Dirty Money Racing’s Beau and Tiffiney Renfroe are all about family, their team and winning.
By Gregg Mansfield
It was the Sunday night after Race World Offshore’s 2022 Key West World Championship and Beau and Tiffiney Renfroe were hanging out with family and friends squeezing the last hours out of an incredible week in the Florida Keys.
“I think I might want this…, Tiffiney said to Beau. “…I think I want a race boat.”
It was an unusual pronouncement from Tiffiney, who historically has encouraged Beau to take the conservative side of spending. However, she was smitten with the adrenaline of racing and wanted to go all-in if their budget allowed “Honestly, when I mentioned it, I thought it would be a year or two down the road,” Tiffiney said with a laugh. “I didn’t know it was going to be a month or two.”
“There’s nothing like the feeling of racing. Watching the team give all they’ve got, competing with the best, and then celebrating the wins with the team, family and fans
— it’s incredible!”—Tiffiney Renfroe
The Renfroes formed the Super Cat team Dirty Money Racing, and its 2023 rookie campaign had more plotlines than an episode of HBO’s “Hard Knocks”. Through the twists and turns, the couple enters the 2024 offshore season with a singular goal of a Super Cat championship and its recently opened venture, DMR Marine Services in Stuart, Fla.
Beau and Tiffiney are familiar faces on the poker run circuit with Beau running a Skater 368 Pleasure. While they enjoy attending poker runs and will continue if it fits their schedule, racing has clearly taken priority.
When Tiffiney raised the idea of buying a race boat in Key West, the couple realized the wild idea would let the family spend more time together and share their passion.
Building a Team
Most team owners don’t start racing at the top level of offshore competition, but they haven’t met the Renfroes. Beau had a race team up and running within two months and the goal of starting each season with US-1 on the side of the Super Cat.
“As the immortal Ricky Bobby says, ‘If you ain’t first, you’re last,’ so they’re giving it everything they’ve got,” said longtime poker runner Bill Pyburn, who throttles the Dirty Money Racing catamaran.
Bobby Adams, who has roots dating back to the Miss GEICO team, joined Dirty Money Racing as a mechanic (later adding the crew chief title) and Beau quickly bought a 388 Skater, which had previously run in Super Cat under the Justice League banner.
While Beau is comfortable running high-speed catamarans, he had no interest getting into the cockpit to race. “I’ve never really been into competitive sports,” Beau said. “I wanted to put my focus on running a team.”
After buying the Skater in January 2023, the team gutted and painted the Super Cat for the first race of the season in Marathon, Fla., in late April. The race ended up getting canceled because of the weather but gave the team an additional three weeks before the Coco Beach, Fla., race to dial in the Skater.
“The boat had never been in the water—we had never done anything but run it on the hose,” Beau said.
The rookie team would have had a second-place finish in Coco Beach but missed a turn buoy on a dog leg. After a last-place finish in Lake of the Ozarks because of incorrect setup, Dirty Money Racing bounced back with a fourth-place finish in Sarasota, Fla.
“We’re still learning,” Beau said. “It’s one thing to set up a poker run boat where you’re running straight all day, it’s another thing where you’re only going straight for 1-1/2 miles and turning.”
Michigan City Incident
A promising start to the season took a turn for the worse in Michigan City, Ind., when Pyburn and driver Rusty Williams crashed during a race on Lake Michigan. The catamaran caught a wave and stuffed in 8-1/2 feet of water with the impact breaking the boat into two pieces. Pyburn and Williams were not hurt thanks to the intact canopy.
“It was the most uneventful thing in the world,” Pyburn said. “Everybody thinks it was violent but when you see the onboard camera you go, ‘That’s all there is?’”
When Pyburn and Williams arrived at the shore after the crash, they were greeted with hugs and tears by the Renfroes. And at 3 a.m. when Adams arrived at the dock with the partially submerged catamaran, the Renfroes were there to meet them.
For Adams, the Michigan City crash showed the Renfroes cared and were serious about building a family-oriented team.
“Our whole world got flipped upside down,” Adams said. “They met me there when we rolled up with the boat and they couldn’t believe we brought the boat in or that we stayed out there. That shows how much they care.”
After the darkness came sunshine for the team. When walking back to the pits after the accident, Tiffiney saw a line stretching two hours from the team’s merchandise trailer with fans wanting to support the team.
“That was huge, and they were so nice and so supportive,” she said. “I do believe we made a lot of fans up in Michigan City.”
The video of the crash garnered over a million views on social media, increased Dirty Money Racing’s social media following and the team was even approached by new sponsors, Tiffiney said. Pyburn was even recognized when launching the new Dirty Money Racing boat at a ramp south of Orlando, Fla.
