‘Rookies’ To Compromise Third Of Key West Super Cat Fleet
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Racing: ‘Rookies’ To Compromise Third Of Key West Super Cat Fleet
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With nine Super Cat teams registered for the American Power Boat Association/Union Internationale Motonautique Offshore World Championships, November 6-13, in Key West, Fla., it’s safe to say the class is robust. The class hasn’t seen a Key West turnout this large since the early 2000s, when more than a dozen teams were in the mix.
More impressive still? Though none of the competitors are new to the sport, three Super Cat teams heading to Key West for the Race World Offshore-produced event next month—CR Racing, Justice League Racing and Wicked—are in their rookie seasons.
The sons of one of offshore racing’s top throttlemen, Chase and Jax Muller will run their father’s former 40-foot Motion raceboat in the Super Cat class. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
Familiar to fans of the Super Stock ranks from their CR Racing team success, which included world titles in 2018 and 2019, Casey Boaz and Rob Unnerstall have their same-named Skater 388 catamaran almost ready to the three Key West contests. Their new 750-hp Kasse Racing engines are slated to arrive at their Lake of the Ozarks shop next Monday or Tuesday, and the Missouri-based team will install them before they depart.
“We’ve tested a couple of days so far,” said Boaz. “But going up against WHM Motorsports and M CON and the other teams that really have act together, we have no expectations. If we got second or third in just one of those races we’d be ecstatic.”
In the former Performance Boat Center Skater 388 catamaran, Super Stock-class newcomers Casey Boaz and Rob Unnerstall have proven winner on their hands.
Boaz and Unnerstall also will have to contend with the spawn of New Jersey-based WHM throttleman Jay Muller, as his sons Chase and Jax are running their father’s 40-foot Motion catamaran dubbed Wicked in Key West this year. Though they competed together extensively in the Bracket 700 class, they ran uncontested in their first Super Cat contest during the St. Clair River Classic this summer in Michigan.
“They are super pumped and so am I,” said the Muller boys’ rightfully proud father. “I think it will be the best word championships yet. My kids have never been to Key West, so they don’t know what to think. But I think Super Cat will be the premier class down there, like always.”
For the Southwest Florida-based Justice League team, which is running a Skater 388 catamaran, Key West will be the third event of event their rookie Super Cat season. But both throttleman Richard Davis and team/owner driver Don Urfer are no strangers to Key West and have raced in various V-bottom classes during the years. The 38-footer has new Sterling Performance engines under its hatches.
Davis and teammate Cory Shantry will run the Justice League Cigarette in the Bracket 400 class.
“We’re very excited to be able to race two boats in Key West this year,” said Davis. “We just purchased a new support truck for Justice League and we are putting in long hours getting both boats ready. We look forward to racing in Key West, enjoying a sport we love, and competing with so many other racers we have made friendships with over the years.”
Justice League Racing is one of three rookie Super Cat-class teams that will be competing in Key West next month.
The owner and throttleman of the M CON team, which claimed the APBA Super Cat National Championship this season, Tyler Miller also is the Super Cat owners group class representative. Miller is delighted not just by the Key West boat count, but by the influx of rookie teams in the class.
“It’s awesome,” said Miller. “The nine-boat boat fleet is off the charts, and for three teams to be rookie outfits shows the continued growth we’ve been throttling towards for the Supercat Class since 2019
“I’m getting jacked up just talking about it—and what the rooster tails will look like along with the thunderous sound when the green flag drops,” he added. “Like Jay Muller says ‘Super Cat, that’s where it’s at.’”
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