Brent DILLARD^{[1, 2]}

• Name	Brent DILLARD
  Gender	Male
  HIST	of Sumter, South Carolina Dalzell native Dillard making a splash in international F1 racing after RotY honors Dalzell native Brent Dillard sits in front of his growing collection of awards from racing tunnel boats. The latest addition is rookie of the year honors from F1H2O, the highest level of Formula 1 racing. ADAM FLASH / THE SUMTER ITEM Posted Saturday, February 3, 2024 6:00 am By TIM LEIBLE tim@theitem.com Last year was quite literally a wild ride for Dalzell native Brent Dillard. Dillard has been racing boats since before he could legally drive a car, but he took his competition to the next level in 2023. He competed on the world's largest stage in the sport, Formula 1 H2O. The sport took him on a tour across the world, a fact that sounds more glamorous than it is in actuality, according to Dillard. But he didn't just show up in places like Italy and Indonesia, he thrived. Dillard finished in 10th place in the standings at the end of his inaugural season, earning rookie of the year honors in the process. Now, he's gearing up for his second season, which kicks off in Indonesia on Feb. 23. Throughout every step of the journey, Dillard never forgets the city that raised him. "I'm proud to be from Dalzell, South Carolina. I have it on my helmet," Dillard said. "I actually have a picture of Ja Morant on my helmet because I'm so proud to be from Dalzell and racing on a national level. This year, we're really looking forward to getting some wins to get on the stage and get that American flag up there with me." F1H20 When many people think of F1, especially in America, they think of cars. The popular Netflix series built around the sport helped the automotive version of F1 explode in popularity. The aquatic version is extremely different, even if the basics are the same. "It's like if you took a car and you're going 140 mph and you said, 'I'm going to go straight into that cornfield' or you went over 1,000 speed bumps, one speed bump after another," Dillard said. "That's what it's like in a boat; you're going 140, but it's not smooth. Your head is banging side to side, you can barely see, and sometimes we race in salt water. The salt will come up, and the sunlight, there's so many different factors." The land-based version of the sport is built on precision. While there are many fine details that need to go right to succeed on the water, there's no simple game plan you can create beforehand to gear up for the perfect race. "I have an F1 simulator; every lap is the same. If I can perfect a lap, I've got it," Dillard said of driving in a car. "In boat racing, every lap is different because the water changes. You come into the turn one time, and the water is one way, you come in another time, and there's rollers in there, you have to take that turn a different way. To compare Formula 1 car racing to boat racing, I think it's a lot harder to do the boat racing because you can't train for what you're about to do. We literally are reading the water every second." The sport is broken down into various levels, all depending on the top speed of the vehicles. Dillard has raced Formula 3 in the past and began international competitions at Formula 2. When he made the leap to F1, the speed of the boats jumped about 30 mph. "Where you really feel the difference is not the straightaway at top-end speed," Dillard said. "You feel it and the engine is just singing, it's high pitched, but when you turn you're pulling, instead of 3Gs, you're pulling 6G's and it just rips your neck. That's all I do is neck exercises." ROOKIE YEAR MADNESS Dillard dreamed of racing at the Formula 1 level, but he didn't expect to make the jump in 2023. He was racing for a Formula 2 squad from England at the time, competing throughout Europe. That's when he got a call from China CTIC. Their top driver had just retired, and they wanted to have Dillard fill the void. Dillard didn't need much convincing. He was just 30 days from his first race in a boat he'd never driven before, but he wasn't concerned. From the moment he stepped foot in Indonesia and hopped in the tunnel boat, he felt right at home. "It felt like this is how a race boat should feel, that much power," Dillard said. "It's actually easier to drive Formula 1 than it is to drive Formula 2 because you have more power behind you to get through the water. If the water is really rough, you can get on top of it. When you turn, you have more power pushing you through the turn. Formula 1, for me, it came natural, it felt natural. My first race, we got sixth place, and we were very excited for that." The Dalzell native was confident from the start. "As soon as I was on the team, I was like, 'I'm gonna get this rookie of the year,'" Dillard said. "My real goal was that I wanted to win one race to get on the podium. If I get on the podium, I can bring my American flag and tie it around my neck like Superman, so that was my No. 1 goal. I wanted to get on that podium and have that American flag up there." That confidence was tested almost immediately. Dillard's season was very complicated, though not in the way you might