CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
STYLIN IS BACK OFF AND RUNNING WITH A 1ST
PLACE FINISH AT POINT PLEASANT, NJ JUNE 26TH 2004
OPA kicked off the 2004 racing season today with
another exciting and safe race in the Atlantic Ocean off Point
Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. The day couldn't have been nicer as
the temps stayed in the low 80s, and the wind blew just enough
to make things interesting.
On Saturday OPA turned a vacant parking lot along Rt 70 into a
carnival / Dry Pits. It was a huge success as the highway
visibility along with local press, both in print and on air
brought out hundreds of race fans. They got to see the teams and
their boats, climb a rock wall, watch a bicycle stunt show,
enjoy a band and even see a bikini contest.
There was some very impressive hardware in the pits. Bob
Oliver's 47' Apache sporting triple 1300hp engines and #6 drives
was the queen of the show. Stylin and Relentless sported new
paint jobs and several new boats from as far away as
Massachusetts and Maryland came to race the Jersey Boyz in their
home waters.
At 12:40 the boats tore out the inlet at full speed to the
delight of hundreds of fans that lined the inlet sea wall. The
boats then proceeded into an ocean devoid of swells but a wind
blow three-foot chop replaced the early morning glassy sea.
After a short delay to move some of the spectator boats away
from the racecourse, the racers followed pace boat one down the
beach in front of thousands of sun worshipers and race fans.
Pace Boat two followed seconds later and the entire fleet was in
motion.
The P5 class had the largest field of boats with seven entries,
four of them being 28' Panteras. This turned into a race of
attrition as Goumada took the win away from Carrabbas. The new
team of Papa Dukes flew the boat all-day and held onto take
third over Revolution Marine. Xtra racing, Simply Awesome and
Sonic Boom rounded out the bottom of the field.
In P4, Team Nesquik was on a mission, they tore up the course
and the only boat that could stay with them was the single
engine 32' Bad Boy with big power. The race was tight until the
Bad Boy broke the drive and Nesquik went on to take the win over
CMS, Steelin Time and Jesse James and the well-spanked Bad Boy.
There was some serious smack talk going on before the P3 race
between the 2003 OPA National Champion, Wazzup and the 2003 SBI
World Champion 38' Bad Boy. Additionally I understand someone
said "Put your money where your mouth is" and a $ubstantial bet
was wagered between the two teams, just to make things
interesting. When the green flag dropped, the two boats went at
it side by side, swapping the lead as they entered and exited
turns. Wazzup could hold more speed in the turns but the Bad Boy
could take them on the long two-mile straightaways. It was a
great battle until the seemingly unbreakable Wazzup dropped out
with a broken drive and the Bad Boy ran till the end. This was
third time the Bad Boy beat Wazzup out of their last four
face-offs. After the race, Bad Boy throttleman Kurt Berger was
heard saying that he enjoyed racing against "What Was Up" and
looked forward to a season of beating them. Eddie Smith, driver
for Wazzup replied by saying that he'd have something special
for the Bad Boyz in Atlantic
The pre race hype between the two big Vee bottoms in P2 class
never materialized. The triple engine Apache sucked up mud while
it was leaving the pits and overheated the center engine. They
still managed to run around the course at a respectable speed on
the outer two motors but they could do nothing compared to what
Obsession had in store for them. The big Outerlimits went onto
take an easy win over Firewater.
Three cats ran in P1 class. Out of the gate, Relentless had the
lead, then Stylin took over, then Lightening Jacks, it was a
great race as these fast cats worked their way through traffic
around the course. Relentless was the first to drop out due to a
faulty harmonic balancer. Shortly thereafter, Lightening Jacks
found out what Guardian Mode does on his brand new Merc 525s.
This left Lightening Jacks limping around the course and Stylin
continued to run strong throughout the 18-lap challenge to take
the overall win.
Photos from the weekend are posted at
www.njoffshore.homestead.com/Brick04.html. These are
thumbnail images. Click on each photo to see a larger image.
Also Jim O'Conner and his staff did their usual outstanding job
and their photos can be found at
www.njsportpics.com.
