Pt. Pleasant back in the Day
 

Some pictures that were in my father's basement that I took as a teenager. Here's Betty

more pictures, some Kitty-Cats, Fayva Shoes, and (George's) Shadow Cat

More

Race winners

Open class winner, Long Shot

More Cigarettes, none of the pictures are very good here on line after scanning, sorry

cool pics thanks 4 sharing !

I think that was 1980.

Now thats old school

Thanks for the great pics

That was the original prototype Shadow Cat (Hull #1) with a wooden deck that we rushed together for demos and a few races.

T2x

Back to the Pt. Pleasant race

Some More, early Cats

Shrimp Box Tie-Up, notice Pleasure Seeker, upper corner. Click on picture to get a better view

Bad picture but you have to include Pepe and his 24' Pantera

One for the Velocity fans

Sutphens Too, Black Tornado, click on the picture to view better

Winners together

Cool! :cool:

Yes, that was 1980.

Osmosis was Betty's old 36 foot Cigarette that was Dante's Inferno before it was KAAMA. At this race it was run by the rookie Eddie Trotta.

Inside of Joel's cat you can see one of my hatches up on my Rums Of Puerto Rico...# 60. We blew an engine on the return leg from the north running in third. Elswick went on for the win.

Was Joey Ippolito driving the Michelob Light cat? I knew he drove the V-bottom at one time. My memory on those days is hazy. I could not remember how that slug of Cigarette beat those cats. (A slug by todays standards, probably an 80 mph back then???) How fast was Long Shot?

Joel Halpern drove the Michelob Cat.

I think the second 39 Cig Long Shot ran about 87-88

This is the old Beep Beep that I took over from Wayne Vicker who throttled for Joel, I redid the entire rig, truck trailer, boat etc. converted everything to Kiekhaefer Aeromarine and renamed her Michelobe light. I put all polished rims on the trailer and truck, custom exhaust etc, she was standing tall when we showed up for the race. For some reason we were last ones out of the pits on the way to the race course, on the way we saw Gentry and Kieth Hazell blow the bow of the Scarab, we stopped to assist, then we were late for the start, and it was fairly rough, as we were playing catch-up I saw the boat starting to come apart, the sponsons were trying to break away from the tunnel, I pulled out of the race to save our lives and equip. Needless to say Joel was furious with me, told everyone I lost my nerve etc. That was before he and others saw the damage that was happening when we pulled the boat out of the water. I`ll never forget, Betty Cook came up to me and told me that took guts and it was absolutly the right move, and that Joel was just being a spoiled a-hole. I quit Joel at that race, he convinced me to run one more, if it was calm we would run if rough we would sit out. The race was NY Jones beach, I flew the course and saw it was pretty rough, Joel said it was calm, lets go for it, I got mad and said Okay hold on. We blew the whole left side of the boat, almost killed Joel, boat sunk, he messed up his leg pretty bad. Next race, New Orleans in the new alumin. Cougar I had supervised build on, as many know that`s where Joel was killed, I had Jack Stuteville throttle, and Joey Ippolitto navigated. Guess that`s what people mean when they say things are meant to be, I had to take the kids and his girlfriend Connie to the hospital, and sit with them to find the news, it was a horrible day that I`ll never forget.

Richie:

Two things...back then the Open Class cats had x dimensions that were too low..... based on the traditional V Bottom Offshore model......and this left them without much of a speed advantage over the vees.

I think we helped fix that with the Shadow Cat because when we got to the Lake, Schwebbie said they we had set them too high and it would never work........until we ran the boat ;).

Second Memory.......Joel brought a full fledged Stock Car to the race at Point Pleasant that year with a spare tractor/trailer to haul it...and ran it up and down the street, with open pipes and full race markings. As I recall it broke and got stuck in the middle of an intersection.

Since I had just come out of OPC tunnel boat racing ( Where we had high "X" dimensions and went fast), I thought a lot of the Offshore guys had too much money and time on their hands......

Come to think of it...I still do:p:D.

T2x

Some pictures my mother took that day....

My father knew Joel... :(

WOW: that pretty much sums it up, sure brings back memories.

Here's one more. :ernaehrung004:

There is a whole era and transition time we could discuss about transom hights, X-dimensions etc in offshore. In the early eighties with the advent of 3 blade props and gear ratios, actually before the eighties with ratios and three blade props, we tryed all the high x dimensions, that`s when and why spacers were invented. The props just werent` surface type. Later came the # IV then the # V etc. and the rest is history. I remember the first # IV, Bill Sirois actually made them by cutting and welding the #III to make them shorter, then Merc made the new cases. When we used to run the old straight V`s we used to have to run a lot of trim angle to get the bow up, which went against the principle of surface props.
Anyway, there could be an entire book written about the stuff we tryed and did in those days, remember I was the one who started running without skegs on the lower units, was good for 2 to 3 miles per hour, and you could not tell the difference in handling, again because we werent surfacing at the time. Gotta write the book, this takes to much time.

Here's a shot of Bill Elswick's Cigarette and Petebuilt from the 1980 Benihana Grand Prix in Point Pleasant Beach NJ.

Thats a sweet package

Here's the business end.

Heres one

ScottB,

As long as we are posting shots in the Manasquan Inlet, here's another.

John

If the Jersey guys and ex-Jersey guys (that is you Mr. Berk, LOL) posted pictures of those Pt. Pleasant races and the bay race that would definitely be quite a collection of memories, think of it....Rated X, Wild Turkey, Crazy Greek, Bounty Hunter, Great Adventure, Harry-O, Pleasure Seeker, and in later years Bad Move (Glassboro, NJ), plus Mr. Bud Tresch's race boats...and these are just some of the NJ boats that raced in either or both races.

I am no NJ race boat historian, and there are guys on here, OSO, who can really bring back some good memories.

PS - I have a Sony 8 video/cam corder tape of the Barnegat Bay radar shoot-out, I need to transfer to CD. It was the year that the Hydra-Tech cat "Finish Line" ran a pass of 122 mph, then a 129 mph pass; Rare Air was a brand new boat. If and when I get it transferred to CD I will post it; it also has one of Pt. Pleasant races I taped from the beach in front of Jenkinsons. Who knows how to transfer?

Now rthe picture will finally upload.

Awesome site and pix! Just found it. I raced with Kurt in Smokey and the Bandit in 84 and 85. I have plenty of pix of that boat, but I can't find any pix of my old 24 Skater, Renegade. Phil Lewis, if you have any, I would really appreciate it.

Robert

Guys,

Here's an inside look at Long Shot.

John

Sorry Robert -
 

My Twin bro Peter, has the library - dont think there are any photos of Renegade there- your 24 Skater - sorry -

write some interesting stories on the board here Robert!

PHIL

1984 race was a blast. It was my first race, and we almost won. We spent half the day going back and forth with What-a-package. Great video of that one with our hatch covers coming up. Would have won, but we had a tranny problem and had to limp in for 3rd place. Loved that Chris Cat. It truly was the "lead sled".

Hello Smarty

I'll look thru all the older photos that I have back from "In Good Ole Days of Pt. Pleasant", I know some are 35mm slides amd some photos.
just have to get a scanner.
Thank you
Jim

LS Jr will be back in town tomorrow night & I'll see if he will scan & get some of the pics. up in the next few days.