Originally Posted by 7xchamp

T2x: You will apreciate this story: You talk about how good the Seahawk guys were. Remember there were several other teams similar to Sal and Willy, although they were the best and most generous of all, and most flambouyant. Story you may recall re: Lynwood Lupo. When Lynwood left Merc./Lake X it was a miracle, as we all took bets that he would retire with Mercury, anyway as many know he went to work for Sal and Willy. For those who didn`t have the pleasure of knowing Lynwood, it`s to bad, he was the salt of the earth, unspoiled drove and old pickup truck lived in a house trailer, and would give you anything he had. First time I saw Lynwood after he went to work for Sal and Willy was in Key West for the worlds, I will never forget it. I saw this brand new white Cadilac Biaritz, with a bunch of people around it talking to the driver, I walked over and saw that it was Lynwood smiling from ear to ear. He was sporting a new Rolex Platinum Presidential covered in diamonds at that time probably cost over $50,000 also sitting beside him was a very cute little blonde girl. God bless him, someone appreciated him, he also had a pocket full of hundreds. I have many, many stories re: those days of Money, drugs,women, and parties that would blow your mind in more ways than people could ever imagine. When I write my book I could devote half of it to those times and those personalities. We all got caught up in it at the time, for all of my experiences I would not trade any one of them. The offshore race was just something calm to do, just for fun most of the time, it was relaxation for alot of the guys in the Bus. Not to say it wasn`t taken serious, whoever stood on the highest pile of cash was the winner, and believe me there were some pretty big piles, More in the book someday, people as you say have no idea how to play and party, at least the ones I know now. I doubt we will ever see it again, Boy was it great. Here`s a couple thousand go get some lunch for the guys, keep the change, remember???

Originally Posted by T2x

Richie:

Do you remember "Froggie"? Little guy with a deep gravelly voice. He went from being a boat bum/gofer on the old "Steeler" 7 litre hydro team of Hank Langenskamp to Seahawk team member. Suddenly he had Rolexes, fancy cars and enough cash to take that 7 foot tall secretary in Oshkosh (name escapes me....Old age again) to dinner with her parents in Milwaukee........... via limo........and private jet. This ended with him giving diamond jewelry to said secretary....and her mother.....that night.

He disappeared soon after.................

You can't make this stuff up.

T2x

Originally Posted by flying fish

The boat never ran many trials because it required mods to the bottom to bring the bow up more and really get it running.We drew up what was required, but then the Owner was rumbled for his misdermeaners,and work stopped there and then.I never heard of it again until this post.I think it was around 1987 or so that all this happened.It`s interesting to note what Richie says re the Gentry Turbo Eagle,because when it first appears everybody says wow and expects it to blow everything away,but you scrape the gloss off the situation and just realise what it takes to get these boats really running as they should.We are now in an age where most racing is with fairly stock hulls and have plateaued out from the experimental work that went on before.I was already to jump a jet and go over to the states to oversee the mods on the boat but it never happened.

Originally Posted by HabanaJoe

nocigarette - please don't take this wrong.

Your story is what makes this sport so damm good - Im 45 yrs old, not so skinny, eyes aren't as good, reflexes not as sharp anymore. I can't drive a Top Fuel or Indy car and be competitive no matter how much money I have - but in offshore I can be a King!

This is one of the only sports in the world that if you have the money you can buy the fastest boat, best crew and win a "World Title" in the top class all in the same year and still drive it yourself! This is what keeps it going, otherwise it would curl up and die - as a commerical sport it is terriable, hard to watch, hard to follow all the classes, no spectator areas the only thing worse is the Dakar and Baja.

People hired Richie so they could out beat the crap out of the other guy, he made them their bragging rights. When you read all the stories of yesterday what really was it all about "cubic dollars", it's still the same today as back then nothing has changed.

Look at Richie's story about letting people use his shop in Italy, then they go and race anyway - it's called life!

ps I started racing in 1983 so I've seen a couple things as well