MTI President Randy Scism and his daughter, MTI client relations manager Taylor Scism, spent part of Tuesday testing their new 390X raceboat out of Lake of the Ozark’s Performance Boat Center.

When P1/OPA kicks off its offshore racing season in Cocoa Beach—the first of 12 races for 2021—a brand-new class will be featured consisting of 34′ to 40′ canopied catamarans powered by twin stock Mercury Racing 450R outboard engines. The Scisms’ new 390X will be driven by first-time competitor Taylor and throttled by racing legend John Tomlinson.

Tuesday’s test session was the beginning of a busy week for the Scisms, who after testing headed back to their factory in Wentzville, MO, before flying to Lake Havasu City, AZ, to attend Super Cat Fest-West and Desert Storm.

“We ran pretty conservative, because we didn’t have the escape hatch in it yet, and we still need to finish a couple of things,” Taylor told Speedboat. “But we wanted to get it in the water and make sure everything is working before leaving for two weeks. We’re starting to get close to our first race.” (Cocoa Beach is scheduled for May 20-23.)

“The boat ran great,” Randy told Speedboat. “We’re going to tweak some things—we really only had time to test one size propeller, but I think it’s going to run very well. We’re real happy with what we got so far. We’re really excited. I think it’s going to be awesome.”

Taylor added that following Desert Storm, she plans to head to Miami to continue testing with Tomlinson on the Atlantic Ocean. “I’m really looking forward to it,” she said. “I want to grab some seat time and just get my feet wet without things getting too crazy. For my first race, I just want to get out there and get a feel for it.”

The full carbon-fiber #7 boat is expected to run in roughly half of P1/OPA’s 2021 races, including Cocoa Beach (May 20-23), Lake of the Ozarks (June 3-5), Sarasota (June 25-27), Ft. Myers (Oct. 7-9), and the World Finals in Englewood, FL (Nov. 18-21). Taylor said the team is also weighing in on the idea of participating at races in Michigan City, IN, St. Clair, MI, and Morehead City, NC.

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