Photo by Pete Boden
MTI is soft-launching two pleasure boats made for a new racing class. The class will include 34 to 40 feet long canopied catamarans, powered by twin stock Mercury Racing 450R outboard engines. Their first driver will be MTI’s very own, Taylor Scism. Read the article below to find out more!
Called 450R Factory Stock, a new offshore racing catamaran class has been added to the rulebook of the Offshore Powerboat Association—an American Power Boat Association member-organization—for the 2021 season. The class will be limited to canopied catamarans from 34 to 40 feet long and powered by twin stock Mercury Racing 450R outboard engines. So far, MTI of Wentzville, Mo., has two of its 390X catamarans, which in pleasure form have open cockpits but will include protective canopies per the class, ordered for the 450R Factory Stock ranks.
The first 39-footer, which will be driven by MTI’s Taylor Scism with a throttleman to be named later, will go into production in about a month.
“The bigger engines are too big for the smaller Super Stock-class boats, which top out at 32 feet, and just right for the bigger boats,” said Randy Scism, the founder and owner of MTI, who worked closely on creating the class with OPA president Ed “Smitty” Smith. “As long as the hull comes out of a standard mold—the hulls will be homologated into the rulebook—Mystic, Skater and DCB all have cats in the size range and could come and race.
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