SEARSPORT – Maine’s final lobster boat race of the season ended with a shocker Sunday as one of the high-powered vessels flipped in choppy coastal waters with two men aboard.

No serious injuries were reported in the accident ending what has grown into a Down East tradition: The waterborne equivalent of a drag race featuring souped-up delivery trucks instead of sleek racers.

A boat called the Wild Wild West sporting Yosemite Sam on the bow and a dual-turbocharged V8 in the engine bay was neck-and-neck with the Lunasea when it did a barrel roll.

“It was so rough. She caught a wave and went sideways,” Joe Sargent, 28, of Hancock said after he and crewmate Dale Carter were plucked from the water.

Carter, 49, of Franklin was banged up and suffered a dislocated elbow in the episode. He was in stable condition Sunday night after surgery at Waldo County General Hospital. Sargent also was treated at the Belfast hospital.

The Coast Guard ordered the race stopped because of windy and choppy conditions, but the decision wasn’t welcomed by everyone. After all, the stakes are high in a sport featuring NASCAR-like horsepower, point standings and rabid fans.

Some, like Travis Otis of Searsport, said the others should have been allowed to take their chances.

“Go for the glory – that’s what you want. You want to show off your boat. And when you don’t, you’re upset,” Otis said.

Racers pull out all the stops in an event where a half mile-per-hour can make the difference between the victory and defeat.

Some racers pull their boats from the water to remove barnacles and polish the hulls in hopes of making them faster. Others ice down fuel lines on the theory that denser fuel provides a little extra horsepower. Still others slip containers of “octane boost” into their fuel tanks for the extra edge.

“People will stop at nothing to try to win,” said Brian Fraser, a Searsport race organizer who spent $70,000 on the engine in his boat.

While the racing that wrapped up Sunday was no Winston Cup series, it has become an important diversion for fishermen who are ready to have fun on the water after six days of hauling lobster traps.

Lobstermen race for points in six official races of the eight held along the coast during the warmer months.

The annual series had its beginnings in the daily race for lobstermen to get back into port each evening. Some say the tradition dates back more than 100 years when lobstermen organized races in their rowboats.

While bragging rights are important, there are practical reasons for lobstermen to want a little extra speed.

Having a fast boat can shave 30 minutes off the outgoing and return trips each day, particularly during the fall and winter when a few lobstermen fish 30 miles off Maine’s rocky coast, said Pat White, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.

The early races were unorganized affairs with few rules. These days, a rules committee convenes each spring and safety is a big concern. Racing rules now require two people per boat and a throttle kill switch in case the crew goes overboard.

Before Sunday, no one could recall a lobster boat crashing, although smaller skiffs had flipped in past races.

The Wild Wild West, a 28-footer, featured a massive Chevy engine with turbochargers and a loud crackling from the dual chrome exhausts. Fellow lobstermen helped rescue the boat, which was on the verge of sinking.

Sargent, who was operating the boat, said it had been stable in past races. But some observers fear safety could be compromised by the trend toward lighter, fiberglass boats with massive engines designed for racing.

“It’s getting away from the guy who wants to pull lobster traps and into performance boats. It’s probably an accident waiting to happen,” said Bill Shorey, who helped Fraser organize the race.

Some, like Andrew Gove of Stonington, believe there are too many people who attach a winch for hauling traps onto their vessels, then declare them to be lobster boats and enter them against real working boats.

Gove, 71, has a 900-horsepower diesel engine in his working boat named Uncle’s UFO, which is short for Uncle’s Unidentified Floating Object. He motored to the race, unlike many entrants who towed their boats to save their engines for race day.

“What bothers me the most is having people race with boats that are not commercial boats,” he said before the race. “It discourages the people who work every day.”