expect. When Dillard got to Indonesia, it was smooth sailing, at least once he landed. The travel was a grind. "When I ran Formula 2, we were racing in Europe. Now, we're racing around the world. The first race last year was in Indonesia, and I couldn't even tell you where it was on the map. I had to look it up, right above Australia," he said. "It was like two 15-hour flights; it was crazy. That was a toll on me, the flight and then the time difference to 12 hours ahead and the types of food there, all that you have to get adjusted to. And then, I had never been in the boat before. When they signed me to the team, it was 30 days before going to Indonesia, so it was no practice, nothing, just get in the boat, you're going to race Formula 1." But once Dillard's feet touched the ground, things were simple. His visa was sorted out before he left the airport, and he raced well, finishing in sixth. His second race, however, would be in China. One might assume that wouldn't be a problem, as he does race for a Chinese team, after all. Not so much. He went through weeks of trying to deal with getting a visa. He even hired someone to do the heavy lifting. When the day arrived for his planned fight to China, Dillard still had no visa. "We (typically) get there a week early because you have to get used to the time difference, prepare the boats. Then FedEx showed up with my visa on Wednesday, and the race was Saturday," Dillard said. "I literally got the FedEx, drove straight to Charlotte and said, 'I need a ticket right now to China.' It was eight grand. I call the team and say it was the only way I can go, and they say get it. I was there, I got to China that night, and in the morning, I had to race." Dillard got off the plane and almost immediately had to jump in his boat for practice. When he did, the antenna for his boat was missing, wiping out radio connection to his team. After some trial and error, the issue was sorted, but by that point, Dillard was at the end of his rope. "I get them to put the antenna on, and I go out there, and I drive like a maniac because I'm upset about the visa, I'm upset about having to sit on that plane for so long, not getting any sleep, and then the team owner after was like, 'Calm down or I'm putting you on a plane back to the USA' because I was like flying the boat," he said. "It was practice, and I was driving like I was driving for my life, like I had everything on the line. I had one of the quickest times and everybody was amazed, and it was great for the fans, but there was no need to do that." Despite the visa-induced mania, Brent still managed to finish in 10th place in the race. In another month, it was off to France, the second home country for his team. France is where he also got closest to getting on the podium. "I was in third place in a brand-new boat, and I got stuck right behind somebody on a restart, and a guy from Abu Dhabi went right by me, then my teammate pulls up beside me, and he was going to pinch me," Dillard said. "I didn't know what he was going to do. It was my first year racing with my teammates, so I backed out of it. With it being my first year, I didn't want to push it because there was another rookie that did something stupid and he got a red card, got punished, and now he's suspended for this first race coming up." Everything came to a head in Dillard's final race, the Grand Prix of Sharjah, which is in the United Arab Emirates, Dec. 8-10. Before the weekend even started, Dillard knew he was in for a wild time. "My engines were stuck in Germany in a snow storm, so I didn't get to qualify," he said. "They had qualifying, and I just sat there and watched." On Saturday night, they had a pre-race competition. Instead of racing for points, they were racing for money. Then the next piece of insanity hit. "We're racing, and my radio man was yelling at me, 'Turn harder, turn harder.' So after three turns of him telling me to turn harder, I grab the bottom of the steering wheel and turn it as hard as I could, and I did two barrel rolls," Dillard said. "I was upside down; I went to undo the belt, and I was back over right-side up. I tried to keep going, but it broke the fuel line." With one crisis averted, Dillard geared up for Sunday's race. "Then Sunday comes, I'd just crashed, my engines aren't coming, a big mess. I start dead last," Dillard said, referencing the fact that he couldn't run in the qualifying race. "I worked my way all the way up to ninth, pass the ninth-place boat. I'm passing the eighth-place boat, and as I pass him, he doesn't know. We're going into a right-hander. I pass him, he turns, and he hits me and puts a crack in my boat. I see three boats in front of me; I know I can go get them, but once you get a crack in a boat that's going 130 mph, water comes in there and just blows the boat completely apart." While it was the only race all season that Dillard was unable to finish, he stayed positive. "That was, I think, my best race because it was the most troublesome, the most hurdles I'd had to overcome," he said. GETTING STARTED To make sense of Dillard's confidence at the start of his F1 career, it helps to know his