The Official Press Release
 

Saturday July 19, 2003 was just another common summer morning for most people last weekend. Except for a few people in Toms River, New Jersey.

At 8am that morning - A silver van pulled up to a dock on Kettle Creek just off of Barnegat Bay. As the door opened and the elevator ramp motioned outward, out came Offshore Racing's #1 Fan as he is known to many. For those of you who may not know him by his nick name, his real name is....Darren Luhrs.

Darren is the son of Rich Luhrs. Rich Luhrs is a former Mercury Racing Team Tunnel Boat Racer, former boat builder and lastly one of the best offshore racing commentators in the world.

Darren at the young age of 25 has traveled the United States extensively in the past with his dad watching and enjoying offshore races. When it comes to offshore racing trivia, few can match the wits and "mental library" that Darren possess. Darren also proudly hosts one of the largest offshore racing photo history websites on the internet. It can be found at http://www.darrensoffshorephotos.com/

Darren was born with Cerebral Palsey. Although this may pose a physical challenge for Darren, it did not stop him from making his own mark in the offshore powerboat community last weekend.

From the van to the dock, Darren was excitedly anxious to be the throttleman for Bob Christie, owner and driver of the 36 Nor-Tech Cat "Perfect Storm" powered by twin Nor-Tech 1000hp motors.

Darren spent many hours training for this day in his dad's 28 Skater over the last year. This day was going to be the day that Darren would set his own mark.

When all was said and done - after 2 passes on Barnegat Bay, Darren Luhrs throttled the 36 Nor-Tech cat to 120.2mph all on his own. "He would have gone faster if we let him," said Bob Christie

When Darren returned to the dock, he was presented with the 4ft tall "Can Do" trophy by NJ Performance Powerboat Club (www.njppc.com)

Darren feels that the best thing to come out of this would be for others to follow, and break this record. He hopes that some enthusiastic physically challenged person or ,(better yet) persons will be given the opportunity to learn (as he has) to throttle at world class speeds. This means that a skill set must be developed under the strictest safety guidelines.

Darren's effort proves that if you want something badly enough....anything is possible. He is and always will be our hero.

If you would like to congratulate Darren personally, you can reach him via email at [email protected]

That is awesome, absolutely awesome. Made my evening.:)