Big duel off Deerfield
The Hulk and Mapei set to settle their battle for supremacy in the Superboat Stock class.

Published October 7, 2005

It's fitting that after battling head-to-head all season, the national title in the Superboat Stock class comes down to The Hulk and Mapei in Sunday's Deerfield Beach National Championship.

Whichever boat finishes ahead of the other will win the Superboat Stock class national crown. Given the way the two South Florida boats have competed this season, Sunday's race off Deerfield Beach will likely go down to the final feet of the 10-lap, 65-mile race.

"I would say this race is going to be the most climactic in my eight or nine years of racing," said Rob Nunziato of Dania Beach, who drives The Hulk, which is owned and throttled by Doug Kelly of Boca Raton. "I'm a combination of very excited and somewhat nervous."

"Whether it's us or them, it'll be a race," said Gary Ballough of Boca Raton, who owns and throttles Mapei, which is driven by his neighbor Mike Majhess.

The Hulk and Mapei have had many close races this season. In Panama City in August, The Hulk led Mapei for seven of the nine laps before Mapei took the lead and won, The Hulk finishing third.

"We were just side-by-side," Ballough said. "It was as good as racing gets. As Mike said, he could've played rock-paper-scissors with Doug, we were so close."

Mapei has won three of the past four races coming into the Deerfield event and is going for its fourth consecutive national championship. The Hulk has a 191/2-point lead over Mapei in the standings after nine races, as Kelly and Nunziato have been consistent with one victory and five second-place finishes.

The Superboat Stock class lends itself to close racing. Unlike some classes, where racers can simply outspend the competition for bigger, better engines, racers in the stock class are not allowed to modify their two stock Mercury 280-horsepower outboard motors.

That excitement is what got Kelly back into the class. He has been racing for nine years, and he used to race Rumor Has It in Super Stock with Ballough.

"I drove and Gary throttled," said Kelly, an entrepreneur who owns several companies and won two world championships and three national titles with Nunziato in the Superboat Limited class. "Then I got into a 35-footer with inboards [in 2001] for a few years, but I didn't have as much competition."

Nunziato, who owns a mortgage company and has raced for nine years, used to race against Kelly and Ballough in his boat Power Broker.

"That's how I first met Gary and Doug," said Nunziato, who became friends with Kelly and started driving with him when Kelly got his Superboat Limited boat.

Ballough, who owns a landscape installation business, has won five world titles and eight nationals in 18 years of racing. Majhess, a Deerfield Beach firefighter, is in his fourth season.

"It has been a lot more fun racing since those guys got into it," Ballough said. "It's made better racers out of all of us."

Both The Hulk and Mapei are 32-foot Doug Wright-designed catamarans that can easily exceed speeds of 100 mph. Success in any given race comes down to setting up the boat properly and avoiding trouble on the race course.

"When you get to a race where you're going to run 95-105 mph, it's a really tough decision to pick the right propeller," Ballough said. "We have two or three options, and it's really splitting hairs."

"The bottom line is Mike and Gary are really good racers," Kelly said. "They're very, very competitive. They're a threat to us every time we're out there.

"It's anybody's race. If they can win it, we can win it. It's that close. One mistake in a turn can cost you the race."

Ballough said he and Majhess can't back off for two seconds when racing The Hulk, pushing their boat for the entire race.

"We're pushing each other to a level that I don't think ever's been seen in our class," Nunziato said.

Which is why Sunday's race could be the best yet.

"We just want both boats to finish without breaking, and that way they're the national champions or we're the national champions," Ballough said. "If they win it, it couldn't go to two nicer guys."

Link to article

Damn, I can't even open my paper and you already have the article posted.

The paper has a GREAT pic of them side-by-side in a tight race. Can't wait for Sunday.

Duel?? You wanna duel??

Here is last year..

said Kelly, an entrepreneur who owns several companies and won two world championships and three national titles with Nunziato in the Superboat Limited class. "Then I got into a 35-footer with inboards [in 2001] for a few years, but I didn't have as much competition."

much competition??http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/s...ankbeaters+sbi

"I drove and Gary throttled," said Kelly, an entrepreneur who owns several companies and won two world championships and three national titles with Nunziato in the Superboat Limited class. "Then I got into a 35-footer with inboards [in 2001] for a few years, but I didn't have as much competition."

Could it have been because the other 6 boats in the class Only had twin 500EFI'S and not 700HP Arizona speed motors??!! I guess it's a good thing Arizona speed dosen't do anything for 2.5 outboards or he wouldn't have any competition in this class either!!