origin as a racer. He started the sport at the young age of 13, following in the footsteps of his father, Steve Dillard. The young buck was an instant success. He won his first race, and by the age of 14, he won the APBA Hydro Class, racing against a field of adults. "It had never been done, still to this day," Dillard said of claiming the title at 14. "I remember winning it, and it felt like I did something wrong. When I finished, everyone looked at me, giving me this really mean look because I had just beat all these adults, and they're just looking down at this kid. I was kinda confused." All through school, Dillard raced, but mostly as a hobby. His greatest passion was another sport, basketball. He played at Camden Military and Lee Academy before making the jump to college hoops at Hampden Sydney College in Virginia. His coach wasn't necessarily the biggest fan of his other extracurricular activity. "My college coach did not want me to go. Actually, my roommates that were on the team with me wanted to go to the race with me, and he wouldn't let them go," Dillard said. "When I was playing college basketball, I was racing, but I wasn't very passionate about it. It was something I was doing to be a hobby with my father. It was more of a hobby." But Dillard got hurt during his sophomore year, injuring two discs in his lower back. He eventually had surgery, but his days of college basketball were finished. Without basketball to drive his competitive spirit, Dillard turned his attention fully to racing. He was looking into purchasing a new boat in 2018, contacting a team in Sweden about a vehicle they were planning to retire. "We were thinking about buying this thing and bringing it home, and during that conversation, they said, 'Why don't you come over here and race it with us in our world championship against the best in the world?' I said, 'Sure, no problem.' So I flew to Sweden, stayed there for about a month, went to the first race, it was in Lithuania," Dillard said. "We do qualifying on Saturday, and I miss the pole by like .2 seconds, so I had to start second. I had never been in this boat, I'd never raced with these guys, this is Formula 2, and we're going about 120 mph, and I qualified second, which blew everyone's mind. They're like, 'Who is this American?'" Much like his time in F1, things didn't necessarily go smoothly, but they went well in the end. "When the race started, we all line up together, and we start like a drag race onto the course, and then we do the course. I hit the start, and the motor didn't crank," he said. "Everybody left, 21 boats left, and I stayed. The fourth time, the engine cranked, and they're already 200-300 yards ahead of me. It was a 45-lap race, and I finished fourth. I ran down almost every single one of those guys. I was good from then on." Dillard stood out because of his aggression to pass other racers, which is atypical outside of the U.S. "The mentality overseas is to maintain your position," he said. "I always want to keep going to the front because you can make one mistake and go from first place to breaking your boat and instead of making money to spending money." After a strong start to his international career, COVID-19 wiped out two years of racing. He competed once in America, winning a race on Lake Havasu in Arizona. After that, he dove back into European competition, first with a team from Italy before the squad from England in 2022. Now after a great rookie year, Dillard is looking to make a strong push in F1H2O in 2024. "We got third last year in the team championship. We should've gotten second. If I wouldn't have crashed, we would've gotten second," Dillard said. "My teammate (Peter Morin) is really good, too; he can win any race that we have. Our team goal is to win the team championship. You've got to finish every race, that's the most important. The main goal is to finish every race and to try to get on the podium. And I want to get the pole on one of the races. I know I can get the pole." Dillard also loves his team, China CTIC. Owner Eric Chan has developed a great environment with the squad that is partially Chinese and partially French. "Every race he tells us, 'No pressure, just win,'" Dillard said of Chan. "He kinda stands in the background, he doesn't get too much involved, but he's really excited about it. For somebody to invest in the sport and have their own team, they have to really love it. You can see he has a passion for it. As drivers, he really takes care of us." The Dalzell native will start 2024 behind the eight ball as he waits for his boat to get back into racing shape after his crash to end 2023. After that, he's gunning for wins. "I don't know what's going to happen in the first race. I'm going to be in a boat I've never been in before, so we'll see how that goes," Dillard said. "After the first race and I get my boat back, I believe I can fight for the win in every race we go to."  [1, 2]
