The 2025 Race World Offshore Key West World Championships kicked off today—the first of three races total—with nearly 100 entries racing in a total 14 classes. Monster Energy/M•CON grabbed the checkered flag in PRO Class 1, Dirty Money Racing took the win in Super Cat, and Team Nautical Ventures was victorious in Super Stock. It was an intensely exciting day of racing, with a stunning nine-boat field in Factory Stock (its largest to date), a class that saw a harrowing crash when Mead Family Racing landed upside down. A second crash occurred later in the day in Super Stock class, when Drink-Kelo barrel-rolled, also landing upside down. (All pilots checked out OK.) Here’s a recap of each class; all results are unofficial as of this writing:
PRO Class 1: Eight entries came to Key West to compete, including last year's winner and World Champion, Defalco Racing (Mike Falco and Billy Moore). DeFalco had the lead toward the end of the race—until Tyler Miller and Myrick Coil picked up some speed and blew past them. DeFalco seemed to come off pace, falling back to fourth as a battle for second and third ensued. MobileX/222 Offshore Australia (Darren Nicholson and Giovanni Carpitella) ended up in second place, with XINSURANCE North (J.J Turk and Nick Buis) finishing third.
Super Cat: Brit Lilly and Bill Pyburn—winners of last year's World Championship—led from pole to pole, taking their trusty Dirty Money competitor to the top of the podium and potentially setting themselves up for a repeat World Championship this week. Rollin Transport (Sean Conner and Vinnie Diorio) finished second, and Team Farnsworth Motorsports/Hancock Claims (Christian McCauley and Anthony Smith) was third.
Extreme: The legendary throttleman Steve Curtis made his triumphant return to the USA offshore race course by joining driver Sheik Hassan Al-Thani in #96 Spirit of Qatar, taking first place up against American Custom Marine (Jeff McCann and Michael Knoblock).
Super Stock: A total of 14 boats entered this class, including reigning World Champion Team Allen Lawn Care (Bill Allen and Randy Keys). Only a minute after the start, Dale McEachern and Austin Blocker in Drink-Kelo barrel-rolled, shutting down the race with a red flag. After the restart, Shaun Torrente and Matt Jamnickzy dominated in their Team Nautical Ventures competitor, grabbing the checkered flag. Raymarine (Gary Ballough and Cole Leibel) finished second and Wozencraft (Jeremy Tschida and Julian Maldonado) finished third.
Factory Stock: Nine boats in this class came to rumble in Key West, including reigning World Champion Heritage/Canados (Ervin Grant and Michel Karsenti). Scarcely two minutes after the green flag dropped, Mead Family Racing (Caleb Mead and John Tomlinson) flipped and landed upside down, stopping the race with a red flag. After the team was extracted from their MTI 390XR and the boat was towed to the crane, racing resumed with the remaining eight competitors. Say Less MF (Chad Rudesill and Rusty Williams) was running fourth behind Montlick Injury Attorneys, Jackhammer and GC Racing, but suddenly charged ahead of all them to finish first. GC Racing (Willy Cabeza and Grant Bruggemann) finished second and AL&AL (Roberto Lo Piano and Alfredo Amato) came in third.
Super Vee: Running with PRO Class 1, the Super Vee fleet of six entries was dominated by reigning World Champion Team Farnsworth/Hancock Claims (Elijah Kingery and Anthony Smith); they were followed by Knucklehead Racing (Edward Smith and Jay Wohltman) and Cortez Cove Fountain (Kirk Britto and Robert Lockyer).
Mod Vee: Another class with a very healthy field, the Mod Vee class boasted 11 competitiors, including the father-son team of Steve and Stephen Kildahl in their famous Boatfloater.com entry. Also joining the class was a new competitor: Dixxon Flannel/XINSURANCE, featuring Jim York driving with world-famous throttleman Travis Pastrana of Nitro Circus fame. The Boatfloater.com team was the boat to beat—the Kildahls got out in front and took the checkered flag, followed by Speed Marine (Kyle Miller and Jay Wohltman) and NMBRVresort.com (Kirk Hanna and Mark Rinda). Dixxon Flannel finished in fourth place—a very respectable achievement, given that this was the first race together for York and Pastrana.
Jackhammer (Connor Langheim and Reese Langheim) ran uncontested in Cat 300 Class.
Bracket class results were as follows:
Bracket Class 2:
1. OC Racing
2. Justice League
3. H20 Performance/Two Conchs
Bracket Class 3:
1. Team Woody Racing
2. Wehaulboats.com
3. Herbott racing
Bracket Class 4:
1. Saris Racing Engines
2. Simmons Marine
3. Nauti Beach Rum/Hogsb
Bracket Class 5:
1. Rum Runners
2. Marker 1 Marine
3. Agora Day Spa
Bracket Class 6:
1. MDG Offshore Racing
2. Team Ride Legal
3. Moderation
Bracket Class 7:
1. Dirt Legal Velocity
2. RedRum
3. Shocker
The World Championship races continue on Friday and Sunday.