The Sons Also Rise: Victorious Finishes To The 2024 Key West Offshore World Championships
During the Pro Class 1 competition on Sunday (November 10) at the Key West Offshore World Championships produced by Race World Offshore, the duo of driver Darren Nicholson and throttleman Giovanni Carpitella in the Victory catamaran, Mobile X/Walmart, had seized a commanding lead. Throttleman Billy Moore and owner/driver Mike Falco gave chase in their 46-foot Victory, Team DeFalco, keeping the international juggernaut within striking distance in case an opportunity presented itself.
Team DeFalco teammates Mike Falco and Billy Moore won Sunday’s Pro Class 1 race to earn the class championship at the 43rd annual Key West Offshore World Championships. Photos by Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix
The two teams had finished first and second in the previous race, so Sunday’s race was winner-take-all for the world title.
“I told Mike and the crew, we’ll just keep grinding,” Moore said. “You never know what might happen.”
On the sixth lap of 11, that opportunity did arise when Mobile X/Walmart had to slow because the escape hatch fell out of the deck inside the boat’s enclosed cockpit. Amazingly, the team kept going despite water blasting into the cockpit for the final five laps and the hatch hurting the propeller and damaging the hull after the boat ran over it.
The race had been reduced to 11 laps from 14 after two red flags followed by restarts. The first was due to a bad lineup in the first start. The second was after the crowd-favorite 50-foot Mystic cat, dfYoung/Good Boy Vodka, did a violent double barrel roll in Key West Harbor on the fourth lap. Fortunately, owner/throttleman Rich Wyatt and driver Alex Pratt were OK. The same can’t be said for the boat, which suffered significant structural damage. The team had repaired a broken driveshaft after Friday’s race and Wyatt said the accident happened because the team entered the harbor “a little hot” and awkwardly hit a wake before rolling twice and landing right-side up.
The second- and third-place finishers in Pro Class 1, Mobile X/Walmart and Monster Energy/M CON got a chance to meet on the racecourse two times this season as the Australian-based 222 Offshore team only raced in Key West.
While Friday’s races at the 43rd annual Key West Worlds presented by Performance Boat Center had a completion rate of nearly 80 percent for boats in all classes, attrition played a bigger role on the second day of competition. Winds were consistent at 10 to 15 knots and seas were three to four feet. Members of Team Woody named the stretch from turn one to turn two “hell’s half mile.” Usually, Key West is a three-race format, but the 74 teams in the southernmost town in the U.S., couldn’t race on Wednesday because of Tropical Storm Raphael. The extra preparation time appeared to have benefitted the teams because the races on Friday, especially in Pro Class, 1 were some of the best in recent memory.
Continued Momentum
Perhaps no team was more affected than Team DeFalco by two season-ending races at Clearwater, Fla., in September and St. Petersburg, Fla., in October, being called off because of hurricanes. Moore and Falco were on a roll to finish the 2024 campaign as Class 1 world champions, having finished second at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri and winning at Sheboygan, Wis., and Sarasota, Fla.
Moore spent extensive time focusing on getting the boat’s water systems right and the effort showed with those dominant finishes at Sheboygan and Sarasota.
“We haven’t had a guardian issue since Sheboygan,” he said, adding that after Friday’s race in Key West he had some changes in mind that he hoped would give the team a better chance to compete with Mobile X/Walmart. “I think the changes we made did help because we made gains on the parts of the course where we were slower Friday, but on the other legs, we didn’t lose speed.”
This season has been a little bit of coming into his own for Moore as a throttleman and the person responsible for boat setup for Team DeFalco. Being the son of Bobby Moore, the legend who created the throttleman’s position, may have opened some doors for Billy, but it also put lots of expectations on his broad shoulders. This year, he has proven himself time and again that he can stand alongside the sport’s best like Carpitella, Steve Curtis and John Tomlinson.
“The win feels good,” Moore said. “I know dad was watching over me.”
Check out the slideshow above for more images from Sunday’s action in Key West.
