KEY WEST: WHM Motorsports Wins Superboat World Championship
A second-place finish were all AMH Motorsports needed to capture the title in Superboat Class at the Key West World Championships in Sunday’s third of four races. And that’s exactly they had for most of the race—until a mechanical issue took them down to fifth place and out of title contention, handing the World Championship to WHM Motorsports.
AMH Motorsports, a 38’ Skater owned and driven by Aaron Hope and throttled by Anthony Smith, came within a razor’s edge of taking the World Champions in Superboat class, but WHM Motorsports, a 40’ Skater owned and driven by Billy Mauff and throttled by Jay Muller, finished first and are now the unofficial World Champions. Boats raced for a total of 12 3/4 laps on Sunday.
Defending World Champion Performance Boat Center/Jimmy John’s, a 38’ Skater driven by Myrick Coil and throttled by John Tomlinson, finished in second place; M-CON, a 40’ Skater driven by Tyson Garvin and throttled by owner Tyler Miller, finished third.
It was the third consecutive heartbreaker of the day, as Shadow Pirate‘s dreams of taking the Superboat Stock win and LSB Hurricane of Awesomeness‘s plan to retain their World Championship in Superboat Vee class were both obliterated earlier on Sunday.
AMH has been running the old Stihl offshore race hull all year. After running an enclosed-canopy Fountain, AMH purchased the Stihl 388 Skater and switched over to Superboat class this season.
Pro-Floors Racing, a 38’ Skater owned and driven by Wayne Valder of New Zealand and throttled by Grant Bruggermann of Bradenton, FL, led during both Wednesday and Friday before breaking down. They were one of the frontrunners in Sunday’s race before their engine got swamped with saltwater, taking them out of the running.
