It all
started with Bob Ross who introduced his sons, Mike and Tim, to the
boat-racing world. Bob had won many marathons in the stock outboard racing
division. The most famous was the 90-mile Winnebago Marathon in Wisconsin.
He also ran the Top-O-Michigan marathon and placed well but never won. His
boys changed all that.
Mike won his first nationals in 1977,
which was two years after he started in 1975. Their boat number 75M was
chosen because it was the year that Mike started. After 1977, the Marathon
Nationals have been and continue to be held at Top-O-Michigan. Mike’s first
national championship at Top-O-Michigan was in 1980. He continued this
winning national streak in 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1985.
His brother Tim, started racing in
1981. Tim began his own nationals winning streak by winning the
Top-O-Michigan marathon in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, and 1990 in two different
classes. Mike also continued to win national championships in 1987, 1988,
1990, and 1994. Mike won the Top-O-Michigan in four different classes during
his racing career. During the 1970’s and 1980’s, Mike added four separate
short course national championships to go along with his now 10
Top-O-Michigan marathon championships.
With Tim already having five marathon
national championships under his belt, he would begin a streak of
consecutive wins in the C-Stock Runabout Class (CSR). It started in 1997 and
continued through 2007 making it eleven consecutive wins in the CSR class,
which is unprecedented. Tim also continued to excel at the short course
national wins and a marathon national championship. Tim received APBA’s
highest honor and was inducted into the Hall of Champions for his stock
outboard division. Tim was also inducted in 2006 into APBA’s Region 6 Hall
of Fame.
Between 1975 and 2007, the Ross
Brothers have stacked up 27 marathon national championships and 8 short
track national championships for a grand total of 35 national national
championships, making the Ross Brothers a dominant factor for over three
decades. Tim continues at age 38 to be a force to be reckoned with. Tim is
shooting for his 12th consecutive national championship at Top-O-Michigan.
He currently holds the record for most wins at Top-O-Michigan with 15
national championships. Vic Brinkman holds the number two spot with 12
Top-O-Michigan national championships and Mike Ross is just one behind Vic
with 11 Top-O-Michigan national championships.