Despite issues with the missing hatch and water pouring into the cockpit, Mobile X/Walmart finished second on Sunday and second in the world championship standings. Third went to owner/throttleman Tyler Miller and driver Myrick Coil in the Skater Powerboats 438, Monster Energy/M CON and throttleman Brit Lilly and driver Randy Kent finished fourth in the 48-foot MTI, XINSURANCE. After finishing third on Friday, throttleman John Tomlinson and owner/driver Carlos de Quesada pulled out early on Sunday with mechanical problems in their 50-foot Victory, Morpheus 8.
After throttling XINSURANCE to the second of its best two outings in 2024, Lilly strapped into the speedy Skater 388, Dirty Money, with throttleman Bill Pyburn for the 14-lap Super Cat class race that featured eight entries. Pro Class 1 and Super Cat were the only classes that ran a “sight” or parade lap followed by a rolling start and the boats weren’t as tightly bunched as usual when the green flag waved.
Taking advantage of the inside lane, owner/throttleman Vinnie Diorio and driver Matt Jamniczky in the 39-foot Outerlimits, Austin Homes, held the lead through turn one and battled with Coil and Miller in their 388 Skater, M CON/Monster Energy. Dirty Money ran third and owner/driver Chris Grant and Moore were in fourth in the Skater 388, C.J. Grant/Graydel. Driver Christian McCauley and throttleman Anthony Smith had one of their best showings of 2024 in the 40-foot MTI, Team Farnsworth/Hancock Claims.
The Super Cat teams put on an incredible show for offshore racing fans during the two days of competition Race World Offshore-produced event.
After shooting parts through the side of the block in one of the boat’s Sterling Performance engines on Friday, ending their day prematurely, Miller and Coil needed to finish as close to the front as possible on the final day of competition if they wanted to be on the podium when the spray settled. On Sunday, the teams run more laps and earn double points.
Despite knowing that they didn’t have to win to claim the world title, Pyburn and Lilly passed M CON/Monster Energy on lap five and never looked back, taking a dominant win en route to the world championship. In the final standings, M CON/Monster Energy took second followed by Austin Homes.
“That was an awesome race today,” Pyburn said. “When you look at what the fans want to see, today was exactly what they wanted. Myrick and Tyler made us work our rear-ends off.”
The Dirty Money team of driver Brit Lilly and throttleman Bill Pyburn won on Friday and Sunday to bring home the Super Cat-class world championship.
Pyburn bought the first Skater 388 Douglas Marine built and has owned many versions of the hull as a pleasure boat. He got some sage advice from Douglas Marine president Peter Hledin. “He told me, ‘Do what you know and go back to what you’ve done with your testing,’” Pyburn said.
After losing his father, Art, also a legendary throttleman, earlier this year, Brit Lilly said, “Art was looking down today. I wanted to get a Class 1 or a Super Cat ride while my dad was around.”
Speaking of how close he had come to earning a title while his father was still alive, Lilly recalled, “We got this close when I subbed for Billy Mauff in WHM and I got this close with Husky (Chocolate).” Brit Lilly the boat manufacturer had a good day, too, with Extreme boats sweeping the podium in the Mod V class.
Diorio was happy with the progress his boat continues to make.
“We tested a lot last week and this was the best two races our boat has run,” he said. “I knew we were short on prop. I had another set of props, but the boat was happier with the set I picked for handling.”
Cole Leibel and Gary Ballough ran well on Sunday to win the Super Stock race and finish fourth overall in the Raymarine 32-foot Victory.
By The Rules
Leading up to the world championships that were presented by Performance Boat Center and had the racer’s village sponsored by Montlick Injury Attorneys, the American Power Boat Association had a shake-up in its management. Previous chairman of the Offshore Racing Commission Rich Luhrs left the position and was replaced on an interim status by current APBA president Chris Fairchild. He held a meeting on Thursday in the racer’s village and said that the rulebook would be strictly enforced during the races in Key West and that the rulebook will be redone to make it easier to understand.
In Friday’s action, penalties affected the outcomes in the Super Cat, Mod V and Super Stock classes. In Super Cat, Austin Homes got a one-lap penalty for hitting a buoy. In Super Stock, CELSIUS had salt rubbed in its wounds when it was hit with a 30-second penalty for a racecourse right of way violation after the boat rolled in the harbor turn. CoCo’s Monkey got hit with the same penalty after passing CELSIUS when the boat rolled. In the Mod V race, El Bandido appeared to win, but it had an incident in the harbor turn with Speed Marine with the latter taking structural and engine damage. At first, El Bandido was hit with a one-lap penalty that dropped the team to last place. That was later changed to a one-minute penalty and the team moved back up to second.
