With Redcliffe ultimately sidelined for ...
The mighty Offshore Superboats make a welcome return to Port Adelaide this weekend for the final round of the current season; with everything to play for.
Only the Supersports 85 Championship has been decided heading back to Largs Bay, ‘Cootacraft’s’ Mark Pecherzewski adding another title to his name in what he suggests may be one of his final seasons in the open-cockpit, speed regulated category, as he looks to join last year’s 85-mile-per-hour Champions ‘Hornet Racing’ in the faster outright classes.
Speaking of the Kelly family, Mick and Jason Kelly will come into the season final with a comfortable 42-point lead in the outright Supercat Extreme category over the ‘MOJO’ pairing of Stuart Eustice and Todd Kelly, a team who made their debut at Adelaide 12-months ago. The two rookie teams though won’t be alone in their title fight, battling Supercat Outboard graduates Antony Defina and Matt Kelly for the overall title, the former ‘Team 3’ entry, now resplendent in ‘Venturi’ blue, are just 17 points behind second with 105-points up for grabs this weekend!
The Supercat Outboard category too is set for a title battle, although on paper, the favourites are arguably former Champions Mike Ratcliffe and Karl Wall in ‘The Sting’; that said, you’d be remiss to discount ‘DLR Offshore’, Craig Dove’s outstanding consistency handing him second in the Championship last year to outgoing Champions Antony De Fina and Matt Kelly.
Acknowledging that they don’t have the performance advantage of the more powerful twin Mercury 300Rs off the back of the ‘Sting’ and ‘Kess Racing’ machines, Dove’s reliability has played well into his Championship story as he enters Adelaide just 63 points back from the points leaders; again, with 105 points up for grabs, it’s not outside the realms of possibility that the ageing aluminium boat, could claim the 2026 title, and what a story that would be!!
Throw Dove’s 2025 team-mate Steve Lancaster into the mix in ‘Kess Racing’, the boat that took De Fina and Matt Kelly to multiple class victories, and you have a race on your hands, whilst for the veteran crew of Stephen Kelly and Scott Richardson, they will be hoping to revisit their strong Wyndham Harbour form in what looks likely to be their last ever event in the ‘TCR Offshore’ machine.
Arguably the biggest battle in the Series though will be that for Supersport 65 honours with Geelong’s Charlie Di Iorio on the verge of his maiden title in the family-owned ‘Cardiac Arrest’.
Three wins from nine starts to date have laid the foundations for their points lead, the key though being their six second-placed finishes, as around them their rivals have faltered. Leading the charge to unseat the young Victorian are reigning Champions ‘Nut Case’, who despite a slow start to the season with Hary Bakkr investigating opportunities in the Supersports 85 class, have reunited in an effort to claim back-to-back titles.
The popular Victorians have won the last four races to launch themselves right back into contention, and sit just 27 points off the Championship lead. Again, there are 105 points on offer, but the equations gets even trickier in the tightly regulated category, a category which rarely sees a DNF; should Bakkr and Shane Paton win all three races in Adelaide, as they did last year, and Di Iorio finishes second, they’ll make up just 15 points.
The equation shows that Di Iorio and Tijana Botic need to finish no worse than third, but are better off with second; should they finish third in each race, they will tie with the reigning Champions but likely lose a count-back based on round wins, so it will be all about consistency, whilst for the ‘Razorcraft’ crew of Bakkr and Paton, they have no option; it’s go hard or go home. It’s worth remembering too, that a DNF also includes ‘breaking out’ above their 65-mile-per-hour speed limit, something which occurs quite regularly.. Throw in 2024 Champion Patty Paczkowski – who will make his Port Adelaide debut – and you have just enough ingredients to make things very interesting for the contenders.. wonder who might be buying him a beer at the end of the weekend!?
No pressure..!!
Frustratingly the global fuel issue has cost us some entries, including reigning Supercat Extreme Champions ‘Mobile X/222 Offshore’ who were also in mathematical reach of the Championship; the sheer logistics of getting the team to Adelaide from the Gold Coast ultimately sidelining them, as it has for a number of Queensland-based teams, but regardless, the battle for Championship honours will certainly keep everyone focussed.
