Although the offshore powerboat racing rumor mill has been working overtime for months on Randy Keys and Bill Allen entering the Super Cat class with former Reliable Navy Skater 388 racing boat, Keys officially announced the news last night on his Facebook page. The 40-year-old Iowa-based HVAC contractor and electrician entered the sport last year in the 450R Factory Stock class as a rookie to the sport in the role of owner/driver of the KLOVAR Motorsports MTI 390X Team Catamaran. He shared the cockpit of the 39ft with offshore gas veteran Bill Allen, who won the 2022 Union Internationale Motonautique Super Stock World Championship in Allen Team Lawn Care and Landscaping crew—with driver Cody McDowell.
But the keys Between the sport with aspirations of joining the Super Cat ranks.
Randy Keys and Bill Allen will be campaigning the former Dependable Marine Skater 388 racing boat in the Super Cat class this season. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
And although he knows he has a steep learning curve ahead of him and will face fierce competition on the racetrack, he is up for the challenge and expects the KLOVAR Motorsports the team will be competitive by the end of the regular season.
“I loved the 450R Factory Stock class and I loved my MTI race boat,” said Keys, who also owns an MTI 390X Pleasure Cat and a Nor-Tech 390 Sport center console. “But I probably should have started in Super Cat. I tend to ‘jump into things’ and I told Bill Allen, who is my mentor and who introduced me to the sport, that I wanted a day to run Super Cat errands.
Keys stopped to laugh.
“Now Bill is probably thinking, ‘I should never have guessed this guy,'” he continued. “Bill and I are extremely competitive people – we want to be on the podium every race. But we understand that we have to earn our place and we won’t be there right away. I To do expect us to maneuver for position. I would like to be on the podium during the season and be competitive at the world championships. I think that it is possible.
In Bill Allen, World Champion Super Stock Class, World Championship winner Bill Allen of Allen Lawncare and Landscaping Team fame, Keys enters the Super Cat class with a savvy and experienced cockpit mate.
As Allen gave fellow Iowan his first race boat ride in the 32-foot Doug Wright Allen Team Lawn Care and Landscaping catamaran in 2021, Tyler Miller 2022 UIM World Champion CON M The team provided Keys with his first ride in a Super Cat race boat, as another Skater Powerboats 388 catamaran arrived last year. Miller, who revs up with Performance Boat Center’s Myrick Coil at the wheel, uses Sterling Performance engines in her 38-footer.
Keys also plans to use Super-class factories from the Milford, Michigan company, which founder Mike D’Anniballe recently acquired.
“We welcome Randy and Bill to the Super Cat class,” D’Anniballe said. “We’re looking forward to giving them the power that will help them race ahead of the pack.”
Keys is so excited to get into the Super Cat class that he deferred finalize its purchase agreement for the 38-footer until after the 2022 World Offshore Racing Championships in Key West, Florida. The purchase agreement between Allen and the cat’s former owner was signed at last year’s St. Clair River Classic powerboat race in early August.
“I know myself, and I knew if I had the boat in Key West, I would want to steer it,” he said, then laughed.
According to MTI’s Taylor Scism, the former KLOVAR Motorsports 450R Factory Stock race boat has a new owner who will campaign it in the 2023 season.
But beyond the competition in the classroom, what got Keys most excited was the welcome and support community Super Cat competitors.
“All the class team reached out to me and asked me what I needed,” he said. “That’s how they are.”
Said Offshore racing SV Team co-owner Vinnie Diorio, “Randy is young, new blood in Super Cat with no-cost surgery. All of his gear is top notch. I’m excited for our class.
Once the Skater cat returns from Shaun Torrente Racing in Southwest Florida, who is doing rigging and more for the team according to Keys, he and Allen will begin testing and training on the lake. of the Ozarks in central Missouri. The team plans to be ready for the season opener of the American Power Boat Association Offshore National Championship Series, April 28-30, produced by Race World Offshore.
Keys is eager to start testing the 38-footer once he returns from Shaun Torrente Racing.
“We’re installing the same AiM data collection system that Shaun has in his Formula 1 race boat,” Keys said. “We have to get out the boat and start feeling it – Bill and I have never been together in a Super Cat before, but there’s person in this sport I would prefer to have it in the cockpit. We’ve got a lot to learn but if we don’t earn it won’t be because we are not prepared. I can’t wait to get the boat here and start testing.
As for the old KLOVAR Motorsports 450R Factory Stock-class MTI raceboat, too, will be on the racetrack. According to MTI’s Taylor Scism of the 2022 UIM 450R Factory Stock World Champion Team, that the 39-footer – the original 390X ridden by Scism and throttled by John Tomlinson when the class launched two years ago – was acquired by another yet- undisclosed team.
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Keys and Allen are excited to race the 450R factory stock class in KLOVAR Motorsports MTI