Matt Jones (Screaming Eagle) Article
01-16-2006, 12:51 PM
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Matt Jones (Screaming Eagle) Article
What's the rush?
By HAL PILGER
STAFF WRITER
Published Sunday, January 15, 2006
It's an entirely different danger zone, to be sure, but it's an adrenaline-pumping danger zone nonetheless.
That may be the primary similarity between an F-16 fighter pilot, who maneuvers a jet plane miles above earth at speeds approaching 1,200 mph, and an Offshore Super Series VeeLite powerboat driver, who guides a 500-horsepower, 32-foot canopy monohull boat 90-94 mph some 50-60 yards offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.
"It's a totally different adrenaline rush," said Springfield's Matt Jones, a 1992 Williamsville High School graduate, member of the Illinois Air National Guard and captain in the Guard's 183rd Fighter Wing, where he has served as an F-16 pilot since 1999.
"When you're flying a fighter, you're fighting against other types of airplanes in a three-dimensional world. In powerboat racing, there are moments when it's three-dimensional, but it's not a true three-dimensional world.
"It gets your adrenaline going in a different way. In the airplane you have a flight team of two or four and you can work together. But in a power boat it's just you and your buddy."
During November, Jones and his powerboat buddy, Allen Campbell of Sarasota, Fla., captured the OSS VeeLite World Championship, held off St. Petersburg Beach, Fla. Campbell, a retired lieutenant colonel and F-16 pilot in the Florida Air National Guard and current Delta Airlines 777 captain, was the throttle man and Jones the driver of the winning Screamin' Eagle powerboat.
But how does a boy from central Illinois wind up part of a world champion offshore powerboat team? A lifelong love of boat racing, a little good luck and the ability to take advantage of an unusual opportunity when it came along combined to put Jones in a position he had only dreamed about.
"I had done no racing, but I own a 32-foot Sunsation that I run as a pleasure boat," Jones said. "It's a twin-engine boat that goes about 80 miles an hour. And my dad (Ed) had fishing boats when I was a boy that set about two feet off the water and were obscenely fast."
Jones recalled how the process got started during a military mission late in 2004.
"I was flying over to our undisclosed location last year, and one of the tanker guys, the guy that puts the boom in the back of the airplane to fill it up with gas, took a picture of the powerboat magazine I had put on the glare shield of my F-16," Jones said. "He sent the photo to the magazine."
The magazine contacted Jones about doing an article regarding his interest in the sport.
"So I wrote up a little thing and sent it to them," Jones said, adding the article prompted a response from Campbell, a veteran racer who was searching for a new driver.
"I didn't get it until I got back the latter part of December. We set up an interview for me to go down (to Sarasota) in January and drive his old race boat. With his love for powerboats, and him also being an F-16 guy, he thought let's see if this guy can do it. I've always been interested in offshore racing, which being landlocked in Springfield is kind of hard to do.
"He just took a chance. We took his older boat out on Sarasota Bay. He throttled while I drove, just to see how I handled it. We took it out in the Gulf; it was kind of like a driving interview."
Jones passed with flying colors.
"I think he just has a lot of natural talent and a lot of natural desire," Campbell said. "With his F-16 flying background and his interest in the sport, he was just a real quick study.
"He had quite a bit of experience just in his personal pleasure boat. And I liked what I heard about him, that he likes to drive his personal boat a little bit aggressive. I guess it is kind of his nature. F-16 jet fighter pilots are very familiar with life on the edge of the performance envelope.
"I felt like with his background, we'd be a good match. But that was just in theory. So we took out my pleasure boat, which is a retired race boat, to see what his aptitude was for a high-performance boat. He did extremely well.
"He has the aptitude for it, and we get along well, which is extremely important. There are a lot of people in boating, and some people just don't get it. He does. He handles the boat well. I felt comfortable with him. I didn't feel like he was wild and crazy and would do something stupid.
"We took it to the edge - even went over the edge a couple of times. But you've got to know where the edge is. We spent some time practicing where that edge was."
But would it all pan out in actual racing competition?
