Originally Posted by MOBILEMERCMAN

The genuine personalities of offshore past are the celebrities of offshore. The focus should be on racers and racing not some TV celebrity.

Originally Posted by JoeD

I heard awhile back he was selling his car collection off to pay bills.

Originally Posted by 7xchamp

I was Don`s T-man and team mgr. when we ran the 50` Revenge Cat with four 1,100 hp Coyote SC motors. I could write a book on the entire adventure, and maybe will someday, but for now I will try to lend some first hand info.
We had major sponsorship from Revlon, Trump, Samsonite, Perry Ellis, Mercury, and Brooke Yachts. Those sponsors basically covered the cost from boat, equip. and expense`s. Don had very little out of pocket, and when the boat was sold he got all the money from the sale, so he made out probably better than anyone in the history of the sport.
I still speak with him occasionally, he is done with boats, and has been for years, financially he is no problem.
As for when OPT was formed and why. It all started with the worlds in Atlantic city at Trump Castle ( our sponsor ). All the drivers and crews got upset over a small stupid thing which was reporting for physicals and drivers meetings @ 7:00 am in the morning, when everyone knew there was not going to be a race for at least next couple of days due to Hurricane like conditions. The biggest gripe was the officials who were acting like police and not giving info. as to the fact that we were not racing insisted on the same drill for two mornings in a row were physicals, and early morning drivers meeting with storm outside blowing a gale. The officials ( god bless them ) were only volunteers, but with the shirts were officials and acted as such, which upset most of the owners and drivers, because they had such control over them. That`s when it started with why do we have to take orders from volunteers, and an organizer/race chairman that was clearly not communicating with the teams, and making them jump hurdles for no reason . It could have been posted the night before, no race next day, no physicals, no drivers meeting, instead half the day was wasted waiting for drivers meeting, physicals etc. to be completed. In those days physicals alone for all the teams took several hours to complete. D.J., Copeland, Marks, et al got together and decided they wanted a professional organization like winston cup, Indy etc. with paid officials etc. so formed Offshore Pro Tour OPT. Rest was history. During that time Offshore made it`s way to ABC wide world of sports with Roone Arledge at the time as producer. ESPN etc etc. Say what you want but when the Movie Stars were racing the crowds were huge. I remember when Barb. Strieshand and Don were in Michigan for a race, it was impossible to get through the crowds, same when Kurt Russell ran with us as navigator and once as driver, we had Goldie, Melanie, all the kids, Chuck Norris and Reggie Fountain, all crowd pleasers. I remember awards ceremonies with thousands of people to see the stars and get autographs.
So everyone knows, Don was and is a great friend and was a very good guy around the race sites, always was one of the guys. He got a bad rap from people if he didn`t answer there requests for something, they thought he was an ******* because he would not sign autographs in the middle of a meeting or when he was eating, I saw both sides, and I saw how much he contributed to Offshore at the time. I will stick up for him anytime, anywhere as a good guy and one who loved the sport and the challenge. All for now, like I said many stories.

Originally Posted by T2x

So we land at Michigan to cover the race that Richie mentioned......... and let me preface this by saying that Mr. Powers is one of my favorite people...and a truly great racing talent, but our experiences have occasionally been different with joint acquaintances.

Streisand's "ground security", approximately 5 burly guys, "ordered" our pilot off the landing pad as the diva was scheduled to fly in shortly thereafter. We left our helicopter where we landed it and basically turned our backs on them. Minutes later two more choppers landed.....carrying Barbra and her "airborne security", approximately 7 more goons,......... The two security groups merged seemingly into one and hustled "Funny Girl" along a path through the very large marina....... basically pushing everybody they encountered out of the way (fortunately it was about 6:30 in the morning so the site was somewhat deserted.......but Babs needed her security squad).

The real drama occurred when this posse approached Don Johnson's motor home.......which was also surrounded by "security". Immediately sensing an approaching "army", Johnson's cadre took defensive action and intercepted with prejudice....... The resulting melee involved a couple of punches, some shouting, and frantic hand held radio communication, before cooler heads prevailed.

Our "Executive Producer", the unflappable Phil Lewis, inquired if we might have a pre-race interview with Mr. Johnson. The harsh response told us that he was "busy" with "prior commitments" and would be available later. Phil asked me if I thought we should wait while Don and Babs had each other for breakfast. My response was to walk toward the boats and look for real racers......... but I did whistle "People" as we departed.

Moral of this story....... If you are going to get interested in boat racing because some celeb(s) is/are involved........... you need to seriously think about getting a life.

P.S.--- Kurt, Goldie, James Caan, Bruce Jenner, Hulk Hogan, Chuck Norris and many others were very nice and very approachable...........(H*ll we even brought Steven Stills into it) but the sport needs to find its own identity....and attract people like that naturally........without using them as yet another cheap, trumped up come on.

T2x