A Taylor (Scism) Made Success Story

You know something juicy—and probably off the record—is coming when an interview subject asks you turn off your recording device. And that was what Randy Scism, the founder of MTI, did during our early April chat at the Wentzville, Mo., company. Moments later, his daughter, Taylor, entered the room with her husband, Shaun Peters, and her mom, Cherell.

“You can’t say anything to anyone, but I’m pregnant,” Taylor said.

Married last year, Shaun Peters and Taylor Scism are a great team. Photos by Cole McGowan copyright Powerboat P1.

For a moment, I choked up. Having written about the Scism family and the company for more than 25 years, I’ve become fond of them. We don’t spend holidays together, exchange birthday cards or anything like that, but I count them among my more-cherished friends in the high-performance boating world.

Not long after Randy Scism started the company, I interviewed him for a profile that ran in Powerboat magazine. Another Scism profile, this one of Taylor—his youngest daughter and now MTI’s vice president—brought to me Wentzville when this month began. I knew the 27-year-old Vanderbilt University graduate was retiring from offshore racing because she confirmed it in late March.

But she didn’t want make a formal announcement.

Taylor Scism and John Tomlinson world a 450R Factory Stock-class world championship in 2022. Photo by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

So with hope of talking, begging, pleading and perhaps even bribing her to change her mind, I headed to MTI.

Scism had been mulling over an exit from the 450R Factory Stock ranks, a class she and her father started in 2021. Her promotion to vice president in January 2024 and the company’s move to become an ESOP nine months later cemented it.

“Now that we are an ESOP, there are a lot more things we have to do—and I am stepping back a little bit,” her father explained. “I am still the president of MTI, I still oversee everything, but I don’t have to be in the building every day. Taylor is taking on a bigger role.

“It was a tough decision for Taylor,” he added, then laughed. “She’s definitely better at making decisions than I am because I would have kept racing. We are really proud of her choice.”

For her first race—Thunder On Cocoa Beach in 2021—Scism shared the cockpit with Shaun Torrente.

That doesn’t mean Scism will disappear from the racing scene. She plans to help support MTI teams at select events throughout the season. But with her racing campaign behind her, she can spend more time with MTI customers at poker runs and company events through much of the 2025.

At least until her baby girl is born in October.

“I am going to be a lot more engaged on the customer side,” said Scism, who has led development of MTI-specific events for the company’s clients. “It’s not just me, of course, it takes a team. There’s a lot of everyone having to be everywhere. So we try to divide and conquer. Our Spring Fun Run to Hawks Cay had 330 people—it was almost like an MTI hotel takeover.”

MTI’s in-house-produced events, as well as its concierge service business at Haulover Marine Center in North Miami, isn’t just a value-add for existing owners. It attracts new ones.

With Tomlinson as her throttleman, Scism learned from the very best.

“I hear that quite a lot,” Scism said. “And most of our boat deliveries are based around events—people order their boats to be delivered at one event or another. And a lot them bring friends, and that spurs them into becoming members of the MTI family.”

Scism admits she will miss competing in the class, newly dubbed 500R Factory Stock this season for its new spec outboard engines. Her father came up with the idea for the spec 450R catamaran class. MTI didn’t an offer a model for the Super Stock category so he needed something new as he wanted to have one of his own models involved.

MTI’s release of its 390X catamaran combined with the then-new Mercury Racing 450R outboards provided answer for both him and Taylor, who was catching the racing bug.

“My dad was never going to put me in a raceboat with twin 1,750-hp engines and say, ‘See you later,’” she said, then laughed. “We kind of starting talking about it and it grew and grew. But it was fully Randy’s brainchild. He got it on paper. He knew exactly what he was going to do.”

The most respected throttleman currently in the sport, John Tomlinson joined the team mentor Scism. Per Tomlinson’s standard approach to offshore racing prep, they practiced. And then practiced some more.

Scism and her mother, Cherell, were featured in the “Women Of Substance” article in the 2021 issue of Speed On The Water digital magazine. Photo by Jeff Helmkamp copyright Helmkamp Photos.

Their first race together as the only team in the then-fledgling class was supposed to be the 2021 Thunder On Cocoa Beach event. But their Cocoa Beach plan hit a snag when Tomlinson had to back out to throttle the Class 1 Huski catamaran. The owner of Shaun Torrente Racing, Shaun Torrente subbed in for him.

The cockpit change didn’t faze Scism, but the wild waters off Cocoa Beach definitely got her attention.

Peters and Scism celebrated their wedding with friends and family last June at Lake of the Ozarks. Photo by Tom Leigh copyright Tommy Gun Images.

“Four days after we took the boat to Lake X to test, we got a call that Johnny can’t make it and we need to find a different throttleman,” she recalled, then chuckled. “I was like, ‘What do we do now?’ My dad and I knew we couldn’t race together—that wouldn’t be good for our relationship—so he called Shaun and he hopped in the boat with me. But the boat was set up for Johnny and he is taller than Shaun. So he had a hard time seeing over the dash at times.

“It was so rough,” she added. “I remember seeing boats disappear between the waves. Two rolled over before the 450R race. I don’t think we even started racing until 4:30 that day.”

While Scism didn’t get much of it to her face, there was plenty of jealous snark happening behind her back from the sport’s naysayers. She was racing “by herself.” She was so “spoiled” that her “daddy created a new class for her.”

That, too, didn’t faze her.

Scism will be even more focused on the customer side of MTI now that she’s out of offshore racing. Photo by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

“Oh yeah, I took a lot of crap,” she said and smiled. “I didn’t left any of it bother me. No offense intended at all, but I don’t like reading or hearing anything about me. I will, but I prefer not to.

“The cool thing about running on a closed course by yourself in a boat with John Tomlinson next to you and safety overhead?’” she continued. “You can keep ramping up at your own pace and get comfortable as the class builds. I have big respect for the new guys in the bigger established classes, with like 12 boats around them. They don’t get the chance I did. I am so grateful for it.”

The American Power Boat Association approved 450R Factory Stock as an official class in 2022. Scism and Tomlinson bested four other teams to claim the world title in Key West, Fla., that year. Though they came to 2023 Key West worlds as the APBA national and defending world champions, they took third overall in the world-championship chase that year. In 2024, they finished fourth overall in Key West.

Scism has inspired more than a few offshore racing fans.

Her role of MTI vice president, which started in January that year, was expanding. Scism was ready to enter another part of her life.

But the applicable lessons she learned from competing go far beyond the racecourse.

“I wanted to learn more about setup,” she explained. “In racing, you learn about propellers for various conditions, center of gravity, engine heights and a lot more.”

And now Scism faces another challenge, arguably the biggest one in her young life. In October, she and Peters will become parents.

She’ll rise to it, of course. She’s Taylor Scism, and she’s more than capable of excelling at anything she commits to.