Mid-Term Rookie Review

Had Taylor Chastelet not earned one podium finish this year in offshore racing’s Stock class, no one, least of all the 18-year-old driver or his mentor/throttleman Gary Ballough, would have been surprised or disappointed. From the outset of the 2014 season, winning was never the goal for the GB Racing team, which fields a 32-foot Doug Wright outboard-engine-powered catamaran, which was recently sponsored by Top Starz Energy Drink. And yet with second-place finishes at Super Boat International events in Sarasota and Charlotte Harbor, Fla., and wins at the Offshore Powerboat Association-sanctioned Smokin’ The Sound event in Biloxi, Miss., and in the Lake Race on Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks, Chastelet and Ballough have exceeded all expectations—especially their own.

“The biggest thing about Taylor is he came here to learn and that was the foundation of what we wanted to do this year,” says Ballough, a multi-time world and national champion in Stock class. “He came with an open mind. He listens, he reacts and he is very aware of what the boat is doing—you don’t find that a lot with new guys. I am proud of his ability to listen and learn. I think that’s what is moving us forward.”

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