For 2026 the location of the course has been brought further south with the bottom turn coming just off Semaphore Jetty, providing a fantastic viewing point for the fans, whilst the beach all the way back to Largs Bay, and the Largs Bay Sailing Club will also provide some great options, as will the Cruising Yacht Club of South Australia, which will host the teams at North Haven. Three 30-minute races are scheduled for Saturday, May 09 with races at 12:00pm, 1:00pm and 2:00pm, whilst on Sunday, May 10, 30-minute races will run at 11:00am, 12:00pm and 1:00pm.
For more information on the Australian Offshore Superboat Championships, visit us at;
www.superboat.com.au
www.facebook.com/OffshoreSuperboats
www.facebook.com/ausopc
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2025/26 Australian Offshore Superboat Championships
Supercat Extreme Championship (after round three of four)
1. Mick Kelly/Jason Kelly (Hornet Racing) – 268-points
2. Stuart Eustice/Todd Kelly (MOJO) – 226
3. Darren Nicholson/Steve Jellick (Mobile X) – 211
4. Antony De Fina/Matt Kelly (Venturi Offshore) – 209
5. Darren Apps/Paul Fowlds (Team Australia) – 23
6. Andrew Searle/Tom Barry Cotter (ACME Racing) – 1
Supercat Outboard Championship (after round three of four)
1. Mike Ratcliffe/Karl Wall (The Sting) – 281-points
2. Craig Dove/Lachlan Dove (DLR Offshore) – 218
3. Scott Richardson/Steve Kelly (TCR Offshore) – 195
4. Steve Lancaster/Scott Kelly (Kess Racing) – 177
5. George Collins/Tom Barry-Cotter (Superstition) – 31
Supersports 85 Championship (after round three of four)
1. Mark Pecherzewski/Mel Nelson (Special Edition/TR Racing) – 271-points
2. Jordan Kelly/Scott Kelly (The Colonel) – 130
Supersports 65 Championship (after round three of four)
1. Charlie Di Iorio/Tijana Botic (Cardiac Arrest) – 285-points
2. Hary Bakkr/Shane Paton (Nut Case) – 258
3. Pat Paczkowski (Valentus) – 224
4. Brendan Weeks/Sophie Lancaster (The Con) – 216
5. Ben Embleton/Liam Sutherland (Team 38 Offshore) – 148
6. Zac Gould/Michael Agius (Degen) – 18
With the 2024/25 Australian Offshore season coming to its conclusion after a sensational debut round in Port Adelaide less than three weeks ago, you could expect teams were ready to wind-down and prepare for a six-month off-season, but nothing could be further from the truth, with some big moves taking place across recent weeks, moves that will have a big impact on the coming season.
“There have been more boats change hands over the last few weeks than perhaps at any time in the last 30 years,” Australian Offshore Powerboat Club Commodore Antony De Fina confirmed.
And he should know, he’s part of the new look field for the 2026 season, the former AUS#1 title-holder and multiple Supercat Outboard Champion having taken delivery of a new mount, a mount that will see he and Matt Kelly take the fight to the outright boats in their ‘new’ Victory Cat.
“To be honest, it’s probably Dave Pitman’s fault,” De Fina explained, his long-time sponsor and friend having planted the seed after a discussion late last year. “Dave had said to me I should look at going to an outright boat, something I’d often dreamt about but never really seriously considered, but that was the catalyst to start me thinking about it, and a lunch meeting with former boat owner Adam Gilbert ultimately sealed the deal.”
Originally built by the Victory Team in Dubai in the early 2000s as a Class 2 boat, at one stage it featured twin BMW engines in a joint venture with the German auto maker, but now features twin 525-horsepower Mercury powerplants with BPM shaft drives, something which De Fina admits he will stick with in the short term.
“The boat is beautiful. It’s a full carbon-fibre hull and whilst it was built as a Class 2 boat at 36-feet in length, it will be lighter and corner faster than the bigger boats (‘MOJO’ at 39’ and ‘222’ at 42’), something we will look to use to our advantage,” he explained.
“Presently the boat is with Peter ‘Muddy’ McGrath at 222 Offshore on the Gold Coast where they will go over it and help us prepare it for a return to action as it’s been a few years since the ‘Team 3’ boat was last on the water. Then we’ll bring it back to Melbourne where we’ll install some new MoTeC dashboards and updates just to bring it up to scratch then do some serious testing.”
