Allegra Motorsports Planning To Run Full Pro Class 1 Series Next Season

Since the first time he climbed into the cockpit of a Union International Motonautique Class 1 raceboat with throttleman John Tomlinson in 2021, Allegra Motorsports team owner/driver Carlos de Quesada has had to split his time between his automobile-endurance and offshore-powerboat racing passions. But in 2025, de Quesada plans to run a 45-foot Victory catamaran in the American Power Boat Association Pro Class 1 ranks alongside his ace stick-man for the full season.

Captured here with engine-builder Jon Kasse at the Key West Offshore World Championships in 2021, Carlos de Quesada (right) plans to run a full Pro Class 1 schedule with teammate John Tomlinson next season. Photos by Cole McGowan copyright Powerboat P1.

The Allegra Motorsports cockpit duo piloted a 47-foot Victory cat, which ran under the Morpheous 8 sponsorship banner this season, competed in three UIM Class 1 World Championship series races and the Race World Offshore-produced APBA Key West World Championships. Powered by class-spec Mercury Racing 1100 engines, the boat was the heaviest vessel in the Class 1/Pro Class 1 fleets. Though it wasn’t a front-runner, the cat served as an invaluable learning tool for crew chief Gary Stray, who worked on the Dubai-based Victory team in its hey-days of the late 1980s and 1990s, and company.

“We used the ‘big boat’ as a test-bed this year and we made big steps forward with the correct gear ratios and propellers,” Stray explained. “We plan to implement what we learned into the smaller boat next season.”

“The ‘new’ boat is the smallest one Victory ever built,” he continued. “It has a 40-foot, 5-inch running surface. The last time it ran, it was powered by Lamborghini engines. Now it will have (class-spec) Mercury Racing 1100 Comp engines so we will have to work with center of gravity and make a few changes to the hull.”

The Allegra Motorsports team ran under Morpheous 8 sponsorship this season. Photo by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

But engine installation is a long way off for Stray and his crew members. They are currently in the process of stripping the boat “down to a bare hull,” he said. Stray ordered new fuel-cells that have yet to arrive at the team’s Riviera Beach, Fla., headquarters. Not only did he and the crew re-rig the engine compartment before installing the new 1,100-hp engines, re-rigging of the cat’s cockpit and canopy modifications “from the ground up” are on their to-do list before the season begins.

New windows from Lee Aerospace are coming for the cat.

“When we got the boat, it had all the latest UIM upgrade,” Stray said. “But we have ordered new monolithic polycarbonate windows for the canopy from Lee Aerospace, and we are changing the way they will be mounted so that nothing gets bolted through them. That’s the strongest way to do it.

“We also have ordered Sabelt seats for Johnny and Carlos, and they will have the same setup that Johnny and Taylor Scism had in their 450R Factory Stock boat this season. They both felt very comfortable with those custom-molded seats and accompanying safety systems, and we use an active-suspension system them for the seats that no one else is using now.

The team also will have a new primary sponsor in 2025, though Morpheous 8 might continue as a supporting backer.

The cockpit will boast a new safety-and-seating system.

“There is another, big sponsor we’ve been speaking with and it looks really positive, but I can’t say anything else about that just yet,” Stray said. “But before then, we have a lot of work to do. None of these parts we need are off-the-shelf—they all have to be custom-made from the engine mounts to the seats. So I have already ordered items with long lead times, but everything seems to take longer than it did before the pandemic. And a lot these things need to be done sequentially, so we have to wait for the parts so we can install it and take the next step. Right now, we’re working on all the hydraulic systems.

“We’ll be ready for the first race of the season,” he added, then chuckled. “I think we might be working up until the last minute, but we’ll be ready. We’re all pretty excited about next year.”