Just click on "view recent events" and you'll see the power boat
races listed on top.
Please mark your calendar for the weekend of July 17th and 18th
when OPA will smoke the waters off Atlantic City New Jersey. We
are short on volunteer boats for the A/C race so if you want to
take an overnight trip to A/C and help out, we'd love to have
you. Stay tuned for more info on the A/C race next week.
Results from
racing held in Atlantic City on Sunday July 18th,
After watching the
deteriorating weather forecast all week, I was thrill to enjoy
an early morning drive on a clear and dry Garden State Parkway
in route to Atlantic City this morning. We all knew the rain
was coming, the only question was when.
The weather for Sunday was predicted to be raining all day
with seas to five feet, building to eight feet in the
afternoon accompanied by heavy rain. Considering the impending
weather, I found it impressive that 21 boats made the trip
from as far away as Massachusetts and Virginia to participate
in the 2nd Annual Atlantic City Offshore Grand Prix. With the
teams ready to race, the crane rented, and the volunteers in
place, no one wanted to see the race cancelled, so everything
happened as usual, except it took place in the rain.
The rain
started to come down, heavy at times during the 9am drivers
meeting and continued to fall as the boats craned into the
water as if nothing was wrong. OPA decided that if the race
would take place at all, it would be on a shortened storm
course, so most classes would only run about 30 miles. Working
closely with local and state officials that had access to all
sorts of weather data, we were apprized of a one-hour window
of opportunity heading our way, so it was time to rolled the
dice
At 11:15 we pulled out of Trumps Marina in full rain gear with
a very soggy group of racers behind us. As we rounded the
corner to enter the inlet, as if on queue, the rain stopped,
without hesitation, we throttled up and used the two pace
boats to lead the race boats out of the storm tossed inlet.
The inlet had some huge swells and rollers, which caused our
41' Avanti Pace boat to fly, bounce and take some serious
punishment as we hammered our way into the ocean.
Today was the kind
of day that separates the men from the Boyz. I'm talking about
Jersey Boyz of course, and today was their kind of day. Wet,
wild and full of surprises. Since the ocean was so snotty it
was highly doubtful anyone would be able to exceed their speed
brackets. Regardless, OPA had GPS units installed on the bow
rail over every boat, just to make sure everyone was playing
by the rules. This GPS placement seemed to solve the issues we
saw in Brick just a few weeks ago.
Once in the ocean,
race control gave the approval to light the smoke flare which
then set the race into motion. Pace Boat One took the bigger
boats down the chute for the green flag and Pace Boat Two
followed just one minute behind with the P4 and P5 boats in
tow.
Out of the gate, it
was Team Obsession/TKO in the big Outerlimits that immediately
jumped to the lead and looked like they might be able to take
the overall win had they not broken a transmission at the
start of the second lap. (Look for crash boxes in Obsession
for the next race.) With Obsession out of the way, it left the
JEM SuperCat that was running in P1 Class to fight it out with
Lightening Jack, Relentless and Stylin for the lead. The only
problem was that it was Firewater's™ kind of water, big and
nasty, just like this 3900HP 47' Apache running in P2 class.
The fight was on but was short lived as Relentless went down
with a weak motor and a faulty fuel pump took JEM out of
contention shortly thereafter.
The Cigarette Super
V called Wanted was running in P2 class and was never far out
of the hunt as they continued to stalk Firewater and the other
cats at the front of the pack. However, one unusually hard hit
cause an injury to Wanted's driver, forcing the boat to retire
and its driver taken to the hospital. Upon inspection, he'll
be fine after a few weeks of rest.
This left
Firewater™ to take the overall win with Lightening Jacks
taking the win in P1 class. Stylin held on to the end to come
in second.
As far as I was
concerned, the real battle of the day was between the two P3
boats. Last year's National Champion, Wazzup faced off against
last years P3 World Champion, Bad Boy Powerboats in a dual for
bragging rights. This was a side-by-side battle for all seven
laps. These guys really hung it out today, leaping side by
side, passing one another on the straights and in the turns.
