Super Stock Steele Team To Debut New Dubai-Built Raceboat In St. Clair
With a mid-pack finish at the American Power Boat Association Offshore National Championship Series season-opener in Cocoa Beach, Fla., followed by a win at the Lake Race on the Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri and a roll in the Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix, it’s already been a wild season for the Super Stock Steele Industries team of owner/driver Dominick Steele and throttleman Julian Maldonado. Now they have a new 31-foot raceboat built by a Dubai-based outfit called Legend.
After testing today, the Steele Industries team of Julian Maldonado and Dominick Steele will head for this weekend’s St. Clair River Classic race in the Detroit Metro area.
Maldonado and Steele will unveil the 31-footer, which is powered by the Mercury Racing 300R outboard engines from its former 30-foot Skater Powerboats raceboat, this weekend at the Offshore Powerboat Association-produced St. Clair River Classic, the fourth of eight races in the APBA series.
“It’s a very, very well-built boat—all to UIM specs—and very light, so we do have to add some weight to it to meet the class rules,” said Maldonado, who is testing the boat with Steele today. “It is the fastest Super Stock boat I have ever been in with 300Rs.
“We still need to do some setup work and more testing,” he continued. “We’re not going to St. Clair or Michigan City (Ind.) after that to ‘win.’ We want to hold our position in the points and keep fine-tuning and learning the boat.”
The 31-foot catamaran was rigged at Manatee Marine in one week.
The new cat was rigged in a week at Manatee Marine Unlimited in Palmetto, Fla., a powerboat dealership and service center he co-owns with Sara and Reese Langheim, who also own the Super Stock-class Jackhammer team. (Maldonado’s father, Ricky, throttles the Jackhammer raceboat.)
“I have to thank Stuart Halley and Jeff Broman at Mercury Racing for helping us get the replacement parts we needed for the 300Rs,” said Ricky Maldonado. “It would have been impossible to do in this timeframe without their help.”
Said Maldonado, “It is the fastest Super Stock boat I have ever been in with 300Rs.”
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