What a weekend.....thank you !
 

First of all a big thanks to John Haggin and the guys at AMF, for inviting some of the older offshore racers to come to Point Pleasant for the race and be remembered for their part in the history of the sport.

It was the first time in a long time that I had been at a race and stayed for the whole weekend.

Allow me to do a little rambling as I go along here.

Day before the race and the water is running pretty good with some big holes out on the ocean. I was at the hotel, but I hear the unmistakable sound of an offshore boat jumping and running in the waves. I look out and see none other than Billy Martin and his son out for a little test run.

I immediately thought of the time we were in Argentina and the race was postponed a day due to the Italians being late in arriving. So with a day to kill, Billy finds a big garbage can and puts in a big plastic bag. Everyone then donates whatever thay happened to have, vodka, whiskey, wine, champagne, grape juice....you name it, it was in there. Billy called it "Rocket Fuel"

The next day in waves that were very big Billy almost pulls off the win....must have needed a littlemore rocket fuel.

This is a photo from Argentina as they head out into the South Atlantic 50 miles to find a checkpoint.

This weekend, Rocky Aoki, Bobby Saccenti, Billy Martin, Jerry Gilbreath, Rich Luhrs, John Bochis and me were given some every nice plaques and spoken of very kindly, at the drivers meeting on Sunday morning.

It was so nice to be back with these guys again at such a special place. Point Pleasant was always one of the best stops on the circuit.

We all met many fans who were just kids when we brought our rigs to town.....Scotty B said he rode his bike over as a kid and hung around.

We were asked for autographs on everythng from napkins to team shirts. One guy left a big impesssion with us when he asked Bobby for his autograph on a photo and then said....This is going to be worth a lot of money ....after your dead. I don't think he quite meant it that way.

Here is Billy autographing a team shirt.

Here is the crew that was honored by AMF.

Left to right:

Bobby Saccenti, John Bochis, Jerry Gilbreath, Rocky Aoki, Rich Luhrs and Charlie McCarthy

Ron P is one of the hardest working guys out there today and amidst his many duties, he found time to do an interview on our memories of the very first Benihana in 1975.

That's the famous Ron P at the far right of the photo with the Hollywood shades on.

Bobby Saccenti won it in a 44 foot MSV. He had a great story about the engines running out of oil and what they used instead, but Ron will be putting that in Extreme Boats Magazine, so I won't ruin the story here.

Another winner of that first race was there also, the famous Phil Lewis who won the Sports class. Phil went on to become the sports first video guy ....Needle Nose Films. Rich Luhrs now has this film library and will be offering them for sale in the near future again.

It was great to see the sports # 1 fan there too. Darren Luhrs, who has a speed record of his own to be proud of.

As always the OPA guys outdid themselves in hospitality and generosity. The three old competitors are discussing who should end up with the prized trophy of the weekend.

Augies Hat. The hat I'm wearing was given to me by Augie at a time I really needed a hat..it wasn't new, but well broken in.

We decided that whoever ended up with the hat could officially be called a "Jerzey Boy". Since I won the job of officially trimming and throttling the 47 foot Apache as pace boat.....I got to keep it.

Thanks again Augie

i had my first ride on an 88 41' Apache with a pair of 588 cubic inch Pay Musi motors and #3's...approx 700-750 a side 82mph with 5 people on board and 3/4 plus of fuel...awesome ride. has a 2-3 ft ground swell with a light 1-2 ft chop on top and at 50 mph my soda can never budged...NOW I KNOW WHAT ALL THE HYPE IS ABOUT !! AWEOME MACHINE...was cool hanging with Rocki Aoki all day...we were the other pace boat and Rocki joined us onboard THE AFTON EXPRESS for the festivities

only thing that comes to mind after the entire weekends festivities is AWESOME !!

Sounds like a great time, and good to see credit being given where it is due:ernaehrung004:

difference's aside..."UNITED WE RACE"

Charlie ..... it was such an honor to meet you. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me. :bunny:

Racegirl, you and Lucidee are the Legends of OSO...nice of both of you to stop by.

Was a dive/rescue boat for that race it was great meeting some of you and seeing the Apache and Bounty Hunter run. I went past you in the Apache after dropping of the rescue divers at the coast guard station.The Apache is a beautiful boat on the water.Thank you all for coming

I grew up in Pt Beach. The Benihana is probably what got me hooked on go fast boats. Wish I had been up for the race this week. It's the first I've missed in a long time. Looks like the beach was stuck in a time warp this past weekend. That's a good thing.....

I'm speechless...................

Great seeing you again, and the company you keep is pretty cool!

Thank you for my Bithday gift! It's the perfect gift!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thankyou to all you offshore legends. You are the reason we are doin it today. In the early 80s, we wished we could do that.

Here we are 25 years later. Oh well, it took a while, but we got there.

thank you....thank you.... thank you

Charlie, it was great spending more time with you, I just wish I could have gotten a photo of you and Bobby in Ben's old race boat.

However, I did watch your fingers playing with the tabs and drives while Rob was trying to get that old war horse to run again. It didn't seem happy until we were over 80mph and the engine started getting near 4500k, then she started to sing.

Just a final thought on this and it's time to move on.

As we went out through the cut with those beautiful engines roaring behind us, I thought of all my old friends who went out that same cut and are no longer with us.

Great competitors like....Betty Cook, Joel Halpern, Howard Quam, Joey Ippolito, Keith Hazell, Smitty, Tom Gentry, Bob Nordskog, and many more that I can't remember now.

I was surprised to find out, that many at this year's race, did not know that in the 70's we had so many spectators, over 400,000 and over 6,000 spectator vessels, that the only day we were allowed to run by the Coast Guard was on a Wednesday. It was the only non weekend race on the circuit.

Great memories, thanks again.

It was great to see all of you guys. I was sitting at the Warfside w/ Bobby Saccenti before the race and he looked at me and motioned with his right arm(throttle arm) that it was starting to itch and smiled

Couldnt agree more Bernie!
It was definately an honor to ride in the pace boat with Rocky. Seemed like he sure enjoyed himself.
Big thanks to Tweet and Marcella for the use of their boat, and thier hospitality onboard. What great people. As always it was an incredible ride. :drink:

Great Weekend
 

It was great to be back at Point Pleasant to see old friends and racing buddies that I haven’t seen for awhile. It brought back many fond memories racing offshore in front of Jenkinson’s Pavilion. Over the weekend I had the opportunity to meet and talk to some of the race teams. Just by talking to them, I noticed how very dedicated they are to offshore racing, keep up the fantastic job you all are doing.
All the equipment I saw was first class and the crews where very professional. I believe that the OPA Racing Organization is going to be around for a long time. This sport has come along way from the when I started racing in the early seventies and the reality is, the wheel is still spinning.

I would like to give special thanks to John Haggin, Scott B, Ron P, Charlie McCarty and AMF for making it all happen. The hospitality was first class..
Thank You All
Bobby Saccenti

And Vinman as usual always a pleasure stirring things up with you...swear to god Tweat and Marcella were wishing they had helmets !! I know i was !! :cool-smiley-027:

Bobby, it was great to finally meet "The Magic Arm" in person.

I look forward to working with you on some old time stories that our readers seem to enjoy so much.

apache
 

apache