Two crews crowned Offshore Superboat Champions

by Bob Wonders on 7 Aug 2009 Although one round remains (Redcliffe, September 12-13) in the 2009 Offshore Superboat Championships, two crews, ‘Maritimo’ and ‘SUV Dodge Ram’ have collected sufficient points to be named title holders in their respective classes.

‘Maritimo’ has taken out Class 1 and ‘SUV Dodge Ram’ has claimed the prestigious trophy for the Supercat Outboard class.

Despite already anointed as champions, both teams will seek to go out on a wining note at Redcliffe.

The ‘SUV Dodge Ram’ crew, Mat Humphrey (owner/driver) and Simon Isherwood (throttleman) put their success down to ‘meticulous preparation.’

‘SUV Dodge Ram’ is a Doug Wright-designed catamaran of 9.14-metres (30’), modified and reinforced to handle the tough Australian conditions by Sean Edwards, of South East Cat Co.

'He’s a boat building magician,' Humphrey declared.

Isherwood, a 20-year veteran of offshore racing, said the team had a ‘singular focus’ on the eventual victory.

'We set out to win the championship from round one and to do that you need to collect as many points as possible; sounds simple, but one needs to be aware of the boat’s limits and maintain protection of the equipment,' he explained. 'This season, we opted to run the older style 2.5-litre Mercury Offshore engines rather than the more modern and powerful Optimax engines.

'Although down on torque, the 2.5 engines deliver high revolutions and are genuine racing engines, built to race and that’s what they do best,' he added.

Mat Humphrey has described the crew’s win as 'a genuine team effort.'

'No team can achieve success without a supportive sponsor and we were fortunate indeed in having Con Salloumidis aboard, providing us with access to his workshop and as well as undertaking the arduous task of transporting the boat to all the race venues,' he said.

'Jason Warmsley (one of ski racing’s top competitors), of Zigs Marine, did an awesome job in preparing the boat, much in conjunction with Race Marine, and Race Marine’s Denis Hoffrichter was super support at every race, making final adjustments and ensuring correct propellers.

The fact that the boat was indeed well prepared can be seen in the fact that ‘SUV Dodge Ram’ was the only boat in all classes contesting the Offshore Superboat Championships to finish every race and stand on the podium after every race!

Three wins and three seconds from six starts gave the team a convincing title win over arch-rival ‘Saracen’ (Antony deFina and Nigel Craven)

'Seriously, though, we had an ‘X Factor’ and that has been Simon Isherwood.

'Everyone thinks all you need to win races is horsepower and top end speed.

'That’s simply not the case, an experienced throttleman can win races on his own, especially in rough conditions and they don’t come much better than Simon Isherwood,' Humphrey added firmly.

Humphrey said the team was now looking at the possibility of racing in the lucrative X Cat Series in Dubai, which has already attracted competitors worldwide and carries some worthwhile prize money.

'It offers a class identical to our Supercat Outboard and has similar rules,' Humphrey explained.

'Still, racing overseas is expensive and we now have SUV Dodge Ram up for sale and hope to be able to lease a competitive boat in Dubai.

'It’s just a dream at this stage, but so was winning the Offshore Superboat Championship Supercat Outboard, so you never know,' he added, hopefully.