Originally Posted by MOBILEMERCMAN (Post 2673194)

The genuine personalities of offshore past are the celebrities of offshore. The focus should be on racers and racing not some TV celebrity.

Originally Posted by JoeD (Post 2672402)

I heard awhile back he was selling his car collection off to pay bills.

Originally Posted by 7xchamp (Post 2672920)

I was Don`s T-man and team mgr. when we ran the 50` Revenge Cat with four 1,100 hp Coyote SC motors. I could write a book on the entire adventure, and maybe will someday, but for now I will try to lend some first hand info.
We had major sponsorship from Revlon, Trump, Samsonite, Perry Ellis, Mercury, and Brooke Yachts. Those sponsors basically covered the cost from boat, equip. and expense`s. Don had very little out of pocket, and when the boat was sold he got all the money from the sale, so he made out probably better than anyone in the history of the sport.
I still speak with him occasionally, he is done with boats, and has been for years, financially he is no problem.
As for when OPT was formed and why. It all started with the worlds in Atlantic city at Trump Castle ( our sponsor ). All the drivers and crews got upset over a small stupid thing which was reporting for physicals and drivers meetings @ 7:00 am in the morning, when everyone knew there was not going to be a race for at least next couple of days due to Hurricane like conditions. The biggest gripe was the officials who were acting like police and not giving info. as to the fact that we were not racing insisted on the same drill for two mornings in a row were physicals, and early morning drivers meeting with storm outside blowing a gale. The officials ( god bless them ) were only volunteers, but with the shirts were officials and acted as such, which upset most of the owners and drivers, because they had such control over them. That`s when it started with why do we have to take orders from volunteers, and an organizer/race chairman that was clearly not communicating with the teams, and making them jump hurdles for no reason . It could have been posted the night before, no race next day, no physicals, no drivers meeting, instead half the day was wasted waiting for drivers meeting, physicals etc. to be completed. In those days physicals alone for all the teams took several hours to complete. D.J., Copeland, Marks, et al got together and decided they wanted a professional organization like winston cup, Indy etc. with paid officials etc. so formed Offshore Pro Tour OPT. Rest was history. During that time Offshore made it`s way to ABC wide world of sports with Roone Arledge at the time as producer. ESPN etc etc. Say what you want but when the Movie Stars were racing the crowds were huge. I remember when Barb. Strieshand and Don were in Michigan for a race, it was impossible to get through the crowds, same when Kurt Russell ran with us as navigator and once as driver, we had Goldie, Melanie, all the kids, Chuck Norris and Reggie Fountain, all crowd pleasers. I remember awards ceremonies with thousands of people to see the stars and get autographs.
So everyone knows, Don was and is a great friend and was a very good guy around the race sites, always was one of the guys. He got a bad rap from people if he didn`t answer there requests for something, they thought he was an ******* because he would not sign autographs in the middle of a meeting or when he was eating, I saw both sides, and I saw how much he contributed to Offshore at the time. I will stick up for him anytime, anywhere as a good guy and one who loved the sport and the challenge. All for now, like I said many stories.