"Our first competition was in April down in Biloxi (Miss.)," Jones said. "We had to take a 100-foot penalty at the start because I was a rookie driver - anybody who hasn't raced in the last five years has to take that penalty - and we ended up fourth out of six. Once you get behind, it's hard to catch up because the parity is so good."
But Jones had showed enough to convince Campbell he was the right man for his race team.
"It was his first year racing, and it was our first year in that boat," said Campbell, a third-year competitor in the VeeLite class. "We had a lot of learning to do. He had to learn racing and the boat, and I had to learn the boat. But I was comfortable competing with him in the boat.
"The guys we race with are very competitive, very good and have that competitive edge. You have to race hard, race well, race smart. It took a few races for him to figure things out, and then we won in Orange Beach (Ala.). We had come in second a couple times and broke once, but we usually were in the top three finishers."
Amazingly, the Screamin' Eagle team took second in the regular-season (five races) national points, then headed for the national championship race last October at Corpus Christi, Texas, where they also finished a close second to the Wild Card/Gen Pro boat.
"It was an unbelievable rookie season, that's for darn sure," Jones said.
Added Campbell, "For a rookie team to finish only five points out of winning the nationals was incredible. Of course, we wanted to win."
But Jones and Campbell still had an opportunity to win the World Championships at St. Pete Beach - a two-race format that featured a Thursday and a Sunday event. The first race was hampered by a heavy surf. Six boats started the VeeLite race, but only three remained after the first few laps - Screamin' Eagle, Team Imco and Wild Ride - as 5-7-foot seas took their toll, sending boats better than six feet into the air.
"It was extremely rough," Jones said. "We submarined the boat three times, and it tore off our mirrors and knocked out our communication. We had no idea where the second boat was. The last lap we were beat up, so we said, 'Let's save our equipment for the Sunday race.' I guess we just backed off a little too much. The Wild Ride boat snuck up to the finish line and beat us by a foot. It was a very, very close finish."
But there still was one more chance.
"In the Sunday race, we took off and it was between us and Wild Ride, and it was a smooth race," Jones said. "The Gulf laid down, and in all of the smooth races we had no problem beating them. But Wild Card/Gen Pro, our nemesis all year, also ran a strong race in flat water. So there were three boats running for victory."
Screamin' Eagle prevailed. Wild Card/Gen Pro rooster-tailed entering a turn, wiped out and was unable to continue, finishing fifth. Screamin' Eagle, needing to win by at least 3 seconds, won by 17 over Wild Ride to secure the world title.
Jones said the Screamin' Eagle features a Mercury 525 engine, which allows the boat to manipulate 5-7-mile offshore courses, outlined by buoys, in about 45 minutes at speeds in the low 90s. He said his wife, Tara - also a Williamsville High graduate - and Campbell's wife, Lou Anne, served as crew members throughout the season.
"They helped clean up the boat, get the boat ready onshore," Jones said. "It's definitely a family-run operation. There's not much extra help from other people."
It's also an expensive operation.
"The boat is probably around $100,000; that's for the boat, motor, trailer and everything," Campbell said. "About $30,000 for the engine, $60,000 for the boat. We probably spend roughly $3,000-4,000 a race counting practice, fuel, travel expenses, towing the boat."
It's not likely to be a money-making venture, even if you're successful.
"It's typically a $5,000 purse if you win," Campbell said. "Mercury endorses a contingency package, and I think we got enough points from the program through the year to refresh the engine, which will be huge for us."
The Screamin' Eagle also may be faced with refreshing the team, at least on a temporary basis, for the upcoming season, which begins in April.
"We've got a deployment this year that could hamper the season," Jones said of his continuing military obligation. "I'm planning on (racing), but I might have to miss a few races for the deployment. We would put in a substitute driver, but we've got to finish fourth or better to definitely have a chance to repeat as a world champion."
Said Campbell, "We're talking to a couple people. We have time, but they really need to get down here. We fully expect to be competitive next year. I know Matt and I will be. We'll need top-three finishes, and that puts a lot of pressure on a new guy.
"Not having Matt, with all the experience he got in the boat, will be a big loss. Hopefully he'll make all the races or just miss one. But we'll deal with it."
Link to Article
By HAL PILGER
STAFF WRITER
Published Sunday, January 15, 2006
It's an entirely different danger zone, to be sure, but it's an adrenaline-pumping danger zone nonetheless.