  HIST	of Sumter, South Carolina Dalzell native Dillard making a splash in international F1 racing after RotY honors Dalzell native Brent Dillard sits in front of his growing collection of awards from racing tunnel boats. The latest addition is rookie of the year honors from F1H2O, the highest level of Formula 1 racing. ADAM FLASH / THE SUMTER ITEM Posted Saturday, February 3, 2024 6:00 am By TIM LEIBLE tim@theitem.com Last year was quite literally a wild ride for Dalzell native Brent Dillard. Dillard has been racing boats since before he could legally drive a car, but he took his competition to the next level in 2023. He competed on the world's largest stage in the sport, Formula 1 H2O. The sport took him on a tour across the world, a fact that sounds more glamorous than it is in actuality, according to Dillard. But he didn't just show up in places like Italy and Indonesia, he thrived. Dillard finished in 10th place in the standings at the end of his inaugural season, earning rookie of the year honors in the process. Now, he's gearing up for his second season, which kicks off in Indonesia on Feb. 23. Throughout every step of the journey, Dillard never forgets the city that raised him. "I'm proud to be from Dalzell, South Carolina. I have it on my helmet," Dillard said. "I actually have a picture of Ja Morant on my helmet because I'm so proud to be from Dalzell and racing on a national level. This year, we're really looking forward to getting some wins to get on the stage and get that American flag up there with me." F1H20 When many people think of F1, especially in America, they think of cars. The popular Netflix series built around the sport helped the automotive version of F1 explode in popularity. The aquatic version is extremely different, even if the basics are the same. "It's like if you took a car and you're going 140 mph and you said, 'I'm going to go straight into that cornfield' or you went over 1,000 speed bumps, one speed bump after another," Dillard said. "That's what it's like in a boat; you're going 140, but it's not smooth. Your head is banging side to side, you can barely see, and sometimes we race in salt water. The salt will come up, and the sunlight, there's so many different factors." The land-based version of the sport is built on precision. While there are many fine details that need to go right to succeed on the water, there's no simple game plan you can create beforehand to gear up for the perfect race. "I have an F1 simulator; every lap is the same. If I can perfect a lap, I've got it," Dillard said of driving in a car. "In boat racing, every lap is different because the water changes. You come into the turn one time, and the water is one way, you come in another time, and there's rollers in there, you have to take that turn a different way. To compare Formula 1 car racing to boat racing, I think it's a lot harder to do the boat racing because you can't train for what you're about to do. We literally are reading the water every second." The sport is broken down into various levels, all depending on the top speed of the vehicles. Dillard has raced Formula 3 in the past and began international competitions at Formula 2. When he made the leap to F1, the speed of the boats jumped about 30 mph. "Where you really feel the difference is not the straightaway at top-end speed," Dillard said. "You feel it and the engine is just singing, it's high pitched, but when you turn you're pulling, instead of 3Gs, you're pulling 6G's and it just rips your neck. That's all I do is neck exercises." ROOKIE YEAR MADNESS Dillard dreamed of racing at the Formula 1 level, but he didn't expect to make the jump in 2023. He was racing for a Formula 2 squad from England at the time, competing throughout Europe. That's when he got a call from China CTIC. Their top driver had just retired, and they wanted to have Dillard fill the void. Dillard didn't need much convincing. He was just 30 days from his first race in a boat he'd never driven before, but he wasn't concerned. From the moment he stepped foot in Indonesia and hopped in the tunnel boat, he felt right at home. "It felt like this is how a race boat should feel, that much power," Dillard said. "It's actually easier to drive Formula 1 than it is to drive Formula 2 because you have more power behind you to get through the water. If the water is really rough, you can get on top of it. When you turn, you have more power pushing you through the turn. Formula 1, for me, it came natural, it felt natural. My first race, we got sixth place, and we were very excited for that." The Dalzell native was confident from the start. "As soon as I was on the team, I was like, 'I'm gonna get this rookie of the year,'" Dillard said. "My real goal was that I wanted to win one race to get on the podium. If I get on the podium, I can bring my American flag and tie it around my neck like Superman, so that was my No. 1 goal. I wanted to get on that podium and have that American flag up there." That confidence was tested almost immediately. Dillard's season was very complicated, though not in the way you might expect. When Dillard got to Indonesia, it was smooth sailing, at least once he landed. The travel was a grind. "When I ran Formula 2, we were racing in Europe. Now, we're racing around the world. The first race last year was in Indonesia, and I couldn't even tell you where it was on