The Super Cat Family Takes Care Of The Brothers Muller

In the space of one week, young offshore racers Chase and Jax Muller of New Jersey experienced the ugliness and the beauty of humanity—and learned the true meaning of both blood- and extended-family.

Here’s the story.

Last week, thieves walked off with the Mercury Racing No. 6 drives on the transom of Wicked, a 40-foot Motion catamaran owned by their father—longtime WHM Motorsports Super Cat throttleman Jay Muller—and powered by Sterling Performance engines. The Muller brothers planned to campaign the cat this season and even compete at the Race World Offshore World Championships, November 5-12, in Key West, Fla.

Problem was, their multi-time world-championship-winning father didn’t have a couple of spare No. 6 drives lying around.

Said Super Cat-class team owner Vinnie Diorio (right), captured here with Jay Muller last night in the Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix pits, “That is what this class is all about, helping all of us together.”

“We were devastated because I’ve owned the boat on and off for 20 years and we all know what those drives cost,” said Jay Muller during the during last night’s welcome party in the pits at the Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix produced by Powerboat P1. “The boys were super upset, they’re young and they’ve never had anything taken or stolen from them. They don’t get it. They we’re like, ‘Dad, who would want to take them?’

“When I told the guys in the class, ‘Hey, be on the lookout for some No. 6 drives,’ they came together as a family—Vinnie Diorio, Tyler Miller, Wayne Valder, Jason Ventura, everybody,” he continued. “Everyone had parts available and they offered them to us.”

But Billy Mauff, the owner/driver of the Super Cat-class WHM Motorsports team, actually had a complete extra pair of fresh No. 6 drives.

“Billy Mauff, at the end of the day, was like, “I’ve got two drives in the trailer, take those drives for the kids to get out racing and build our class until we figure it out,’” said Muller, who has raced with Mauff for 18 years. “Maybe my drives turn up, maybe they don’t, maybe I have to buy them.”

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Thanks to WHM Motorsports team owner Billy Mauff, the Muller brothers will be back on the water this season in Wicked, staring with the Offshore Powerboat Association St. Clair River Classic, July 28-30, in Michigan.

A little nudge from his extended Super Cat family today was all it took to trigger Mauff’s typically exceptional generosity.

“Wayne and me got Billy in his trailer and started working him pretty hard,” Diorio said, then laughed. “There may have been a little Tito’s involved, but either way he completely agreed. Billy came through and he is going to help these kids and Jay get ready and go racing.

“That is what this all about, helping all of us together,” he added. “As Billy told me during the Cocoa Beach (Fla.) race last month, we are a family. We support each other. And these two kids are the next generation.”

Editor’s note: Racing at the Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix is scheduled to kick off today with the Bracket 700, 600, 500 and 3X classes at 1 p.m., followed by Class 1 pole-position qualifying at 2 p.m. and the Super Stock contest at 3 p.m. Sunday’s racing is slated to begin at 10 a.m. with the Mod V, Bracket 400, 300 and 200 classes at 10 a.m., the Super Cat class at 11:30 a.m., Class 1 at p.m. and 450R Factory Stock at 2:30 p.m. Fans can enjoy all the action live on the P1 Offshore Facebook page.