Stevie Johnson likes to race lobster boats. Well, he doesn't like to race them as much as he likes turning them into insane boat-car hybrids that are totally freakin' awesome. That's "Sunbird", his well ... Pontiac Sunbird convertible with twin outboard engines. ("It's a cah-boat," in New England-ese.)

Maine lobster boat racing is a crazy competitive sport and while Johnson has the crazy part down, he's not so big on the competitive. He usually loses every race to Gavin Alley, a lobsterman who sank his first boat because the racing engine he put in it was too big. Since then he's figured out how to win most races with his crazy monster drag race engines. So, actually it's not that competitive at all.

Weary of trying to keep up with competitors who were spending $60,000 and more on high-power racing engines, Mr. Holland retired from the circuit in 2000. "Bragging rights are all you get out of it, and pride was getting expensive," he says.

In Maine, a Rivalry Boils Up On the Lobster-Boat Racing Circuit [Wall Street Journal]

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Ah, drag boat racing; one of those not-at-all-insane sports that ranks right up there with cliff diving and playing catch with a hand grenade. Cruising along at 200 MPH, all it takes is one little ripple in the water — a slight breeze, a trout, an errant leaf on the surface, anything, really — to send your boat flipping and asploding into a thousand pieces.

A rather amazing sequence of photos here by Mark Rebilas of James Ray's drag boat losing it during a race at Firebird Lake in Phoenix, Ariz. There's nothing that says "I came in second" quite like the photo below..