It was a great battle until the end as Wazzup got caught in
traffic and the Bad Boy slipped passed them as they crossed
the finish line. The margin of victory was only four seconds.
These two will be back to do battle again in Point Pleasant so
stay tuned.
In P4, it always
seems like everyone chases Augie and Kevin in the Nesquik
flying condo. This boat is dialed in and running strong. Even
though there were five boats in the P4 class, only the crazy
Cuban's driving the single engine 32' Bad Boy could keep up
with Team Nesquik. In fact, the Cubans driving the Bay Boy had
the lead for most of the first lap but once the big Nesquik
bunny got around them, it was all over. They could run down
the bunny on the straightaway but in the turns, the condo
corners like it was on roller coaster tracks. Hocus Pocus
never really got started as they had their set up all wrong
for rough water and Steelin Time spent more time out of the
water than in it. However, CMS Racing put up a good fight but
this was not their type of water. At the flag, it was Nesquik,
Bad Boy and CMS in that order.
P5 class usually
has the most boats and incredibly competitive racing and today
was no different. Seven boats entered this class but two set
the pace. Once the green flag went up, it was Simply Awesome
that lead the way to the first turn, right next to them was
the new entry of Boffa Deezz. I don't know what that means,
who these guys are or where they came from, but man can they
run a boat. It appeared that these two boats were being pushed
to the breaking
point and
for once it wasn't Simply Awesome that broke. With Boffa Deezz
at rest in the infield, it was Revolution Marine's turn to
take a shot at catching Simply Awesome. Pop Pop and Qball,
raced like the wind to catch the all-bald crew in front of
them but try as they might, it just wasn't enough in these
rough waters. At the wire it was Simply Awesome, Revolution
Marine and Carrabba's Team Blythe that would stand on the
podium today.
Back at the docks,
everyone was wearing ear-to-ear smiles as these boyz look
forward to these types of rough water races off the Jersey
Shore.
Jim O'Conner was on
hand today to cover the action, you can see his photos at
www.njsportpics.com
by clicking
on "Recent Events". For this race, Jim was on the Ocean One
Pier and in a chopper for part of the race. Feel free to
purchase some of Jim's photos, he does a wonderful job for OPA
by following the Boyz wherever they go.
Additionally,
you'll be able to see some of Jim's photos in an article about
this race in a future issue of Extreme Boats Magazine, so
subscribe now!
www.extremeboatsmag.com
Point Pleasant August 13th 2004
Stylin Takes 2nd
I hope the weather didn't keep you away from watching
the race today, as the heavy weather never came as
anticipated. It was surprisingly dry all morning but we had
some rain from 11am until noon. It ended just as we were
leaving the wet pits and then the sky opened up at 4pm during
the awards party. The point is, we got to race and it wasn't
too rough. Regardless, due to the forecast, OPA went to a
storm course, which meant half the laps for all classes.
Twenty one teams came to Point Pleasant this year to race in
the Jenkinsons Offshore Grand Prix regardless of the impending
weather forecast that looked bleak at best. This race
attracted nine boats in P4 class, which turned out to be the
race to watch.
Martin Sanborn of TalkOffshore.com along with Steve Berger
provided play-by-play commentation for Jenkinsons beach and
Internet listeners. In fact, you can listen to the race now,
as it's been achieved. Just click on
http://interface.audiovideoweb.com/lnk/ny60win16035/Shows/opanj.wma/play.asx
We brought the boats out the inlet right on time as the rain
had stopped and the water was unusually flat. The seas were
only about two to three feet. Considering the forecast, we
were expecting six to eights. After breaking the boats into
two milling circles, we lit smoke and one minute later the
race started.
Pace boat one took the P1 and P4 classes and Pace boat two
took P2, P3 and P5 down the chute for the start. The first
boat back to the north end of the track was Lightning Jacks
with Stylin and Relentless in tow. Surprisingly, the P4 class
32' single engine called Bad Boy Turtle was right in the
middle of the three cats. The Crazy Cubans knew that if they
wanted to beat the Nesquik bunny, they'd have to out turn him.
