New Team Digging Into Super Stock Next Season

Just a few years ago, Andy Miller of Waddington, N.Y., discovered offshore powerboat racing and became an immediate fan. He caught the bug at the 2021 Race World Offshore World Championship in Key West, Fla., which he attended with his wife, Alyssa, and continued to follow the sport from afar, meaning his Upstate New York hometown.

In 2023, the couple traveled to the season-opening 7 Mile Offshore Grand Prix in Marathon, Fla. This year, they headed for the Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix.

Coming for the 2025 Super Stock-class season, the Diggin Deep Racing team is owned by Andy Miller of Upstate New York.

Now Miller, the owner of Waddington-based AJK Site Development, Inc., has purchased a 32-foot Doug Wright Powerboats raceboat and kick off his Super Stock-class rookie driving season in 2025. The team will be named Diggin Deep Racing in reference to his excavation company.

Miller bought the 32-footer from former offshore racer Albert Penta of Connecticut in September. Penta, in turn had purchased the cat, ran under the name of Killer Bee, from New York’s Jim Denooyer in 2019. Grant Bruggemann of Grant’s Signature Racing of Bradenton, Fla., rigged the 2018 model-year for Denooyer, and Doug Harrell designed and applied its original patriotic paintjob.

Penta had planned to run it in the Super Stock class as Phase 05—the same name he used for his Mod V-class boat. But the economics didn’t pencil out and he decided to exit the sport in 2022.

“Andy really liked the boat, shop and what we did to the boat, so he bought it all,” Penta said.

Though Miller grew up boating in the Upstate New York, he had no background in the high-performance realm, much less offshore racing. What he did know was that the sport had captured his imagination and he wanted to give it a try.

Miller bought the then-Phase05-dressed catamaran in September.

“We started out as spectators, not even thinking racing was a possibility,” Miller recalled. “Then Al’s boat came up for sale.”

Knowing Miller would need an excellent mentor and significant seat-time before his first race, Penta introduced him via email to veteran racer Billy Moore. The throttleman for the Super Cat-class Graydel and Class 1 Defalco teams, Moore agreed to work with Miller in preparation for the 2025 season.

They met in person during the 2024 Sarasota event, where Miller gave him a tour of the Defalco team pits. They even attended veteran Super Stock-class throttleman Ryan Beckley’s pre-race celebration for racers that weekend at his Kinetic Animation shop in Bradenton, where Miller got to meet a few more competitors in the class.

The cat was delivered to Moore’s shop in Washington, N.C. Miller and Moore had their first practice session on the Pamlico River last weekend.

“I don’t know if I will race with him or not in 2025, but Andy is a great guy and he actually picked things up pretty quickly,” Moore said. “We ran the boat Friday evening, and then put out a buoy-course and ran on Saturday. His lap times kept dropping, and then he got to a point where he became really consistent with those times.

“The boat seems pretty well balanced,” he continued. “We put a different set of props on it and it did exactly what we expected it to. So I think it’s pretty solid right out of the gate.”

Miller and Moore plan to practice at least once a month in North Carolina next winter.

Said Miller, “We spent 3-1/2 hours on the river. We ran the course clockwise and counter-clockwise, changed propellers and ran some more. It was amazing.”

Miller and Moore will resume practicing this winter after Moore has completed throttling for Defalco and Graydel at the Key West Worlds next month. Moore plans to stick with both teams in 2025, so he’s not sure if throttling for Digging Deeper Racing will be possible. But he’s keenly interested.

“I don’t know if I can do it yet,” he said. “Three teams might be one team too many, but I just don’t know.”

In the meantime, they are planning on practicing at least once a month, according to Miller, starting in January.

“I want to be ready and I want to be safe,” he said. “I want to know what the boat can and can’t do by the time race time. I really want to make sure that I am safe and everyone around me is as safe as possible. The more time I spend in the boat, the more I will feel ready to go.

“Alyssa is a little nervous, but she’s on board,” he added. “We love to travel. And we are always looking forward to meeting new people.”