Jack Died about ten years ago from lung cancer, He smoked very heavy.
Ritchie
I think that was probably 81. Richie you must take into account that you probably had more experience than any other throttle man at that time and could get the most out of any setup, "Satisfaction" Paul Clauser drove and Billy Elswick throttle a year earlier in England and you can imagine how that went.
Remember Pauls girlfriend, Stacey I think here name was!!!

Bill Elswick was a great guy. When I was a kid, I cleaned and waxed Long Shot before the 1980 Benihana Grand Prix which he won. After the victory celebration was over, he took me aside and told me that the reason for the victory was the awesome job that I did on the boat. He always brought a smile to my face.

Bill gave me a $100 bill for my effort. Not quite what 7X Champ got to be a "hired gun" but, not bad for a 16 year old kid in 1980!

Didn't Jack Cunningham throttle for toleman before smitty? anybody know?

Jack Cunningham was team manager and throttle man for Ted Toleman in 1980 and was later replaced by Smitty. Boatmad.com has a video of the Needles trophy on there Multimedia/ Historic section and at the end there is a short interview with Billy, He had never throttled a boat before that race. I found both Bill and Paul to be great guys

I remember many times hanging out at the bar at Rum Runners in Miami and sitting next to Jack, By listening to his stories he wasn't too happy with Smitty. He was fun guy to talk to.

BT I bow to your knowledge here but how do you know this is so? I have never heard of Toleman buying a second Bertram. I know the ex Quam boat was rerigged at some point so maybe this is confusing things.

RUN RUNNERS, those were the days, cold beers and all you could eat ribs.

Ted only had one Bertram, which was the ex-Flap Jack, the boat first raced in Europe and was later shipped to America, during its stay on the USA Smitty re-rigged the boat, and a lot of the things he did were similar to the Bennihana boat that he had also raced (note the ealier pictures have side exhausts, tand the later picture has transom), once Ted finished racing the old girl was fitted with a pair of 425hp Mercruisers and used for pleasure, then I sold it and it was renamed Ocean Thunder, about four years ago it was then sold to the man in Germany.

CougarM, I will be in England in August, I'll come by and say hi. Probably a silly idea but CTC 2010 sounds intriguing, 50 years and all, in a historic boat though, 100 is fast enough. Any ideas? Renting?