From his office near the Yankee Stadium in New York Falco explained.

For some time, I’ve wanted to get involved with offshore racing and be part of an international series, and I regard Class 1 as the pinnacle of the sport. This is an exciting and challenging opportunity to compete against the best boats with the best equipment and best crews in the world.

I’ve been running high performance V-bottom boats, mostly Outerlimits powerboats, for more than fifteen years and a 48-foot MTI with Mercury 1650 engines for a few years. Now I’ll be racing a 48-foot Outerlimits Cat with Mercury Racing 1100 Competition engines.

The fact that the Mercury Racing 1100 turbos have brought a modern, reliable package to the class and Powerboat P1’s international TV broadcast deals and live streaming take the racing into fans’ homes worldwide were both critical in Falco’s decision-making process. The new team will be based in Riviera Beach on Florida’s Atlantic Coast and makes its first appearance at Cocoa Beach next month. Falco will be the throttleman in the newly created team and expects to confirm who will be driving within the next week.

P1 CEO Azam Rangoonwala said.

Team Defalco is an exciting addition to our international fleet, and we are delighted that Mike will be flying the flag for New York City. Our principal goal is to grow the Class 1 championship commercially and promote the series both nationally and globally to deliver enhanced value for race teams, venues, sponsors, and partners. We want to return Class 1 to the summit of offshore racing by attracting more teams and building the worldwide television audience.

The 2022 UIM Class 1 Offshore World Championship season gets underway at the four-day Thunder On Cocoa Beach event on Florida’s Atlantic Coast from 19 – 22 May.