With that in mind, the Mod V boats took to the course Sunday morning. Owner/driver Kirk Hanna and throttleman Mark Rinda in lane one in their 29-foot Extreme, NMBRV Resort jumped out to the early lead. They were chased by throttleman Jay Wohltman and owner/driver Kyle Miller in their 29-foot Extreme, Speed Marine. Rounding out the 29-foot Extreme trio were throttleman Nick Buis and driver J.J. Turk in Statement Marine/XINSURANCE.
The XINSURANCE/Statement Marine Mod V-class team of Nick Buis and J.J. Turk took home the world championship after an early exit Friday and a strong first-place finish on Sunday.
Turk and Buis were the 2024 national champions in the class but were forced out of action early Friday with a broken gimbal. Continuing to make gains in performance, owner Howard Richardson and Tom Crowley ran fourth in the 32-foot Bad Boy, R&S Racing. Defending world champions owner/throttleman Steve Miklos and driver Steven Fehrmann in the 29-foot Extreme, El Bandido, saw their hopes dashed with a mechanical problem on the first lap.
With the teams running 10 laps, attrition played a role. Laticrete/Relentless scratched because a team member was hurt during Friday’s action, and Fastboys was out after one lap. The 32-foot Phantom, Safe Cash/XINSURANCE, with Scott Jobin and Rick Raab had a strong season in 2024 and advanced through the fleet on Friday but pulled out of Sunday’s race on the fifth lap.
On the eighth of 10 laps, NMBRV Resort pulled out with a broken coil mount. Rinda tried to keep re-starting the engine so the team could complete the lap, but eventually the starter wouldn’t engage. The distance traveled was important because Speed Marine was having its own issues. On the same lap, Statement Marine/XINSURANCE moved to the front and took the win two tours of the 4.48-mile course later. Second went to R&S and Steve and Stephen Kildahl finished third in their 29-foot Extreme, Boatfloater.com.
The Bracket 200-class world championship went to the OC Racing team of Joey Olivieri and Billy Glueck.
When the spray settled, Statement Marine/XINSURANCE had earned an unlikely world championship followed by NMBRV Resort and R&S Racing.
“We weren’t expecting to be up there at all,” said Buis regarding the world title. “My wife asked me on Saturday ‘What do you think’ and I said, ‘We just have to go out and do our best and let the chips fall.’”
He said the team lost communication in the boat and with its spotters on land.
“We finished the race and didn’t know where anything was at, or what was going on,” Buis said. “I’m looking around and no one else was running. After the team got the points breakdown for Friday and Sunday, Buis’ daughter crunched the numbers and they realized they had won.
Being followed by the XINSURANCE helicopter above, the Gladiator Canados Doug Wright catamaran had an excellent showing in Key West, winning the 450R Factory Stock-class world title.
Savvy Veterans
The class affected most by rules enforcement on Sunday was 450R Factory Stock in which five of the six teams were assessed a penalty for crowding the pace boat. At the start, it appeared that Friday’s winners, owner/throttleman Michel Karsenti and driver Ervin Grant in the 38-foot Doug Wright, Gladiator Canados, were off the pace behind the rest of the fleet, but they were the only ones not to receive an infraction. “The officials were on the radio yelling at us to back off,” Karsenti said.
Although they appeared to finish second to Carpitella and driver Logan Adan in the 38-foot Doug Wright, Montlick Injury Attorneys, Gladiator Canados won the race and the world championship. Montlick was second on the podium and the 39-foot MTI, GC Racing, with owner/driver Willy Cabeza and throttleman Grant Bruggemann ran third.
In Super Stock, all 14 boats entered made the green flag on Sunday for the weekend’s final race. In a dominant run, owner/throttleman Cole Leibel and throttleman Gary Ballough in the 32-foot Victory, Raymarine, took the lead on lap two and never looked back. Leibel has experienced much misfortune in Key West through his career, but not on Sunday. The team finished more than a minute ahead of the second place boat, CoCo’s Monkey, with Peter and A.J. Bogino aboard. Third in the class went to the 32-foot Victory, Jackhammer, with owner/driver Reese Langheim and throttleman Ricky Maldonado, who was substituting for his son Julian after he broke his leg earlier in the week.
