Any veterans of the Hennessy or Benihana Grand Prix in Pt. Pleasant

[cig28]

my dads good friends peter, matt and john begovich ( RIP peter and john )raced in the benihana , the boat was the sneaky pete and it raced in the sport class one year and the production another and it had straight 6cly in it .

[lucky strike]

6 Benihana P class races.

Steve

[CAL500]

Originally Posted by digger1

Looking for anyone that was intimate with these races...spectators, competitors, mechanics, crew, etc. My father was president of the Pt. Pleasant Bch. chamber of commerce and the Kiwanis club during the sponsorship transition. I remember my dad having Rocky Aoki over for dinner to discuss being the new sponsor.

All of us kids of the "powers that be", would help out with the pre-race events and such. It always gave us a front row seat at the events...well, not the race dinners of course. Later in years I got to meet and socialize with alot of the crews and racers year after year (Bob (Doc) Magoon, Sandy Satullo, Bill Wisnick, Bety Cook, etc). In 1980-81 I worked part time at the Cristex headquarters (Performance Racing Engines).

Living in Pt. Pleasant Bch. was a wonderful ride with all the events that took place and I always looked forward to day you would hear those engines roar! Now if only our inner tube race was that exciting....

anyone know where to get a copy of the race program showing the la tortuga on the front cover. sonny miller

[Black Tornado]

Originally Posted by CAL500

anyone know where to get a copy of the race program showing the la tortuga on the front cover. sonny miller

Hi Sonny,
Did you speak of this?

[waterboy1]

Originally Posted by digger1

Looking for anyone that was intimate with these races...spectators, competitors, mechanics, crew, etc. My father was president of the Pt. Pleasant Bch. chamber of commerce and the Kiwanis club during the sponsorship transition. I remember my dad having Rocky Aoki over for dinner to discuss being the new sponsor.

All of us kids of the "powers that be", would help out with the pre-race events and such. It always gave us a front row seat at the events...well, not the race dinners of course. Later in years I got to meet and socialize with alot of the crews and racers year after year (Bob (Doc) Magoon, Sandy Satullo, Bill Wisnick, Bety Cook, etc). In 1980-81 I worked part time at the Cristex headquarters (Performance Racing Engines).

Living in Pt. Pleasant Bch. was a wonderful ride with all the events that took place and I always looked forward to day you would hear those engines roar! Now if only our inner tube race was that exciting....

As a kid,I spent summers in Bay Head...live in Toms River now.There is no doubt that the race back in those days was the event of the summer.My favorite Benihana Grand Prix was held in 1980.There were over 20 Open Class boats...77 boats total!Bill Elswick won the Open Class in "Long Shot"...Bill Gazelle in "Great Adventure" won the overall Performance Class and Production Class..Many of us would like to see the race get back to its former status.Many fans of that era are also involved in racing one way or another today.Lets start some trivia about those races.

What boat finished first overall in 1977?

[skrap]

Joel Halpern, Beep-Beep.

[butch ryan]

Originally Posted by waterboy1;2991550I

As a kid,I spent summers in Bay Head...live in Toms River now.There is no doubt that the race back in those days was the event of the summer.My favorite Benihana Grand Prix was held in 1980.There were over 20 Open Class boats...77 boats total!Bill Elswick won the Open Class in "Long Shot"...Bill Gazelle in "Great Adventure" won the overall Performance Class and Production Class..Many of us would like to see the race get back to its former status.Many fans of that era are also involved in racing one way or another today.Lets start some trivia about those races.

What boat finished first overall in 1977?

I RACED IN THE 1980 EVENT, PROBABLY ONE OF THE ROUGHEST RACES I WAS EVER IN. HUGE ROLLERS , THE BOATS WOULD JUST FLY OF ONE AND LAND 2 OR 3 ROLLERS DOWN. GREAT SPECTATORS ON THE BEACH AND ALWAYS HAD A GREAT TIME AT THE RACE

[CAL500]

Originally Posted by Fast Shafts

I was an avid fan starting in the mid 1970's. This led to me racing, currently a class 6 boat, 606 Lock'd Up.
CAL500,what ever happened to the LaTortuga?? There was a thread a while ago about this boat-no one seemed to know it's whereabouts.

the 44 la tortuga after jon varese died we sold for his famly , sm

[CAL500]

Originally Posted by Black Tornado

Hi Sonny,
Did you speak of this?

se grazie ancora sonny

[CAL500]

Originally Posted by skrap

Joel Halpern, Beep-Beep.

one of the best guys that we known from newyork he pushed our 38/r msv cobra hull to the championship something i failed to do. sonny miller