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Follow the #7 MTI to the highly anticipated offshore powerboat race at Cocoa Beach this weekend! MTI entered into the 450R Factory Stock Class, with Milton Calafell as an alternate driver, stepping in for Taylor Scism. Calafell pairs up with Johnny Tomlinson of TNT Custom Marine to keep the boat on the course this weekend and we are hopeful to see them bring home a win! Be sure to keep an eye on our other MTI competitors making their way around the course also including multiple entries in the Stock 450 class, Super Cat, Super Stock and Class 1! Be sure to mark your calendars now to follow our fleet as this will be a race you won’t want to miss!

Following its victory at the season-opener in Marathon, Fla., in late-April the team decided it was worth the effort to get the boat to the P1 Offshore-produced race in Cocoa Beach even though driver Taylor Scism would not be able to compete because she’s attending—and organizing—a 25th anniversary gathering for the company founded by her parents, Randy and Cherell Scism, later this week at Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks. Being that the APBA points go with the boat rather than the driver, the team’s crew chief, Milton Calafell, is going to replace Scism in the cockpit alongside veteran throttleman John Tomlinson, who co-owns TNT Custom Marine in North Miami.

“When the race schedule came out, we knew that our 25th anniversary celebration, which was scheduled prior to the holiday weekend to provide a great experience for our customers and not conflict with other events already on the calendar, conflicted with Cocoa Beach,” said Taylor Scism, MTI’s client relations manager. “As you know, we’re very committed to our class and want to keep our representation out on the course, so it was an easy decision when it came to who would jump in for me. Milton is our crew chief and full-time MTI support lead. He’s raced boats in the past and is very capable of running our 390XR. I will definitely be on the phone in the cockpit and watching live. I have full faith in Johnny and Milton going out there and making us proud!”

A veteran of the MTI team from its days racing two boats in the competitive Superboat Unlimited class, Calafell, who heads MTI’s Miami-based sales, service and storage center in Haulover Marine Center, said he’s tested all of the team’s 450R Factory Stock-class boats during the past three seasons with Tomlinson and is ready for the race on Sunday. In fact, he and Tomlinson tested the 39-footer this morning in Miami.

“We had the boat pretty well dialed in after Marathon so we set up a course off Miami Beach and took it out this morning to run some laps,” Calafell said. “Johnny and I spent a couple of hours in the boat making sure it was ready and that we were in sync. Everything went well today. I can’t wait to go racing on Sunday.”

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Original article published on speedonthewater.com