Team Allen Lawn Care and Landscaping and CoCo’s Monkey fared well at the Key West Worlds, finishing first and third overall in the Super Stock ranks.
After winning on Friday, owner/throttleman Billy Allen and driver Randy Keys in the 32-foot Doug Wright, Team Allen Lawn Care and Landscaping, knew exactly where they needed to finish and who they needed to stay close to. By finishing fourth on Sunday, the duo won Allen’s second world championship in three years. In the final tally, second went to Jackhammer while CoCo’s Monkey claimed the final position in the standings.
“We needed to just keep our pace and maintain one spot between us and Jackhammer,” Allen said. “And we did just that.”
Langheim was pleased to get on the podium with his replacement throttleman.
“Ricky and I hadn’t been in a boat together for two years,” he said. “I’m just thankful we found someone who was available to jump in.”
The Team Farnsworth/Hancock Claims Fountain V-bottom won both of its races in Key West to secure the Super V-class world title.
In the Super V class, driver Elijah Kingery and throttleman Anthony Smith continued to deliver in the 42-footer from Fountain Powerboats, Team Farnsworth/Hancock Claims, for owner Win Farnsworth. They won convincingly on both days to take the world title. Second went to owner/throttleman Bill McComb and driver Ed Wendt in the 39-foot Skater, Race Winning Brands, and Kirk Britto and throttleman Rob Lockyer ran third in Cortez Cove Fountain Racing.
Three boats ran unopposed in their classes on Sunday. Micheal and George Stancombe ran on their own in Peppers Racing in Extreme class. Micheal then jumped in the 24-foot Wicked, TFR/XINSURANCE, with Cameron Turk in UIM Class 3C. Michael Chandler and Austin Blocker ran their 21-foot Hustler, Scratch and Sniff in UIM Class 3X.
The world champions in the Bracket 400 class were John Jeniec, Jr., and Michael Flammia in the Framed Offshore Racing Extreme.
In bracket class action, Joey Olivieri and Billy Glueck dominated in Bracket 200 in their 39-foot Phantom, OC Racing, claiming the world title with two victories. Second went to Chad Woody and Billy Shipley in their 35-foot Fountain, Team Woody, and Keith and Cade Herbott finished third in their 38-foot Fountain, Herbott Racing.
In Bracket 400, the local boys John Jeniec, Jr., and Michael Flammia won the title in their 29-foot Extreme, Framed Offshore Racing. Second went to the 32-foot Phantom, SRQ Racing/Precious Vodka, with Cory Shantry and Larry Fontecha on board and Jim Simmons and Kevin Campbell claimed third in their 34-foot Phantom, Simmons Racing.
The Bracket 500-class championship went to the Rum Runners team of Fran Vellutato and Tom Crowley.
The smallest boat in the fleet grabbed the championship in Bracket 500 with owner/throttleman Fran Vellutato and driver Tom Crowley in the 26-foot Scarab, Rum Runners. Sunday’s winners, Robert Bryant and Michael McColgan in the 28-foot Pantera, Tunnel Vision, earned second in the championship followed by owner/driver Greg DiRenzo and throttleman Ryan Beckley in the 28-foot Manta, Sweat Equity.
Former NFL player Bob Spitulski and throttleman Scott McCormick tackled the Bracket 600 championship in their 26-foot Velocity, Velocity Powerboats. Second in the championship went to Clyde Petty’s 28-foot Pantera, Swap it Fast/Rollin’ Dirty. Because they hadn’t competed in qualifying races, Moderation and American Muscle weren’t eligible for championship points.
Although the ride was a rough one, Bracket 700-class teammates Owen Buis and Ricky Harmeyer earned the world championship in their Activator.
The 2024 national champions in Bracket 700, throttleman Owen Buis and driver Ricky Harmeyer in their 22-foot Activator, continued their winning ways, capturing the world title. Second went to the new team of A.J. Smith and Brad Christopher in the 22-foot Velocity, Dirt Legal Velocity Factory Racing and John Iezzatti and Jerry Hartman claimed third in their 22-foot Velocity, Statement/XINSURANCE.
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