With an historic 98 boats registered to race at the Race World Offshore 44^th Annual Offshore World Championships Nov. 2-9 in Key West, Fla., it would be easy for fans to get caught up in the excitement of a hot rivalry or the return of a favorite international team. That left some competitive teams flying under the radar, which suited them just fine.

On day one of the 44 th Annual offshore powerboat racing world championships in Key West, Fla., familiar names claimed hard-earned checkered flags. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

Take the Pro Class 1 race, for example. Last year, Australian driver Darren Nicholson and Italian throttleman Giovanni Carpitella in the 48-foot Victory, Mobile X, won on Wednesday and Friday. They were leading on Sunday when the escape hatch in the deck of their catamaran blew open, soaking the team and the cockpit in salt water. That opened the door for owner/driver Mike Falco and throttleman Billy Moore in the 48-foot Victory, DeFalco Construction, to take the win and championship in Pro Class 1.

Coming into the 2025 event, it wasn’t clear that either boat would be returning until just before the world championships. That set the offshore racing world abuzz about the rematch. Additionally, the season-long battle for Super Cat dominance between Dirty Money and C.J. Grant/Graydel in Super Cat was expected to continue in Key West. The Factory Stock class had its largest entry list to date with nine boats while Super Stock had 14 teams. Eleven Mod-V entries represented the largest fleet for that class. Ditto for the six boats in Super V.

The wet pits in Key West have not looked this robust since the days of APBA Offshore LLC in the early 1990s.

RWO officials published an ambitious schedule with seven starts beginning with three bracket class races to launch the day at 10 a.m. and a harbor closure after the third race. Fans of offshore racing buckled in for a wild day of racing.

A Sleeping Monster
The eight Pro Class 1 boats were joined on the 4.4-mile counter-clockwise course by the Super V class for the final race of the day on Wednesday. With clocks having been turned back on Nov. 2, there were concerns about running out of daylight. Raceboats don’t have headlights.

Monster Energy/M CON Racing left nothing on the table during its run to Pro Class 1 victory yesterday.

As has been the case through the 2025 season, the Pro Class 1 start was less than clean. While all the other classes start with a green flag waved on the pace boat, for Pro Class 1, the pace boat flies a yellow flag and leads the fleet to a chute marked by two green buoys. It’s up to the competitors to be lined up and the officials will call a penalty if any boat is deemed to have violated the lineup. Despite Mobile X and the 48-foot MTI, XINSURANCE North, with driver J.J. Turk and throttleman Nick Buis, getting left behind the other six boats, no penalties were assessed and the race was on. Both boats would make impressive marches through the fleet.

At the front of the pack, DeFalco Construction took advantage of clean water and pulled out to a lead over the owner/driver Willie Cabeza and throttleman Grant Bruggemann in the 48-foot MTI, GC Racing/MTI. Armed with a new tunnel tab in their 48-foot Victory, XINSURANCE South, throttleman Bill Pyburn and driver Brit Lilly ran third. By the end of lap one, a motivated Carpitella and Nicholson ran fourth and owner/throttleman Tyler Miller and driver Myrick Coil ran fifth in the 43-foot Skater, Monster Energy/M CON.

By the end of lap two, things got interesting. Showing impressive speed in the relatively calm conditions, Monster Energy/M CON moved up to second and XINSURANCE South held third. Turning laps estimated at an average speed of 110 mph, DeFalco Construction continued to lead until Moore lost the ability to trim the starboard drive on the seventh lap of the required nine. Monster Energy/M CON took over the lead. On the same lap, XINSURANCE South, unexpectedly donated its boat’s entire rudder assembly as an artificial reef when it fell off, taking Lilly and Pyburn out of contention. That moved Mobile X up to second and then one of the oldest boats in the fleet, XINSURANCE North, passed the new MTI, GC Racing, and the ailing DeFalco Construction to take third. With so many boats racing, we can’t provide finish positions for every entry. Please check the RWO website for complete results.

Pro Class 1 is alive and well as witnessed in Key West yesterday.

While boats were being pulled out by the cranes in the dark, Miller said that he enjoyed not being the focus of everyone’s attention coming into world championship week. “People have their tunnel vision on Mobile X and DeFalco and we’ve made leaps and bounds with our boat,” he said. “It took some emphasis off the boat and it allowed us to go do work today.”

As has often happened with teams when they’re in a groove, Miller said his driver and spotters on shore were telling him he didn’t have to run as hard once he had the lead. “When it feels good, you just need to keep running your game,” he said. “When you settle, that’s when crap happens.”