The boat is currently resplendent in ‘Team Victory’ blue, a departure from the livery that De Fina and Kelly campaign on their own Supercat Outboard package, a package which has also changed hands, its new owner having already taken delivery, De Fina admitting that it was sad to see the ‘MANTIS’ leave after such a successful partnership, but acknowledges that the team are excited by the new challenge.
“Matt and I obviously had some long discussions about the move and we both agreed that as racers, you always look to try and make it to the big league, and this is our chance to do that. The “MANTIS’, which we built ourselves, was a fantastic boat and delivered us multiple Australian Championships, but as we’re both getting closer to the end of our racing careers than we are to the start, it was definitely time to make the move!”
The 2025/26 Australian Offshore Championships will begin in Lake Macquarie in mid-October, giving teams a six month window to prepare for the new season, a season De Fina expects will be one of the best in the history of the sport.
“This year things have taken a dramatic leap forwards, with more boats changing hands in the last six months than perhaps at any time in the 30 years prior, and that’s fantastic,” he admitted. “We could see five to six outright Supercat Extreme boats on the water at every round next year, with yet another new boat arriving from New Zealand in coming weeks, alongside the recent purchase by Stuart Eustice and Todd Kelly with ‘MOJO’ which debuted at Port Adelaide. MANTIS has also moved on, and there’s a few changes too within the Supersports classes promising for one of our biggest seasons in the last 20 years, and that’s exciting. Roll on October!”
Whilst there’s been plenty of movement amongst the teams, organisers have also been busy off the back of the success of the sport’s debut in Port Adelaide, with a five or six round schedule in the planning stages for the coming season, details of which will be unveiled in the coming weeks.
pic|pureart creative images
On the eve of the opening round of the 2024/25 Australian Offshore Superboat Championships at Lake Macquarie on the New South Wales central coast, came confirmation that the series will once more adorn television screens around Australia with the production of a series of programs to be delivered to the Seven Network early in the new year.
In association with Melbourne’s Hornet Property Services, rounds two and three of the Championship will be aired ‘free-to-air’ on 7mate and ‘on-demand’ on 7plus, with four, one-hour programs highlighting the excitement and passion surrounding the sport.
“As the category continues to gain traction it became clear that we needed to return to television in an effort to build more excitement around the sport,” Antony De Fina, the Australian OffShore Powerboat Club’s Commodore explained. “We have a schedule of really strong events in big population centres coming across the next few months, but the key to broadening our reach is to go to a wider audience, and that means television.
“The Seven Network has a strong motorsport background with 7mate the home of many leading categories including Supercars, Drag Racing, Circuit Boats, Off Road and others, it’s a destination that people go to, to watch the best the sport has to offer, so the perfect platform for us to start rebuilding our profile.”
Production of the programs will be delivered by Melbourne’s 321Ignition Media who have been responsible for the production of television for the popular National Drivers’ Championship for Circuit Boats and additionally, V8 Superboats. Their team were at Lake Macquarie to take in the opening round of the season, collating content that will be used in the forthcoming programs.
Aside from national distribution through the Seven Network, programs will also be distributed through 321Ignition Media to networks all over the world, more than 600-million homes having access to content, reaching all corners of the globe.
“The Lake Macquarie round and their annual ‘Fast and Loud Festival’ was a fantastic way to open the new season,” De Fina admitted. “It kicks off what promises to be an exciting year ahead, and with Hornet Property Services supporting the next two rounds in Victoria, we’re expecting strong fields and some outstanding on action on the water.”
2024 Offshore Superboat Championships – calendar
R1. Lake Macquarie, NSW – 19-20 October, 2024
R2. Wyndham Harbour, Victoria – 22-23 February, 2025
R3. Geelong Harbour, Victoria – 15-16 March, 2025
Further dates and locations released soon.
For more information on the Australian Offshore Superboat Championships, visit us at;
www.superboat.com.au
www.facebook.com/OffshoreSuperboats
www.facebook.com/ausopc
About Hornet Property Services
Located in Melbourne’s south-east, Hornet Property Services was born from the market’s demand for a better standard of tradesman. Servicing all of Melbourne, the business is defined by reliability and an extremely high level of customer service with competitive pricing. Simply put, they are your one stop shop for plumbing, electrical and property maintenance for both residential and commercial properties.
For more information, please visit https://hornetpropertyservices.com.au