In P2 class, The Original FirewaterT ran unopposed so they
spent the day racing to catch up with the cats that started in
the first start. They were a good half lap back due to the two
starts and could never quite catch the cats today. FirewaterT
averaged 67mph throughout the race.
The nine P4 boats were having a great race. The Bad Boy Turtle
was running the boat perfectly, not loose, but free enough
that it had the speed and flew often and always level. Team
Nesquik was always right behind them but the bunny could never
seem to catch the turtle today. On the backstretch, Buckshot
was running next to Randy and BJ in BJ's new Activator.
Buckshot took a monstrous flight and came down on its tail,
flipping the nose down into the next wave. A huge spray of
water flew. I actually saw the bow of the boat fly in one
direction while the rest of the of the boat went in another
direction. When the spray settled, I was amazed to see all
three team members still standing in their bolsters, even
though the boat ended at the dashboard. Our Pace Boat and Med
5 were only a few hundred yards away so the response time was
under 30 second. This is when the professionals that make up
our volunteer fleet jump into action. The medical boat came
along side the mangled floating wreckage and retrieved the thr
Eric Colby ran his twin 496 powered 30 Baja Outlaw at an
overall average speed of 45 mph and actually got lapped by the
P4 leaders. I hope he enjoyed his experience racing with OPA
and the article will come out in Boating Magazine in an
upcoming issue. It should be interested to read see his
perspective of racing with OPA and the Jersey Boyz.
CMS and Steelin Time ran with On The Prowl and the other 32'
Bad Boy called No Idea in the middle of the pack but were was
no match for the Turtle's overall average speed of 64.56 MPH.
Nesquik second and BJ and Randy in Activator in third.
The showdown for P3 supremacy never materialized between the
Bad Boy Powerboats and Wazzup today. Wazzup stopped at the
accident scene and never really got back in the hunt. The Bad
Boy finished with an average speed of 61MPH.
In P5, it was the bought of the Panteras. Simply Awesome spent
the day chasing Team Goumada around the race course. The
Goumada boyz flew from wire to wire and left the all-bald crew
from reaching their goal of winning another checkered flag.
Behind the leaders, Revolution Marine and Carrabbas's were
holding their own battle. Revolution drove the bottom right
off the boat but ended up coming in third. Goumada's overall
average speed was 55mph. Simply Awesome was right behind in
second and Revolution Marine hung in for third.
On the last lap Stylin made a move for the lead but Lightning
Jacks trimmed it out and flew it through the last set of turns
to take the win in P1 class by just a few feet at an average
overall speed of 68.20 MPH.
To all the volunteers, thanks for a great season. You proved
today why your the best there is. Thank you.
One guy that didn't forget to bring his camera today was Jim
O'Conner. Jim rented a chopper and got his usual terrific
still photo. They can be seen and bought at
www.njsportpics.com.
This ends the offshore racing season at the Jersey Shore for
2004. The next OPA race will be held in Cambridge Maryland on
Sept 25th and 26th and then it's onto Camden on October 9th
and 10th. I love this next race in Maryland. The local club
CBPBA runs the whole event. They even put out their own
promotional emails. Here's the first one about this upcoming
race.
OFFSHORE RACING EVENT
Mark your calendars for September 24, 25 & 26. Once again the
CBPBA and the OPA (aka The Jersey Boyz) return to the Choptank
River for the Cambridge Offshore Power Boat Challenge! Plan
to join us at the Hyatt Regency Marina and Resort in Cambridge
for a full weekend of activities, a great time for the entire
family. The Cambridge venue provides some of the most
spectacular vantage points for fans on land, with viewing from
the Hyatt Marina or the old Route 50 fishing bridges.
Highlights this year include the Roger Madden Benefit Golf
Tournament on Friday, an Offshore Power Boat Poker Run on
Saturday, and OPA racing on Sunday. More details and a full
schedule of activities will be sent out in early September.
The Hyatt Regency Hotel is sold out, so we recommend you
contact the Holiday Inn or other hotels in Cambridge as soon
as possible to make overnight arrangements.
See www.cbpba.com for more
info.
See ya in Cambridge,
Ron