After going through all the logistical challenges that it takes to get an international team to the southern-most city in the U.S., Nicholson was left lukewarm with his second-place finish because of the start. “You keep condoning this sort of behavior and it’s going to get carried away,” he said. “Tyler deserved the win, but was it a good day for the whole fleet?”

For the XINSURANCE North team, third place was a reward for some hard work. The team blew a transmission testing on Tuesday and had no time in the boat before the race. Then at the start, “We stood it up, then barely missed a buoy and then we went to work,” said Turk, who has moved from a Bracket 500 boat to a Mod V to a Pro Class 1 , the first cat he’s ever driven, in the span of two years.

The Roar is Back
The six Super V entries running on the course with the Pro Class 1 fleet brought back the sounds that many offshore fans had missed. For Anthony Smith, who throttles the Team Farnsworth Hancock Claims 42-foot Fountain with driver Elijah Kingery, the race had a more personal challenge. He helped set up and throttled the 40-foot Fountain, Knucklehead Racing, with owner Ed Smith for years. The two are still friends, but the throttleman had something to prove.

TF Motorpsorts/Hancock prevailed over the largest Super V fleet in more than two decades.

The Super V race was also the debut of the 39-foot Outerlimits, DSK Racing, with Mike Howe of Howe2Live fame, throttling and Tim Lipton driving.

At the start, Team Farnsworth and Knucklehead quickly separated themselves from the rest of the fleet that included two more Fountains and one 39-foot Skater. By the end of lap three of 7 for the Super Vs, Kingery and Smith had a dominant lead over Smith and his new throttleman Jay Wohltman. Continuing to show improvement with their 40-foot Fountain, Cortez Cove Fountain, Rob Lockyer and Kirk Britto ran a solid third and nearly passed Knucklehead for second at the finish. Team Farnsworth Hancock Claims put a hurtin’ on the competition, with Knucklehead taking second and Cortez Cove running third. Playing the attrition game smartly and finishing the team’s first race, DSK ran fourth.

“The boat was good today,” said Smith. “I was worried that if Knucklehead beat us today and Friday, I’d have to beat him Sunday.” Instead, the win puts Team Farnsworth in the driver’s seat — for now.

Sending a Message
Before they lost the rudder on their Pro Class 1 boat, Lilly and Pyburn took on six other Super Cats for eight laps. In the traditional Key West format, the teams run eight tours of the course on Wednesday and Friday and will then complete 12 laps for double points on Sunday.

Dirty Money Racing dominated the Super Cat contest.

When the green flag waved on Wednesday, Lilly and Pyburn and their 38-foot Skater, Dirty Money, started in lane three outside of pole position holders Vinnie Diorio and driver Sean Conner in the 39-foot Outerlimits, Rollin’ Transport, and owner/driver Rob Unnerstall and throttleman Casey Boaz in the 38-foot Skater, CR Racing/Southeast Services. Owner/driver Chris Grant and throttleman Jay Muller were in lane 4 in their 38-foot Skater, C.J. Grant/Graydel.

Dirty Money charged to an early lead followed by CR Racing/SE Services and Rollin’ Transport. Unfortunately, a racing incident took Graydel out of the race at turn one when the boat and Rollin’ Transport, collided damaging both hulls. That moved Smith and driver Christian McCauley in the 40-foot MTI, Team Farnsworth Hancock Claims, up to third. CR Racing’s difficult 2025 season continued when the team pulled off after the second lap.

Preferring to voice his opinions about some proposed engine rule changes for the class through his throttling hand, Pyburn averaged speeds around 104 mph for the eight-lap race as he and Lilly dominated the Super Cat competition. Rollin’ Transport held on for second and Smith grabbed his second podium of the day for team owner Win Farnsworth.

“Brit and I don’t need a stopwatch to know the boat’s fast. We knew it yesterday without being able to run the whole course,” said Pyburn. “Brit and I have total confidence in that 388.”

Also on the course with the Super Cats were the two entries in Extreme class. Throttleman Steve Curtis and driver Sheik Hassan bin Jabor Al Thani in the 54-foot MTI, Spirit of Qatar, took the win over throttleman Mike Knoblock and driver Jeff McCann in the 42-foot Fountain, American Custom Marine.

First Time Winners
After a 30-minute delay to the start of the nine-boat Factory Stock class race, the event saw its first incident in a competition that was filled with position changes until the checkers waved. Owner/driver Cabeza and throttleman Bruggemann had lane one in the 39-foot MTI, GC Racing. They were flanked by sister hull, MF Racing, with throttleman John Tomlinson and driver Caleb Mead and owner/driver Reese Langheim and throttleman Julian Maldonado had lane three in the 38-foot Valor, Jackhammer/Manatee Marine Unlimited.

