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Boating Safety

The Midnight Killer Claims a World Champion

The Midnight Killer Claims a World Champion powerboat
A 28’ Skater Powerboat hit a channel range marker at 4 a.m. last Saturday morning.

Former national and world champion offshore boat racer Michael Anderson, 53, died from injuries sustained in a boating accident early Saturday morning in the Tampa Bay shipping channel near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. His passenger, Cheryl Lorio, 50, is in critical condition.

Anderson, of St. Petersburg, Fla., owned Performance Outboards and Machine in Largo, Fla. He and passenger Cheryl Lorio were on board the 28-foot catamaran when it hit a range marker piling at approximately 4 a.m., according to several sources.

Both people were taken to Bayfront Hospital in St. Petersburg for treatment where Anderson died from his injuries, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife. Lorio was listed in serious condition.

The Midnight Killer Claims a World Champion group picture
Mike Anderson (left, pictured with George, center, and Micheal Stancombe in Qatar) died Saturday morning in a boating accident.

It has been reported that Micheal Stancombe, a longtime friend of Anderson, was devastated when he heard the news this morning that his occasional teammate—the two raced together several times including in Stancombe's Peppers Offshore Racing Skater at the Qatar Cup in 2015—died in the accident.

"You were my friend, brother, fellow troublemaker and confidant," Stancombe wrote in a Facebook post. "We won world championships side by side. Boat rides, setting raceboats up and tearing stuff up like the 12-year-olds that we were (acting like). I'm going to miss you my friend. God speed."