Supercat Owners Regrouping For Three-Race U.S.-1 Championship

Earlier this year, the Supercat owners group announced that its teams would compete at seven American Power Boat Association-sanctioned races this season, with each team allowed to drop one result for its best six-race APBA points total. The members of the group agreed that the team with the highest total would take the U.S.-1 National Championship title for the season, and that the three-race Race World Offshore Key West Offshore Championships would be a stand-alone event for the 2020 Supercat-class world title.

If the current offshore racing schedule holds, the 2020 Supercat-class owners group national champion will be determined in three races. Photo from the 2019 RWO Key West Championships by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix/speedonthewater.com.

But with four of the six races in the APBA Offshore Championship Series cancelled as a result of COVID-19 and just three of the original six races on the internal Supercat schedule remaining—the APBA Series events in Cocoa Beach and Fort Myers Beach, Fla., and the RWO event in Clearwater, Fla.—the Supercat owners have changed their U.S. 1 title plans. That’s the word from class representative Billy Mauff, who spoke yesterday with members of the group via conference call.

The group will use results from Cocoa Beach, Clearwater and Fort Myers Beach to determine its own Supercat-class national championship. If one race drops off the schedule, two races will determine the title. Should the Supercat-class teams only be able to run one race, that contest will determine the group’s national championship. The trio of RWO races in Key West still will determine the Supercat-class “world championship,” according to Mauff.

Several Supercat teams, such as Lorne Leibel and John Tomlinson in the former Performance Boat Center Skater Powerboats catamaran and Chuck Broaddus and Chris Hanley of the Broadco MTI team, had plan to run a limited schedule this season. The Supercat owners group decision in essence gives them a shot at a U.S. 1 title.

“You know, something good always comes out of something bad,” Mauff said. “For the teams that weren’t going to be able to run the full seven races from our original schedule and then drop one, this could be a big advantage. A team could win from one to three races, depending on which races actually happen, and take home a U.S. 1 title. While that’s not what our team would do—we would decline the U.S. 1 title if we won it in just a few races because we’ve won it before—no one would be happier than me to see one of the newer teams win the championship.

“People can only do what they can do, especially now,” he continued. “Everyone has a different business and everyone’s business has been affected differently by COVID-19. We’ve told people to do what they can, and not to be embarrassed if they can’t race this season—for any reason.”

Supercat Owners Regrouping For Three-Race U.S.-1 Championship

Address

Quick Links