“When the guy saw the name of the boat at the ramp, he’s like, ‘Y’all are the guys that wrecked the boat,’” Pyburn said. “It’s crazy.”
Rising Up
Most teams would call it a season and regroup for the following year, but that wasn’t in the team’s DNA. Beau spoke to Skater about building a new 388 hull, but it would take between 12 and 18 months.
As fate would have it, the old KLOVAR Motorsports Super Cat was at Skater being repaired after it was involved in an on-road accident, where the 38-foot catamaran landed upside down. Pyburn joined the Renfroes as a partner and they bought KLOVAR.
The goal was to have the 388 Skater ready for Key West in three months, but there were challenges ahead. The team converted KLOVAR from its original four-person cockpit to a two-person cockpit working out of the Skater factory at the insistence of Douglas Marine founder Peter Hledin.
“He straight up pulled the key off his key ring and gave me the key to the building,” Adams said, “and said whatever you guys need, whenever you want to come, my building is your guys’ building.”
For the next 3-1/2 weeks, Adams was joined by the team’s full-time mechanics Andy Carracino and Russell Clay to complete the work on the new Dirty Money Racing boat. Additionally, Pyburn brought in Neal Lewis, who has worked in professional auto racing, to add the race electronics.
Beau believes the 2.0 version of Dirty Money is among the most technologically advanced in the Super Cat class. For example, the program offers a variety of data from the air pressure going in and out of the scoops, to the fastest lines on the track.
“Our goal is to learn and try to get faster with technology,” Pyburn said. “If it can help us, then great. You’ve got to be careful not to get too far with it because it can hurt you.”
With the new catamaran ready for the Key West World Championships, Tiffiney looked to the bright side. “We now have a better boat because of Bill and Beau partnering up, so it all works out,” she said.
New Direction
After the launch of Dirty Money Racing in January 2023, Beau saw an opportunity to bring his boat and car restorations and a shop under one roof. Beau has been restoring cars (and boats later) since he was a teenager going to his cousin’s body shop.
Among his automotive projects was a 1941 Willys Coupe his father raced, a 1977 Jaguar Beau’s grandfather gave him and a 1982 Chevrolet K5 Blazer he drove as a teenager. When it came to boat projects, Beau restored a 33’ Scarab with a new interior, cockpit floor, gauges, and paint.
“It’s probably the nicest a 33 has ever been. I went way over the top,” Beau said with a laugh.
Beau restored a 48’ Fountain with a new cockpit interior, replaced the generator, moved the throttles and redid the dash. After running the Fountain, Beau bought his current pleasure boat, a 368 Skater.
With cars and boats in various locations, a single building made financial sense. And with most of the races taking place in Florida, the Sunshine State was selected, even though the Renfroes live in Murrayville, Ga., about 90 minutes north of Atlanta.
Longtime friend and performance boater Greg Harris helped them find a 14,000-square-foot building to lease in Stuart on Florida’s East Coast. That led them to their next venture, DMR Marine Services that opened in late 2023 offering service, rigging and engine swaps for center consoles and performance boats (see sidebar).
Grand Return to Key West
Dirty Money Racing pulled off a miracle to get the new race boat ready for the Key West World Championships and brought on veteran offshore racer Brit Lilly to drive, with Pyburn handling the throttles.
If the team didn’t have enough challenges, then came the first practice session at the Key West World Championships. Lilly and Pyburn, together in the cockpit for the first time, made two passes and destroyed an engine. “If anyone can get stuff thrown at them over and over, it was us,” Beau said.
The team had a spare engine left over from the Cleveland Construction catamaran, which exited the sport in 2018, but didn’t know what to expect from the power plant. The crew worked through the night and hadn’t come this far from Michigan City to not race in Key West.
“I could tell the first time I met these guys, they set their mind to something and that’s all that matters,” Lilly said.
Race World Offshore officials allowed Dirty Money to do a practice lap and with the spare engine holding together, the team went out and finished a surprising fourth place on Day 1. Lilly, Pyburn and the team took their first podium in third place on Day 2, and in second place on Day 3, finishing runner-up to the M CON/Monster Energy team in an 11-boat field, in their rookie year of racing.
“We obviously improved each day and got ourselves all the way up on the podium right behind M CON,” Lilly said. “It’s kind of hard to ask for more than that for the first time in the boat.”
Added Pyburn, “I can’t say enough about the guys and what they accomplished. I think the only thing that was original to that boat was the hydraulic lines.”
Owning a Team
When the Renfroes launched Dirty Money Racing over a year ago, they quickly learned it’s a lot of work.