That may be the primary similarity between an F-16 fighter pilot, who maneuvers a jet plane miles above earth at speeds approaching 1,200 mph, and an Offshore Super Series VeeLite powerboat driver, who guides a 500-horsepower, 32-foot canopy monohull boat 90-94 mph some 50-60 yards offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.
"It's a totally different adrenaline rush," said Springfield's Matt Jones, a 1992 Williamsville High School graduate, member of the Illinois Air National Guard and captain in the Guard's 183rd Fighter Wing, where he has served as an F-16 pilot since 1999.
"When you're flying a fighter, you're fighting against other types of airplanes in a three-dimensional world. In powerboat racing, there are moments when it's three-dimensional, but it's not a true three-dimensional world.
"It gets your adrenaline going in a different way. In the airplane you have a flight team of two or four and you can work together. But in a power boat it's just you and your buddy."
During November, Jones and his powerboat buddy, Allen Campbell of Sarasota, Fla., captured the OSS VeeLite World Championship, held off St. Petersburg Beach, Fla. Campbell, a retired lieutenant colonel and F-16 pilot in the Florida Air National Guard and current Delta Airlines 777 captain, was the throttle man and Jones the driver of the winning Screamin' Eagle powerboat.
But how does a boy from central Illinois wind up part of a world champion offshore powerboat team? A lifelong love of boat racing, a little good luck and the ability to take advantage of an unusual opportunity when it came along combined to put Jones in a position he had only dreamed about.
"I had done no racing, but I own a 32-foot Sunsation that I run as a pleasure boat," Jones said. "It's a twin-engine boat that goes about 80 miles an hour. And my dad (Ed) had fishing boats when I was a boy that set about two feet off the water and were obscenely fast."
Jones recalled how the process got started during a military mission late in 2004.
"I was flying over to our undisclosed location last year, and one of the tanker guys, the guy that puts the boom in the back of the airplane to fill it up with gas, took a picture of the powerboat magazine I had put on the glare shield of my F-16," Jones said. "He sent the photo to the magazine."
The magazine contacted Jones about doing an article regarding his interest in the sport.
"So I wrote up a little thing and sent it to them," Jones said, adding the article prompted a response from Campbell, a veteran racer who was searching for a new driver.
"I didn't get it until I got back the latter part of December. We set up an interview for me to go down (to Sarasota) in January and drive his old race boat. With his love for powerboats, and him also being an F-16 guy, he thought let's see if this guy can do it. I've always been interested in offshore racing, which being landlocked in Springfield is kind of hard to do.
"He just took a chance. We took his older boat out on Sarasota Bay. He throttled while I drove, just to see how I handled it. We took it out in the Gulf; it was kind of like a driving interview."
Jones passed with flying colors.
"I think he just has a lot of natural talent and a lot of natural desire," Campbell said. "With his F-16 flying background and his interest in the sport, he was just a real quick study.
"He had quite a bit of experience just in his personal pleasure boat. And I liked what I heard about him, that he likes to drive his personal boat a little bit aggressive. I guess it is kind of his nature. F-16 jet fighter pilots are very familiar with life on the edge of the performance envelope.
"I felt like with his background, we'd be a good match. But that was just in theory. So we took out my pleasure boat, which is a retired race boat, to see what his aptitude was for a high-performance boat. He did extremely well.
"He has the aptitude for it, and we get along well, which is extremely important. There are a lot of people in boating, and some people just don't get it. He does. He handles the boat well. I felt comfortable with him. I didn't feel like he was wild and crazy and would do something stupid.
"We took it to the edge - even went over the edge a couple of times. But you've got to know where the edge is. We spent some time practicing where that edge was."
But would it all pan out in actual racing competition?
"Our first competition was in April down in Biloxi (Miss.)," Jones said. "We had to take a 100-foot penalty at the start because I was a rookie driver - anybody who hasn't raced in the last five years has to take that penalty - and we ended up fourth out of six. Once you get behind, it's hard to catch up because the parity is so good."
But Jones had showed enough to convince Campbell he was the right man for his race team.
