat race. He wrapped up his spectacular career by winning the 1997 PROP Tour Formula One championship at age 57. His career record includes 60 world and national championships and more than 900 race victories. He was a seven-time winner of the Bud Light St. Louis Grand Prix, a race often referred to as the “Indy 500” of boat racing.

Bill Seebold, now team manager, was inducted by the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in Detroit, Mich., in 1999 and joined the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.

There were many highlights during Bill’s career. He won six national championships on one day in Alexandria, La. On one weekend in Bristol, England, in 1982 his two-liter Mercury engine left a fleet of four-liter V-8s in its wake. In the 1979 world championships at Milan, Italy, Bill raced a single-engine boat with a 3.5-liter Mercury against a twin-engine boat with a pair of three-liter OMC engines. Bill won.

He won the prestigious Duke of York Trophy in England six times and received the Union of International Motorboating’s Medal of Honor in 1992. He was inducted into the Gulf Marine Hall of Fame when he was only 25.

The Driver

Tim Seebold is the current driver of Team Seebold’s Bud Light Racing Team Champ boat. He also is the defending champion of the ChampBoat Series. His 2007 national title was his fifth since 1998. He has never finished lower than second in the final point standings of the ChampBoat Series, which was formed in 2002.

Tim has scored 25 victories in the Formula One and Champ classes. He has scored 12 of those wins in the ChampBoat Series to account for nearly one-third of the trophies awarded since the series was launched.

Tim won his first championship at the age of 17, driving a Mod 50 boat to a Mod 90-class Marathon Nationals victory and world record at Lake Alford, Florida. In 1990 he earned the SST-140 championship in the Outboard Performance Craft Nationals at Kankakee, Ill. The following year he brought home another Marathon Nationals trophy, this time in the Mod U class, from Huntington, West Virginia.

Prior to stepping up the top powerboat class, Tim won U.S. titles in the SST-140 class in 1991, 1993 and 1994. He rounded out his 1994 season by venturing to Japan, where he drove a Budweiser-sponsored Formula One boat to victory on a lake at the base of Mount Fuji.

Tim’s racing experience and on-camera professionalism have made him one of the most highly sought interviews by members of the local media and broadcasters from The Speed Channel. Team Seebold often is the face of ChampBoat Series racing in both sports and popular media – the family has been featured on the CBS-TV show “Good Morning America” as well as documentaries broadcast on The History Channel and the National Geographic Channel. 

Wife: Debbie

Birth Date: January 28, 1964

Home: Osage Beach, Missouri, USA

 Career Highlights

1982

UIM Mod 90 Marathon World Record Holder

APBA Mod 90 Marathon National Champion

1991

APBA Mod U Marathon National Champion

IOGP SST-140 National Champion

1993

IOGP SST-140 National Champion

1994

IOGP SST-140 National Champion

2nd, IOGP Champ Series National Championship

Winner, Green Cup, Lake Ashinoko, Mt. Fuji, Japan

1995

2nd, PROP Tour Formula One Series National Championship

Winner, San Diego Bayfair, PROP Tour Formula One

Winner, Pittsburgh Three Rivers Regatta, IOGP

1996

Winner, Huntingdon, Pa., PROP Tour Formula One

Winner, Dubuque, Iowa, PROP Tour Formula One

Winner, Pittsburgh Three Rivers Regatta, IOGP

1997

Winner, San Diego Bayfair, PROP Tour Formula One

1998

PROP Tour Formula One Series National Champion

Winner, Peoria, Ill., PROP Tour Formula One

Winner, Saskatoon, Sask., PROP Tour Formula One

1999

PROP Tour Formula One Series National Champion

2000

2nd, PROP Tour Formula One Series

Winner, Windsor, Colo., PROP Tour Formula One

Winner, Laughlin, Nev., PROP Tour Formula One

Winner, Durban, South Africa, PROP

2001

3rd, PROP Tour Formula One Series

Winner, Windsor, Colo., PROP Tour Formula One

Winner, Laughlin, Nev., PROP Tour Formula One

Winner, Lake Havasu Classic, Lake Havasu City, Ariz.

2002

ChampBoat Series National Champion

Winner, New Roads, La., ChampBoat Series

Winner, Windsor, Colo., ChampBoat Series

Winner, Kankakee, Ill, ChampBoat Series

2003

2nd, ChampBoat Series

2004

ChampBoat Series National Champion

APBA Champ Boat National High Point US-1

Winner, Windsor, Colo., ChampBoat Series

Winner, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., ChampBoat Series

Winner, St. Louis, Mo., ChampBoat Series

Winner, Saskatoon, Sask., ChampBoat Series

2005

2nd, ChampBoat Series

Winner, Bay City, Mich., ChampBoat Series

Winner, St. Louis, Mo., ChampBoat Series

2006

2nd, ChampBoat Series

2007

ChampBoat Series National Champion

Winner, Bay City, Mich., ChampBoat Series

Winner, St. Louis, Mo., ChampBoat Series

Winner, Windsor, Colo., ChampBoat Series

Inducted into the APBA Hall of Champions