Broadcaster Gets Schooled In Super Stock Raceboat

Born and raised in Key West, Fla., Todd Swofford has loved offshore racing since he was a lad. Yet his passion for the sport led him to a broadcast booth rather than the cockpit of a raceboat. Swofford has been at it since 1981, and throughout the year 61-year-old earns his living talking about sports on local AM and FM radio.

Just a weeks after broadcaster Todd Swofford drove the Mikalyzed catamaran with throttleman Ricky Maldonado, owner/driver Pete Riveiro and Maldonado piloted the Super Stock-class 32-foot catamaran to a third-place finish at the Thunder On Cocoa Beach event. Photo by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

You may not recognize his name, but if you’ve ever heard a Race World Offshore livestream you know his calm, measured voice. Swofford handles play-by-play for all Race World Offshore broadcasts. His sidekick Eric Colby, who covers offshore racing for speedonthewater.com, takes care of the color commentary.

Together, they’re offshore racing’s strongest broadcast team.

“I grew up in a broadcasting family started going to Key West races that my dad was broadcasting from the mid 1970s,” Swofford recalled. “ I remember him interviewing Betty Cook in 1977 and looking down into her Scarab raceboat and thinking how amazing it all was.”

But unlike Colby who competed in the sport for several seasons in multiple classes during the mid-1990s while he was the editor-in-chief for Powerboat magazine in Ventura, Calif., Swofford had never ridden in the cockpit of an offshore raceboat until earlier this month. The opportunity came courtesy of his longtime friend and veteran throttleman Ricky Maldonado as well as Pete Riveiro in the latter’s 32-foot Super Stock-class raceboat dubbed Mikalyzed.

Veteran offshore racer Ricky Maldonado (left) and his pupil were all smiles when they climbed into the cockpit and headed out on the Manatee River.

“I’ve known Ricky for years and we had talked about it,” Swofford said. “Thanks to him and Pete, I finally got the chance.”

To make it happen, Swofford traveled up and across the state to Manatee Marine Unlimited in Palmetto, Fla. The company is owned by Maldonado’s son, Julian, and Sara Langheim. Maldonado’s father and brother, Ricardo, work at the facility. Riveiro keep his boat at the senior Maldonado’s nearby home.

Swofford arrived at the thriving business in the morning. By noon, he and Ricky Maldonado, having donned their helmets and vests, were climbing into the cockpit of the canopied 32-footer powered by twin Mercury Racing 300R outboard engines at a nearby launch ramp on the shores of the Manatee River. A few minutes later, they idled away from the docks.

“Thank god I lost a few pounds, fit into Pete’s seat and could get the steering wheel on,” he said, then laughed. “It wasn’t ‘crowded’ in the cockpit, but it’s snug. And there’s nothing in there other than what you need to race. There aren’t fans or anything like that in there.”

Though the Swofford enjoyed his time in the Mikalyzed team catamaran, he has experienced faster rides.

Soon, they were heading toward down the river toward the bay at 110 mph. Maldonado had his student make turns around imaginary “fixed points” on the water.

“Ricky told me I was doing really good, which gave a me a little confidence,” Swofford recalled. “I wasn’t ‘scared’ or anything like that—I got a media ride in a Blue Angel jet in 2014—but I did get a little nervous when I got into the one- to two-footers. But I felt really good and was able to relax.

“I was surprised by how little peripheral vision you actually have in one of those boats,” he added. “We were just running solo. I can’t imagine what it’s like running with a full fleet from the start and heading into a turn in that class.”

Maldonado was impressed with his rookie cockpit-mate’s performance.

“If I’m ever down a driver I will call Todd to see if he’s down to do a race,” he said. “He was very precise with his reactions in everything I asked him to do. And he’s fearless.

“I believe he had a good time,” he added, then laughed. “But I’m serious. He’s really good.”

Swofford’s biggest takeaway from the experience? The communication between driver and throttleman has to be nearly telepathic, at least if success on the racecourse is a goal.

“You almost have to be thinking with the same brain if you want to be competitive,” he emphasized. “You can communicate with each other, but each guy has to know what the other guys is thinking and is going to do if a team is going to be successful. I knew that before from what I’d had been told, but for me it reinforced the need for testing, practice and camaraderie.”

The moment of truth happened on the Manatee River.

While Swofford readily admitted to “having a blast,” he knows the experience was most important in his ongoing effort to become an even better broadcaster. His first race of the year in the booth will be the XINSURANCE Offshore event at the Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri next month, and he’s looking to it.

When he calls the Super Stock-class contest this time, he’ll be doing it as broadcaster who’s actually driven a Super Stock raceboat.

“It was a great experience for me,” he said. “And I really have to thank Ricky and Pete for making it happen.”

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