Beckley Introducing New Driver To Super Stock Class At Shootout Offshore
For veteran Super Stock-class throttleman Ryan Beckley of Sarasota, Fla., guiding a rookie driver through his first race is nothing new. Beckley, who owns Kinetic Animation—offshore racing’s premiere vinyl graphics shop—as well as the DoubleEdge Motorsports team has done it more than a dozen times during his 30-plus years in the sport. And with South Florida’s Marcos Maestri alongside him in the driver’s seat, he’ll do it again this Saturday in the Shootout Offshore Super Stock contest on the Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri.
Though it will carry the graphics of Lake of the Ozarks-based TNT Caddy Shack this weekend, this 32-foot Doug Wright catamaran will be piloted by rookie driver Marcos Maestri and veteran throttleman Ryan Beckley. Photo from the 2024 Race World Offshore 7 Mile Grand Prix by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
“The biggest thing with new drivers is getting them to commit to turning, without turning too much or too little,” Beckley explained. “They have to be committed and focused.”
Maestri connected to Beckley through Willy Cabeza, the owner and driver of the 450R Factory Stock-class GC Racing MTI 390XR raceboat. Cabeza and Maestri, who reportedly is an experienced high-performance powerboat driver, are best friends. Throttleman Grant Bruggemann, who shares the cockpit of Cabeza’s 39-footer, also helped the rookie driver connect with Beckley.
“I don’t want this to sound cocky at all, but it means something that someone trusts me enough to put his best friend in a boat with me,” he said.
Though they’ve spoken by phone, Beckley and Maestri will meet in person for the first time today. After Maestri completes his American Power Boat Association-required dunker test, he and Beckley with head out in the team’s TNT Caddy Shack backed 32-foot Doug Wright catamaran. (The boat is owned by Tanner Lewis, yet another driver Beckley brought into the sport.) They will test and practice today and tomorrow morning ahead of Saturday’s Super Stock race, which is scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m.
Knowing he’ll have a rookie alongside him in what currently stands as a 13-boat fleet does not faze Beckley in the least.
“A few years ago at this event, I had rookie driver Brian Hurd with me and we had an amazing race,” he said. “He was a rookie, too, and he killed it.”
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