Coming Back To ‘Have Fun’ At Key West Worlds—The Steve Curtis Interview

The domestic offshore racing career of multi-time Class 1 world champion Steve Curtis ended abruptly after the 2023 St. Petersburg Grand Prix when Huski—his primary sponsor—departed the sport. Since then, the famed throttleman has been mostly on the sidelines, though always ready or the next opportunity. That happened earlier this year when businessman/entrepreneur Darryl Cuttell purchased a 51-foot Mystic catamaran—a heavily modified version of the cat Curtis throttled with then-owner/driver Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani to 244 mph during the 2024 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout—with the goal of returning the cat to Shootout glory.

Though they not have shared the cockpit for 11 years, Sheikh Hassan and Steve Curtis have remained close friends.

And with a 242-mph run on the three-quarter-mile course—a quarter-mile shorter than it was for the 2014 achievement—Curtis and Cuttell did exactly that during this year’s event on the Central Missouri waterway.

But yesterday’s news that Curtis and Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani of Qatar plan to join forces for Race World Offshore Key West World Championships in early November may even have been more unexpected than the new three-quarter-mile Shootout record.

During the glacial-pace drive home yesterday from Destin, Fla., to Cape Coral, Fla., following the Florida Powerboat Club Emerald Coast Boat Week, I caught up with Curtis by phone to learn more. Here’s what he had to say.

Steve Curtis and Sheikh Hassan back in the saddle for Key West? What’s all that about?

(Laughs) Well, I’ve never stopped talking with him really. It’s been 11 years since last raced together, but we are still friends, just as I am with most of the people I’ve known and raced with in offshore powerboat racing during my career. He said he wanted to do something and I said, “Well, I don’t really have a boat.” So we started looking. I think we’ve come across one.

OK, I’ll admit it. I was surprised.

(Laughs again, harder) To be honest, I didn’t even know we were going to do a press release—I was more shocked than you when I saw your story. But I’m pretty sure we’ve found two possibilities, and we will finalize one boat or the other. Then we will decide what class we will go in.

In 2014, the Spirit of Qatar team reached 244 mph at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout. Photo courtesy/copyright George Denny.

The release has you guys competing in the Extreme class.

(Laughs) I read that (laughs again). Yeah, probably. Sheikh Hassan is pretty excited about going racing, that’s for sure, and that’s what really matters. I’m just trying to put together the deal and finalize the boat. Then we will know what class we are going in. But it won’t be in a Class 1 boat. That much I know.

Really, I just think it’s very good he’s coming back and looking to do something. It will be a fun thing. Key West is always fun.

Under American Power Boat Association rules, you wouldn’t be eligible to compete in Key West. But Race World Offshore isn’t an APBA member-organization so I don’t think—key word—it matters. And (Race World Offshore head) Larry Bleil has always been pretty inclusive.

Yeah, for sure, and to be honest I think people in offshore racing still need to realize it’s a gentlemen’s sport. They try to make it too bureaucratic and take all the fun out of it.

On the one side, you have all this bureaucracy, but if you look at Key West it’s just a venue everyone wants to go to. You can’t test on the course. You can’t do pole position. There’s so many things about Key West that don’t make it “super professional,” but it’s still just a great race. Everyone wants to win there. Everyone ones to go there. People need to accept that and take it for what it is.

Last month, the Darana-Hybrid team reached 242 mph during the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout. Photo by Jeff Helmkamp copyright Helmkamp Photos.

It’s like the Grand Prix of Monaco in Formula One. It’s not a racecourse for modern Formula 1 cars. If you’re on the pole, no one is going to overtake you unless you crash, have a mechanical issue or mess up in the pits. The last Monaco race, they just went round and round. And yet every Formula 1 racer wants to win it. Racers cry when they win it.

Did your recent accomplishment at the Shootout fire up Sheikh Hassan?

Yeah, I spoke to him right after and he got pumped about that for sure. But we’ve been talking about him coming back for a long time, as I said earlier. And it all honesty, it’s not just good for Sheikh Hassan to come back. It’s good for Qatar and it’s good for the sport. He’s a super-nice guy and he loves the sport.

And Key West is a great platform for him to return to—there’s no pressure. We’re just going down to do some racing, have some fun and see a bunch of friends again.