The fleet got through the first turn cleanly and was running across the roughest part of the course to Turn 2 when Jackhammer and MF Racing hit side to side. The impact affected the air flowing over Say Less MF Racing and the boat blew over backwards in one of the quickest flips the sport has seen. “It happened so fast I couldn’t catch it,” said Tomlinson. “We were going so fast I thought we climbed Willie’s roost, but we didn’t.”

The SSR safety divers were on the scene in seconds and extracted Mead who was transported to a local medical facility and treated for a broken ankle.

After the Say Less MF Racing boat was secured and towed in, the rest of the Factory Stock fleet re-started and ran six laps. Initially, Jackhammer led, but then a familiar juggernaut, the 38-foot Doug Wright, Montlick Injury Attorneys, with throttleman Carpitella and driver Logan Adan, moved to the point and pulled out to a large lead in an impressive display of speed. Jackhammer held second and owner/driver Chad Rudesil and throttleman Rusty Williams quietly moved into third in their 39-foot MTI, Say Less. GC Racing was having an off-day running in fourth.

The Mead Family Racing incident left driver Caleb Mead with a broken ankle.

Then attrition began to play a role with Jackhammer dropping out on lap four. As Rudesil and Williams continue to gel as a team, they got around GC Racing on the same circuit for second. Then the unthinkable happened when Montlick dropped off plane coming out of Key West Harbor on the last lap. Say Less moved to the lead to take the team’s first Factory Stock win, followed by GC in second and driver Robert Lo Piano and throttleman Alfredo Amato in the 38-foot Doug Wright, Al & Al in third.

“We felt really good about the boat,” said Rudesil. “We felt like we had a good opportunity to get on the podium.” Unfortunately, he and his team couldn’t enjoy the spoils of victory for long because they had to repair a broken engine bracket.

Dogged Determination
As it had for most of the 2025 season, the Super Stock team rolled into Key West with the largest class fleet, 14 boats. Rudesil and Williams also race a 32-foot Doug Wright under the same team name and they had lane one. Owner/throttleman Shaun Torrente and driver Matt Jamniczky were in the second slot in the 32-foot STR, Team Nautical Ventures.

Trending upward in the Super Stock class, Nautical Ventures took the checkered flag in Key West.

With so many boats, the officials put out an extra buoy at turn one. Similar to the commitment mark on the track at NASCAR races, the buoy split the 14-boat fleet. Seven had to pass to the inside and seven had to go to the outside. Apparently it didn’t go as smoothly as hoped for when driver Dale McEachern and throttleman Austin Blocker rolled in the 32-foot Victory, Drink-Kelo. Both team members were OK and the boat was towed back to the pits on its bottom.

After the restart, the race was trimmed to five laps and to no one’s surprise, Team Nautical Ventures jumped out to a lead chased by throttleman Gary Ballough and owner/driver Cole Leibel in the 32-foot Victory, Raymarine. Leibel and Ballough cut the gap to three seconds, but that would be the closest they got as the boat sponsored by Florida’s largest boat dealer took the win. Raymarine took second followed by throttleman Julian Maldonado and driver Jeremy Tschida in the 31-foot Victory, Wozencraft/TFR.

In the week leading up to the championships, Torrente had said this was the best he’s felt about the boat he built two years ago and has been refining ever since. Love him or not, you can’t deny his tenacity when it comes to making the boat work.

“It’s really good,” he said. “It’s always been fast, but now it drives well.”

Looking ahead, because Super Stock inverts the finishing order, he expects to be chasing Raymarine on Friday so Torrente’s plan is to keep the bright green boat as close as possible to set up a showdown for the title on Sunday. Wozencraft and the other teams in the class will likely have something to say about that.

The Wily Veterans
It’s often said that a team can’t win the world championship on Wednesday but it can certainly lose the title if it breaks or crashes. With that in mind, we recap the Mod-V action from the first day of racing. At the start, the bright red 29-foot Extreme, nmbrvresort.com, with owner/driver Kirk Hana and throttleman Mark Rinda, blasted to the lead, chased by throttleman Steve and driver Stephen Kildahl in their 29-foot Extreme, Boatfloater.com, and owner/driver Charlie McCarthy and throttleman Tony Silveira in the 29-foot Spartan, Punisher.

Boatfloater.com took the win in the competitive Mod V category.

