MTI At 25—Making New History

While MTI is enjoying its 25th anniversary this year, the Wentzville, Mo., company is continuing to make history. Time doesn’t stop with milestones.

Case in point? The entry of Nick Imprescia and Ian Morgan in the 450R Factory Stock class in a 390XR catamaran powered by twin Mercury Racing 450R outboard engines.

Coming to Thunder On Cocoa Beach this weekend, the 450R Factory Stock-class 151 Express team of Nick Imprescia and Ian Morgan is running an MTI 390XR catamaran. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

Just a couple of years ago, the class didn’t officially exist, at least in the American Power Boat Association rulebook, and Taylor Scism (the younger daughter of MTI principals Randy and Cherell Scism) and John Tomlinson ran their first season uncontested. Last year at the Race World Offshore-produced Key West Offshore World Championships, they earned the first-ever Union Internationale Motonautique 450R Factory Stock-class world title against legitimate competition.

With Imprescia and Morgan joining the 450R Factory Stock ranks in Scism’s first TS Motorsports 39-footer renamed 151 Express for its new sponsor this season, the class gets a big boost from the sport’s youth movement—and an even bigger boost toward a healthy future. The grande dame of the sport, Scism is all of 26 years old. Imprescia and Morgan are both 22 years old. And more 20-somethings are on the way.

The 151 Express team’s 7 Mile Offshore Grand Prix debut in late April was a confidence-builder for the young team.

Unfortunately for Imprescia and Morgan, their 450R Factory Stock race debut at the 7 Mile Offshore Grand Prix in Marathon, Fla., got cut short because of incidents and weather concerns.

But that hasn’t dulled the team’s enthusiasm one bit. If anything, Imprescia and Morgan are even more eager to get back on the racecourse.

“We’re really looking forward to getting into some bump—the bigger the better—because that’s where we’d rather be,” Imprescia said. “As a team, we’d rather have more boats in the class but we also believe in ‘us versus us’ so we maintain focus on our program.

“We have confidence in each other, our team and the boat,” he continued. “And we are confident that we are right where we need to be.”

And ready to make more MTI history.