Super Stock Fleet Shaping Up For St. Clair River Classic

Like most of his fellow Super Stock racers, throttleman Ryan Beckley of Sarasota, Fla., plans to compete in most of the races on the American Power Boat Association Offshore National Championship Series schedule. But Beckley, who throttles the Atlas team 32-foot Doug Wright catamaran in what is now the largest class in the sport, has encouraged his fellow Super Stock racers to compete in whatever events they choose outside the APBA Series this season.

Jackhammer and Coco’s Monkey are two of the six Super Stock teams plan to compete in the St. River Classic at the end of the month. Photo by Jeff Helmkamp copyright Helmkamp Photos.

For Beckley’s team, as well as the Jackhammer, Steele Industries, CELSIUS, Coco’s Monkey and J&S Racing/Tit For Tat teams, that means heading to St. Clair, Mich., July 26-26, for the Offshore Powerboat Association-sanctioned St. Clair River Classic.

“The Bluewater Offshore Racing (the local producer in St. Clair) and the OPA have put together a package to get our class to bring some boats there,” Beckley explained. “Honestly, St. Clair has long been one of my favorite race sites since I first raced there at the APBA National Series race there in 2000, I believe.

“It’s an amazing race site and an awesome town that loves having in town every year during that last weekend in July,” he added.

The driver and owner of the 2023 APBA Super Stock World Champion Jackhammer team, Reese Langheim agreed.

“We love the community support,” he said. “The people are fantastic.”

Between APBA and OPA, the St. Clair event is the only offshore powerboat race on the schedule this month. For the most part, the 2023 event attracted Bracket-class teams. Spec-class exceptions included the Team Farnsworth/Hancock Claims Consultants Super V team, but they were and far between.

According to Beckley, his fellow Super Stock competitors had “reservations” about returning to the site because of the freighter traffic on the St. Clair River. In years past, the traffic has created long delays between races and even seen a few contests cut short.

“They say that they have that a little more under control this year,” said Beckley, who will share to cockpit during the event with driver Connor Toomey.

“The site really needs the boat count,” said Beckley. “Last year’s turnout wasn’t great. So reached out to us to try to get a solid class there to keep that race going forward.”