While nmbrvresort.com held the lead and Boatfloater.com ran second, owner/driver Kyle Miller and throttleman Wohltman moved into third in their 29-foot Extreme, Speed Marine. On lap three of six, the Kildahls who had been content to run second and save the equipment realized they were gaining on the lead and made the move to the front. By lap four, Speed Marine got around nmbrvresort.com, too for second. Hana and Rinda were nursing a hurt drive and limped across the finish in third followed by the team of driver Jim York and throttleman Travis Pastrana in the 29-foot Extreme, Dixxon Flannel/Channel199, in the pair’s first race in the boat. As always, all results are unofficial pending technical inspections.

The Punisher team probably took the wild ride of the day award when the boat took a bad hop and rode on its canopy, ripping off the engine hatch. The part was recovered and Silveira said he will have the boat ready to go Friday.

Team Woody earned top honors in the Bracket 300 class.

For the Kildahls, the decision to go for the lead was an easy one. “For ¾ of the course, we had a faster setup,” said Stephen. Added dad Steve, “We didn’t want to hurt the equipment, but it’s still a race.”

After starting in lane eight, Miller said he and Wohltman were battling washing-machine-like conditions and had to bide their time until they found clean water. “Every turn, we made up distance,” he said. Second place sets up the fast green boat well for Friday.

When Hana, Rinda and crew drained the gear lube from their drive, the plug was covered in metal shavings, meaning it was time for a new one that the team had in the truck. That would be Thursday’s project before testing.

Setting The Stage
Some 40 boats rolled into Key West for the world championships and in Bracket 200, the 38-foot Phantom, OC Racing, with owner/driver Joey Olivieri and throttleman Billy Glueck, took the day-one win. Second went to driver Don Urfer and throttleman Richard Davis in the 39-foot Phantom, Justice League, while the 36-foot Spectre, H2O Performance/Two Conchs, with throttleman Ed Tamberino and driver Scott Brown took third.

Team driver/owner Joey Olivieri and throttleman Billy Glueck of the Bracket 200-class OC Racing opened their 2025 Key West Worlds with a victory.

In Bracket 300, throttleman Chad Woody and driver Billy Shipley, started the week on the right foot in their 35-foot Fountain, Team Woody. Second went to Keith and Cade Herbott in the 38-foot Fountain, Herbott Racing, while throttleman Mike Ogden and driver Nick Fanelle took third in the 38-foot Bad Boy, WeHaulBoats.com.

Bracket 400 had its most competitive draw in recent memory. Johnny and Jason Saris were accompanied by their longtime navigator Verne French in the 33-foot Cobra, Saris Racing, as they led flag to flag for the win. Owner/throttleman Chris Colson and driver Ray Evans finished second in their newly modified Fountain, Shocker Racing, that formerly ran as Black Pearl. Third went to driver Jake Coons and throttleman Jason Zolecki in the 34-foot Phantom, Simmons Marine.

Johnny Saris (center) was delighted with the Bracket 400-class results.

Bracket 500 also saw a large turnout with eight boats, but one stood out on the first day of action as owner/throttleman Fran Vellutato and driver Tom Crowley in the 26-foot Larry Smith Scarab, Rum Runners, ran away with the win. Second went to the father-son team of Vincent and Rob Winoski in the 30-foot Phantom, Marker 1 Marine SRQ/Bronx Phantom. The veteran team of “Fast” Eddie Simmons and driver John Coen III took third in the 30-foot Superboat, Agora Day Spa.

Ten teams made up the Bracket 600 fleet and the team of throttleman Jason Govatos and driver Mike McColgan in the 26-foot Protector, MDG Offshore Racing, made the best of their lane three starting position to jump out to a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Velocity Powerboats owner and former NFL linebacker Bob Spitulski gave chase in their 29-foot Velocity, Team Ride Legal, and came home second. Third in Bracket 600 went to throttleman Johnny Saris and owner/driver Michael Lange in the 26-foot American Marine, Moderation.

The Dirt Legal team continued its winning ways in the Bracket 700 category.

Arguably the most likely winner on the day was the 22-foot Velocity, Dirt Legal Velocity, with throttleman Conner Langheim and driver Brad Christopher, in Bracket 700. The class’ national champions moved out to an early lead the would not surrender. Unofficially, second place went to Max Zeldich and throttleman Craig Chittendon in the 21-foot Shadow, Maximum Fire Protection/Proven Marine, while driver Anthony Cruz and throttleman Bobby Barneschi took third in the 22-foot Progression, Redrum.