the map. I had to look it up, right above Australia," he said. "It was like two 15-hour flights; it was crazy. That was a toll on me, the flight and then the time difference to 12 hours ahead and the types of food there, all that you have to get adjusted to. And then, I had never been in the boat before. When they signed me to the team, it was 30 days before going to Indonesia, so it was no practice, nothing, just get in the boat, you're going to race Formula 1." But once Dillard's feet touched the ground, things were simple. His visa was sorted out before he left the airport, and he raced well, finishing in sixth. His second race, however, would be in China. One might assume that wouldn't be a problem, as he does race for a Chinese team, after all. Not so much. He went through weeks of trying to deal with getting a visa. He even hired someone to do the heavy lifting. When the day arrived for his planned fight to China, Dillard still had no visa. "We (typically) get there a week early because you have to get used to the time difference, prepare the boats. Then FedEx showed up with my visa on Wednesday, and the race was Saturday," Dillard said. "I literally got the FedEx, drove straight to Charlotte and said, 'I need a ticket right now to China.' It was eight grand. I call the team and say it was the only way I can go, and they say get it. I was there, I got to China that night, and in the morning, I had to race." Dillard got off the plane and almost immediately had to jump in his boat for practice. When he did, the antenna for his boat was missing, wiping out radio connection to his team. After some trial and error, the issue was sorted, but by that point, Dillard was at the end of his rope. "I get them to put the antenna on, and I go out there, and I drive like a maniac because I'm upset about the visa, I'm upset about having to sit on that plane for so long, not getting any sleep, and then the team owner after was like, 'Calm down or I'm putting you on a plane back to the USA' because I was like flying the boat," he said. "It was practice, and I was driving like I was driving for my life, like I had everything on the line. I had one of the quickest times and everybody was amazed, and it was great for the fans, but there was no need to do that." Despite the visa-induced mania, Brent still managed to finish in 10th place in the race. In another month, it was off to France, the second home country for his team. France is where he also got closest to getting on the podium. "I was in third place in a brand-new boat, and I got stuck right behind somebody on a restart, and a guy from Abu Dhabi went right by me, then my teammate pulls up beside me, and he was going to pinch me," Dillard said. "I didn't know what he was going to do. It was my first year racing with my teammates, so I backed out of it. With it being my first year, I didn't want to push it because there was another rookie that did something stupid and he got a red card, got punished, and now he's suspended for this first race coming up." Everything came to a head in Dillard's final race, the Grand Prix of Sharjah, which is in the United Arab Emirates, Dec. 8-10. Before the weekend even started, Dillard knew he was in for a wild time. "My engines were stuck in Germany in a snow storm, so I didn't get to qualify," he said. "They had qualifying, and I just sat there and watched." On Saturday night, they had a pre-race competition. Instead of racing for points, they were racing for money. Then the next piece of insanity hit. "We're racing, and my radio man was yelling at me, 'Turn harder, turn harder.' So after three turns of him telling me to turn harder, I grab the bottom of the steering wheel and turn it as hard as I could, and I did two barrel rolls," Dillard said. "I was upside down; I went to undo the belt, and I was back over right-side up. I tried to keep going, but it broke the fuel line." With one crisis averted, Dillard geared up for Sunday's race. "Then Sunday comes, I'd just crashed, my engines aren't coming, a big mess. I start dead last," Dillard said, referencing the fact that he couldn't run in the qualifying race. "I worked my way all the way up to ninth, pass the ninth-place boat. I'm passing the eighth-place boat, and as I pass him, he doesn't know. We're going into a right-hander. I pass him, he turns, and he hits me and puts a crack in my boat. I see three boats in front of me; I know I can go get them, but once you get a crack in a boat that's going 130 mph, water comes in there and just blows the boat completely apart." While it was the only race all season that Dillard was unable to finish, he stayed positive. "That was, I think, my best race because it was the most troublesome, the most hurdles I'd had to overcome," he said. GETTING STARTED To make sense of Dillard's confidence at the start of his F1 career, it helps to know his origin as a racer. He started the sport at the young age of 13, following in the footsteps of his father, Steve Dillard. The young buck was an instant success. He won his first race, and by the age of 14, he won the APBA Hydro Class, racing against a field of adults. "It had never been