Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The rumble on the Pamlico River this week may have sounded a bit more ferocious than normal. That’s because the Washington-based Defalco Offshore Racing was doing some last-minute shakedowns before heading to Sheboygan, Wisconsin for the Mercury Racing Midwest Challenge on Lake Michigan. “We made some changes to the cooling system and we wanted to test the boat as thoroughly as possible to make sure there are no failures during race weekend,” said Torjus Dahl, team mechanic/engineer, and test driver. “We made some minor tweaks today and feel we have the boat dialed in and ready to race.”

The team participates in Class 1 of the Union of Internationale Motonautique (UIM) World Championship Series. Which, as Dahl explained, are the biggest and fastest boats in that series. “In race trim, the 45-foot Victory catamaran will hit speeds of up to 150 miles per hour,” said Dahl. “The number 18 has two twin Mercury racing engines capable of 1,100 horsepower each, which makes for a lot of juice!”

Team owner and driver Mike Falco resides in New York where he is the founder, president and CEO of Defalco Construction, one of the premier open shop cast-in-place concrete foundation and superstructure subcontractors in New York City.  The team recently relocated its headquarters to Washington from Florida. “Our throttle man, Billy Moore, has won multiple titles and is from Washington. Through his connections, we were able to find a workshop in Washington which is located on Highway 264, and is close to Caldwell Marine Design, where we build boats.”

Class 1 is the premier class of offshore powerboat racing in the world and is considered to be one of the most spectacular marine motorsports.