From coordinating hotels and travel for seven crew members for races, to keeping the Skater race boat maintained, running a race team is full-time job on top of the family business building housing subdivisions in Georgia.
At the races, the Renfroes are the glue to make the team run smoothly over the weekend. Beau focuses on the boat setup and data, while Tiffiney handles the meals and keeps the team hydrated. Beau and Tiffiney consult on big decisions with Tiffiney earning the nickname “the Boss” when it comes to a final say on large expenses for the team.
“I’ve never been around such a great group of people. They’re so much fun, they’re so into this and they back everything 100 percent,” Lilly said. “It’s a dream to have team owners like that.”
Talk to anyone associated with Dirty Money Racing and the word “family” comes up frequently. Beau’s mother, Debra Camp, attends the races and will watch her grandson Bogan, who like most 10-year-olds is more interested in playing with other kids than prepping a boat. Beau’s brother Taylor is also part of the crew.
As the team readies for its second season in Super Cat, Beau and Tiffiney couldn’t be more excited. The race boat that was rigged for Key West was stripped after the races with the goal of winning a championship.
“There’s nothing like the feeling of going out there and doing well,” Tiffiney said. “One thing I’ve said is I hope it’s always this exciting and it never changes.” 
DMR Marine Services
The team behind Dirty Money Racing provides winning service in South Florida.
Florida may have the largest concentration of center consoles and go-fast boats in the country, but finding a performance marine shop that can service the boats can be a challenge.
Looking to deliver a better customer service experience, Dirty Money Racing team owners Beau and Tiffiney Renfroe launched DMR Marine Services in Stuart, Fla. The full service and rigging shop opened in late 2023 and is a natural extension of the team’s Super Cat racing program.
“We looked around Stuart and it’s kind of an untapped market,” Beau said. “For example, a lot of these guys have big center consoles, and they fish, but don’t have a shop for rigging, electronics upgrades or simple boat maintenance.”
In addition to DMR Marine Services, the industrial building in Stuart houses the second-year racing program and Renfroe’s personal boat collection that includes a 368 Skater, a 48’ Fountain, a 33’ Deep Impact and the Dirty Money Racing 388 Skater race boat.
The crew behind maintaining the Super Cat race boat are leading DMR Marine Services. High-performance industry veterans Bobby Adams, Andy Carracino and Russell Clay are running the shop and handling the service, rigging and repowering, while Michelle Andre is the office manager.
Adams joked he became part of a package deal when Renfroe bought the Justice League Super Cat in January 2023.
“When Beau asked if we were selling (the boat), I said I guess as long as I can be part of it,” Adams said. “That started the wheels going.”
The shop is certified to work on Mercury Racing, Yamaha and Mercury Marine outboards as well as service generators. DMR Marine Services doesn’t do full paintwork or upholstery but has contracts with companies to complete the work.
“Every shop has projects that are on the backburner,” Adams said. “The goal is to take those projects and show them that it doesn’t have to be that way.”
Renfroe had a 48’ Fountain that had been out of the water since 2017 and on the backburner at a marine shop when he moved the cruiser to DMR Marine Services in Stuart after opening the shop in November 2023.
The crew got the triple Yanmar diesel motors and Arneson Twin Disc surface drives running, serviced the drives and cleaned up the Fountain within a few days of arriving at the shop. Other projects DMR has handled include chasing electrical gremlins in a 368 Skater with 700-hp engines and service work on a 32’ Spectre and 42’ Mystic.
After the 2023 Key West World Championship races in November, the 388 Skater race boat went to the shop where it was promptly stripped. It was rigged just weeks prior. The wiring, hydraulics and engines were stripped out and even the transom is off. The team expects the Super Cat to be back in the water in a month or two to start testing.
“There are some things we didn’t get accomplished because we just didn’t have time before Key West,” Pyburn said. “Now we’ve got the time and it’s time to reset and get everything where we wanted it.”
Tiffiney Renfroe has nothing but praise for Adams, Carracino and Clay, pointing to their quick work replacing a canopy and rerigging the KLOVAR Super Cat in time to race at the Key West World Championship, where the team finished second.
“We have the best mechanics, I think, in the business,” Tiffiney said. “Making it to Key West was a miracle and those boys worked very hard and they’re super talented.”
Adams, who installed 261 motors in 16 months during the Covid pandemic, has big aspirations for DMR Marine Services.
“The goal is to outgrow that building,” Adams said.
—Gregg Mansfield
Contact:
DMR Marine Services, 1260 S.W.
Blue Water Way, Stuart, FL 34497
561-203-0833
www.DMRmarineservices.com