done, still to this day," Dillard said of claiming the title at 14. "I remember winning it, and it felt like I did something wrong. When I finished, everyone looked at me, giving me this really mean look because I had just beat all these adults, and they're just looking down at this kid. I was kinda confused." All through school, Dillard raced, but mostly as a hobby. His greatest passion was another sport, basketball. He played at Camden Military and Lee Academy before making the jump to college hoops at Hampden Sydney College in Virginia. His coach wasn't necessarily the biggest fan of his other extracurricular activity. "My college coach did not want me to go. Actually, my roommates that were on the team with me wanted to go to the race with me, and he wouldn't let them go," Dillard said. "When I was playing college basketball, I was racing, but I wasn't very passionate about it. It was something I was doing to be a hobby with my father. It was more of a hobby." But Dillard got hurt during his sophomore year, injuring two discs in his lower back. He eventually had surgery, but his days of college basketball were finished. Without basketball to drive his competitive spirit, Dillard turned his attention fully to racing. He was looking into purchasing a new boat in 2018, contacting a team in Sweden about a vehicle they were planning to retire. "We were thinking about buying this thing and bringing it home, and during that conversation, they said, 'Why don't you come over here and race it with us in our world championship against the best in the world?' I said, 'Sure, no problem.' So I flew to Sweden, stayed there for about a month, went to the first race, it was in Lithuania," Dillard said. "We do qualifying on Saturday, and I miss the pole by like .2 seconds, so I had to start second. I had never been in this boat, I'd never raced with these guys, this is Formula 2, and we're going about 120 mph, and I qualified second, which blew everyone's mind. They're like, 'Who is this American?'" Much like his time in F1, things didn't necessarily go smoothly, but they went well in the end. "When the race started, we all line up together, and we start like a drag race onto the course, and then we do the course. I hit the start, and the motor didn't crank," he said. "Everybody left, 21 boats left, and I stayed. The fourth time, the engine cranked, and they're already 200-300 yards ahead of me. It was a 45-lap race, and I finished fourth. I ran down almost every single one of those guys. I was good from then on." Dillard stood out because of his aggression to pass other racers, which is atypical outside of the U.S. "The mentality overseas is to maintain your position," he said. "I always want to keep going to the front because you can make one mistake and go from first place to breaking your boat and instead of making money to spending money." After a strong start to his international career, COVID-19 wiped out two years of racing. He competed once in America, winning a race on Lake Havasu in Arizona. After that, he dove back into European competition, first with a team from Italy before the squad from England in 2022. Now after a great rookie year, Dillard is looking to make a strong push in F1H2O in 2024. "We got third last year in the team championship. We should've gotten second. If I wouldn't have crashed, we would've gotten second," Dillard said. "My teammate (Peter Morin) is really good, too; he can win any race that we have. Our team goal is to win the team championship. You've got to finish every race, that's the most important. The main goal is to finish every race and to try to get on the podium. And I want to get the pole on one of the races. I know I can get the pole." Dillard also loves his team, China CTIC. Owner Eric Chan has developed a great environment with the squad that is partially Chinese and partially French. "Every race he tells us, 'No pressure, just win,'" Dillard said of Chan. "He kinda stands in the background, he doesn't get too much involved, but he's really excited about it. For somebody to invest in the sport and have their own team, they have to really love it. You can see he has a passion for it. As drivers, he really takes care of us." The Dalzell native will start 2024 behind the eight ball as he waits for his boat to get back into racing shape after his crash to end 2023. After that, he's gunning for wins. "I don't know what's going to happen in the first race. I'm going to be in a boat I've never been in before, so we'll see how that goes," Dillard said. "After the first race and I get my boat back, I believe I can fight for the win in every race we go to."
  _UID	06D9D80DE4474612B65EDC33074CE2DB7AB3
  _UID	06D9D80DE4474612B65EDC33074CE2DB7AB3
  Person ID	I343488	Singleton and Related Families
  Last Modified	3 Mar 2024

  
  

  Father	Stephen Henry “Steve” DILLARD
  Mother	Teresa
  _UID	E84B007958204104B2A709BB5FC763657432
  _UID	E84B007958204104B2A709BB5FC763657432
  Family ID	F205067	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Sources

  [S31527] Kate M. Dillard. [S31611] Dalzell native Dillard making a splash in international F1 racing after RotY honors.