Kiwis who follow offshore racing will be aware of Wayne Valder, the only offshore competitor to hold the AUS1, NZ1 & US1 titles in the competitive Supercat Class.
After winning US1 in 2020, Wayne was unable, due to Covid, to return to the US to defend his title and have another crack at the World Championship at Key West, Florida last year. However he has plans to head back to the USA and run the entire Superboat circuit as well as Key West this year.
Biggest change for Superboat is the engine size has been increased to allow Mercury Racing 860 engines as a power option for the class. Team owners Vinnie Diorio of SV Racing, John Emmons of Chariots of Fire, Chris Grant of Graydel, Tyler Miller of M CON, Billy Mauff of WHM Motorsports, John Sheker of Dependable Marine and Wayne Valder of Pro Floors Racing voted unanimously to allow the 860-hp, fuel-injected engines from the Fond du Lac, Wis., company into the class.
Though SV Racing is the only team running Mercury Racing 860 engines, Supercat-class team owners have agreed to allow the fuel-injected mills into the class this season, with full points status.
SV Racing is the only team currently running 860 power—all of the other teams are using class-spec, 750-hp carbureted engines from builders including Kasse Racing Engines and Sterling Performance Engines. Diorio and fellow team owner Simon Prevost chose to run their 39-foot Outerlimits catamaran with 860 engines last season and, as such, were not officially allowed compete in the Supercat class.
“The 860s have been way more cost-effective for us,” Diorio said. “We have one set of engines that we ran all season without a problem and we are fully expecting to get through this season on the same set of engines.”
Wayne says he will stick with the 750hp engines for this season and plans to be on the start line on May 16 for round one at Cocoa Beach.