"It was his first year racing, and it was our first year in that boat," said Campbell, a third-year competitor in the VeeLite class. "We had a lot of learning to do. He had to learn racing and the boat, and I had to learn the boat. But I was comfortable competing with him in the boat.
"The guys we race with are very competitive, very good and have that competitive edge. You have to race hard, race well, race smart. It took a few races for him to figure things out, and then we won in Orange Beach (Ala.). We had come in second a couple times and broke once, but we usually were in the top three finishers."
Amazingly, the Screamin' Eagle team took second in the regular-season (five races) national points, then headed for the national championship race last October at Corpus Christi, Texas, where they also finished a close second to the Wild Card/Gen Pro boat.
"It was an unbelievable rookie season, that's for darn sure," Jones said.
Added Campbell, "For a rookie team to finish only five points out of winning the nationals was incredible. Of course, we wanted to win."
But Jones and Campbell still had an opportunity to win the World Championships at St. Pete Beach - a two-race format that featured a Thursday and a Sunday event. The first race was hampered by a heavy surf. Six boats started the VeeLite race, but only three remained after the first few laps - Screamin' Eagle, Team Imco and Wild Ride - as 5-7-foot seas took their toll, sending boats better than six feet into the air.
"It was extremely rough," Jones said. "We submarined the boat three times, and it tore off our mirrors and knocked out our communication. We had no idea where the second boat was. The last lap we were beat up, so we said, 'Let's save our equipment for the Sunday race.' I guess we just backed off a little too much. The Wild Ride boat snuck up to the finish line and beat us by a foot. It was a very, very close finish."
But there still was one more chance.
"In the Sunday race, we took off and it was between us and Wild Ride, and it was a smooth race," Jones said. "The Gulf laid down, and in all of the smooth races we had no problem beating them. But Wild Card/Gen Pro, our nemesis all year, also ran a strong race in flat water. So there were three boats running for victory."
Screamin' Eagle prevailed. Wild Card/Gen Pro rooster-tailed entering a turn, wiped out and was unable to continue, finishing fifth. Screamin' Eagle, needing to win by at least 3 seconds, won by 17 over Wild Ride to secure the world title.
Jones said the Screamin' Eagle features a Mercury 525 engine, which allows the boat to manipulate 5-7-mile offshore courses, outlined by buoys, in about 45 minutes at speeds in the low 90s. He said his wife, Tara - also a Williamsville High graduate - and Campbell's wife, Lou Anne, served as crew members throughout the season.
"They helped clean up the boat, get the boat ready onshore," Jones said. "It's definitely a family-run operation. There's not much extra help from other people."
It's also an expensive operation.
"The boat is probably around $100,000; that's for the boat, motor, trailer and everything," Campbell said. "About $30,000 for the engine, $60,000 for the boat. We probably spend roughly $3,000-4,000 a race counting practice, fuel, travel expenses, towing the boat."
It's not likely to be a money-making venture, even if you're successful.
"It's typically a $5,000 purse if you win," Campbell said. "Mercury endorses a contingency package, and I think we got enough points from the program through the year to refresh the engine, which will be huge for us."
The Screamin' Eagle also may be faced with refreshing the team, at least on a temporary basis, for the upcoming season, which begins in April.
"We've got a deployment this year that could hamper the season," Jones said of his continuing military obligation. "I'm planning on (racing), but I might have to miss a few races for the deployment. We would put in a substitute driver, but we've got to finish fourth or better to definitely have a chance to repeat as a world champion."
Said Campbell, "We're talking to a couple people. We have time, but they really need to get down here. We fully expect to be competitive next year. I know Matt and I will be. We'll need top-three finishes, and that puts a lot of pressure on a new guy.
"Not having Matt, with all the experience he got in the boat, will be a big loss. Hopefully he'll make all the races or just miss one. But we'll deal with it."
Link to Article
01-16-2006, 01:25 PM
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Re: Matt Jones (Screaming Eagle) Article
Matt & Allen are true champions and great competitors but even better friends.Congratulations.
Wil
P.S.
Thank you Phantom for the article.
Wil
P.S.
Thank you Phantom for the article.
Last edited by SVL4; 01-16-2006 at 02:21 PM. Reason: forgot
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