First-Year Spec-Class Teams Abound In Key West Worlds

Thanks to the increasingly strong presence of XINSURANCE in offshore racing during the past several years, it’s easy to forget that XINSURANCE South, which claimed the 2025 World Powerboat Racing Association Pro Class 1, is a first-year team. Of course, throttleman Bill Pyburn, Jr., and driver Brit Lilly did come loaded with Super Cat-class success and experience.

Still, a new team is a new team, at least by the most basic definition as framed by a simple question: Did it kick off this season in its current class?

With their first regular Super Stock season behind them, the Demon Bikini Racing team of Chad Havens and Leanna Shadlow are competing in Key West, Fla., this week. Photos from the 2025 Key West World Boat Parade by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

Lilly and Pyburn are not the only outfit in the Pro Class 1 category to claim the disparate, veteran/newcomer distinction heading into the triple-contest Race World Offshore Key West World Championships this week. Though they converted their Super Cat Skater dubbed WHM Motorsports raceboat to meet Pro Class 1 specs and are anything but rookies, owner/driver Billy Mauff and throttleman Jay Muller technically are first-year Pro Class 1 competitors.

Likewise, experienced 450R Factory Stock/Factory Stock racers Grant Bruggemann and Willy Cabeza added Pro Class 1 competition to their repertoire this season in a 48-foot MTI catamaran dubbed GC Racing/MTI Factory.

A look at the most current registration sheet reveals an assortment of new spec-class teams of various experience levels competing in Key West.

Missouri’s Rusty Williams is no offshore racing newcomer. He and fellow offshore racing veteran Myrick Coil claimed world and national titles in their Super Stock-class Performance Boat Center raceboat. But the 32-foot Doug Wright catamaran was reborn in the class this season as Say Less MF and Williams is back in the throttleman’s seat. He shares the cockpit with true-rookie driver Chad Rudesill. Rosenback Freight is team’s primary backer.

Say Less MF will have two teams of the same name in different classes in Key West this year.

That trio also combined for a first-year campaign of the same-name running an MTI 390X catamaran—formerly raced by Taylor Scism and John Tomlinson in the 450R Factory Stock category—in the 500R Factory Stock class.

Once a dominant force in the Super Stock class, the Jackhammer/Manatee Marine team of owner/driver Reese Langheim and throttleman Julian Maldonado made the jump to Factory Stock this year. Also new Factory Stock racing and in Key West to compete this week is throttleman Rob Lockyer. Running with driver Alex Pratt of Good Boy Vodka fame, Lockyer took top honors in the 2025 Cowes-Torquay-Cowes endurance race in the United Kingdom. He is joined experienced driver Christian McCauley in the Factory Stock-class GoGPS/Good Boy Vodka team 38-foot Doug Wright catamaran.

Now LWR 44 but formerly Hank’s Saloon, the true Factory Stock rookie paring of new owner/throttleman Joe Spoloric and driver Garrett Coonrod will make their first Key West appearance. Same goes for the AL & AL team duo of Robert LoPiano and Alfredo Amato.

The GoGPS/Good Boy Vodka team entered the Factory Stock ranks late in the 2025 season.

Jumping back to Super Stock, where new teams are everywhere you look:

The Demon Bikini Racing team of Chad Havens and Leanna Shadlow debuted in Key West last year but did not compete, which made 2025 their first Super Stock-class season. Though throttleman XINSURANCE Moxie Racing throttleman Greg Reichman is a seasoned competitor now sharing the cockpit with rookie driver David Whelan, the team also just notched its first season in the Super Stock category.

So did Jeremy Tschida and Julian Maldonado in Wozencraft/TFR Racing, Andrew Miller and class veteran Todd DeFilipps in Digging Deep and the Drink Kilo cockpit combo of Dale McEachern and Austin Blocker.

Not to be left out, there are three Mod V teams—each with at least one experienced cockpit occupant—in Key West this week: Fuel1team.com with Mike Geraud and Damon Marotta, Sr., in cockpit, the Irish Kevin’s team of Dante Napoli and Larry Fontecha and Travis Pastrana and Jim York in the XINSURNANCE/Statement Marine raceboat

Julian Maldonado and Reese Langheim are dialing in their first-year Factory Stock program.

Both the Super Cat and Super V classes will see one new team in Key West. Kelly Kraiss and Ron Gibbs will run a 36-foot Skater as EWB Racing in the Super Cat ranks. They also competed during the regular season in what is the smallest raceboat iin the category.

Michael Howe and Timothy Linden will run a 40-foot Outerlimits as DSK in Super V. It will be the first time the boat has been campaigned in the United States. And with six other teams in the category they’ll have their hands full.