Ballistic
 

I think that boat has a long history. I am pretty sure it was a few different names including, American Express and Racer Powerboat sales. I think it was Jimmy Cazzani's boat.

I was at my parents this weekend and they had some OLD photos from when I was a kid and they took me to the races. I have to get them scanned andI will post them. I am sure you guys will like them!

TGC-32
Hi Tom, Wlcome aboard. It is good to see you here. These Shadow/Chris Cat threads seem to get a life of their own.
Philip

Screamin:

When you carry constant section forward, you automatically widen the forward entry areas......

T2x

Wow ! Cool ! A cat with 2 beaks !!!:eek: :p

HeyGuys, sorry for the delay since my last post. Yes Shane ,I am referring to the same boat "wild Turkey" that boat (still owned by Frank Lach and driven by Bob Bocchino (currently my boss) When I was old enough I ran with them in the Cigarette. Sometime later, Frank bought the Chris Cat from Gino (INSTIGATOR) and we then campaigned the boat also as Wild Turkey, but in D class.
The original 35 mistress is still around, currently being rerigged. Some of the veterans out there might remember the White Knight a 28 magnum that Lach raced prior to the cigarette. Probably responsible for getting me addicted to this sport. I'll try to dig up some photos anjd scan them in.Also T2x thank you for the reply and I will contact you.

great stuff...

There is a board member(Robert, I think) who has White Knight and is currently restoring it. What a great project!

Rob Boccinio
 

Bob Boccinio's son Rob drove my 24 Skater in Key West at the worlds. He did a great job.

The Shadow Cat
 

Since this is or was or whatever,is a Shadow thread I have to say my favorite Shadow Cat was C-41 Pipeline Express,owned and driven by Bob Schug and throttled by Rich Dancisin.We raced against each other.Bob was a great boat owner and would do anything he could for you,Rich was a crazy m*#~*%er that had a good time going on where ever he was at.The boat torn in half and put back together by George was a little heavy but was a front runner just the same.I believe Bob told me it was the first Shadow.Between them and Arnold D'Ambrosia's Rolling Thunder racing could'nt be any more fun.Miss those guys.
:cool:
Lonnie

Boot, what is Fusco up to for this year? I am sure he want his King of the Hudson title back.

I gotta say that he turns that skater so hard at high speed (looks to be about 120) that I always watch in case I need to call for help. I can't see how it doesn't spin out or roll. His props must be spinning out. Anyone know for sure?

Does Skater rig them at the factory turning out?

Straycat, If you see Frank and Bob, tell them I said hello. They will mostly
remember me for running along side Wild Turkey in the Barnegat Bay with this
boat pictured below...

Was Pipeline Express the old Towne and Country boat?

Hey Ron ! Lets just say he will get the title back !:rolleyes: I am fortunate enough that he shares some secrets with me . He doesn't like to talk much . So I shouldn't say . Lets just say he found some cosmetics to be slowing him down drasticly !!:eek:

As for his high speed turns ........... All I can say is one ride is enough !! (Another would be OK though !) I don't know how he dose it but I think he pulls about 4 G's in a turn ,flat and straight as on rails ! I would say about 100 plus into a U turn and throttle though it ! I think we came out at about 130+ !! Unreal ! Almost pushed me and the other 5 on board out through the side wall ! I think he turns props out as well . HE MUST !!

Mike , If your watching , THanks for everything ! Especialy the ride ! THat is one fine tuned machine ! Good luck ! JOE T.

Hey Ryan
 

I know it had another name but I can't remember what Bob said it was.Since you mentioned that it does sound familiar.We were racing together in 90-91.Bob got sick and had to quit.
Lonnie :cool:

Yes "Pipeline" was the old "Towne and Country" boat.

No it was not the first Shadow....probably the 25th or so, built about the time we left. I think I sold it to John Emmons but left before it was built.

I don't recall it being "torn in half" , I can assure that "George" did not rebuild as we were long gone by then. George may have consulted on some repairs or modifications in the years that followed. I know every time I saw Bob and Richie at a race, they complemented us on a great boat, handling , etc......

Bob and Richie D. were very competitive racers.

T2x

Straycat,

As Sean mentioned, I'm restoring the old "White Knight". This boat was Billy Martin's "Hustler" and pror to that, Don Aronow's 1967 World Champ,"Maltese Magnum". I would LOVE to obtain any photos of 'White Knight". If you have any, I would sure appreciate you posting them.
Photos of "White Knight's" face lift may be viewed on Donzi.net under "Other Performance Boats"
Thanks
BOB G.

Racemore,
The “Town & Country” / “Pipeline” Shadow Cat was not torn in half, but in the 1986 or 1987 Worlds, the boat with John Emmons on the throttles, Bob Shug navigating, and Rick Malanga driving did have the front of the deck come apart in the roughest part of the course. A crack developed in the front of the tunnel in the race prior, and weakened the core, while bashing through some really big water, (these cats can run very fast in the rough) a big wave entered through the damaged area, and hydrauliced the front deck off, The boat sank, and was raised the next day. If I remember correctly Larry Wurtsburger put a new deck on the boat, and Bob Shug (who Paid for the raising/towing of the boat) entered a Salvage claim, stating since he paid the salvage bill he wanted ownership of the boat. This went to the court system for quite a while, and the Judge did award ownership to Bob Shug, (Rules of salvage on the high seas). A lesson learned. Always pay your salvage bill with your own check.
Philip

Bob,

thanks much for the old Inferno pic! what year was that?

mc

Hey Guys, just logged in again and realized how small the world is really getting. To Robert G, its great to hear that the White Knight has found a good home and is in the process of coming back in glory. I'll relay the message to Frank and I will post some of the old photos. Ryan if you read this to Robbie says Hi ! also might see Jayson M. one of these days and get the the status on the new 40'. Also Sharkeymarine, I printed out the photo post and will show it to Frank L. He should get a kick out of it. ( that air shot reminds me of the old Cougar mini-cat 12' i had , airtime finally caused it's demise)

Thanks T2X and Philip
 

I guess it was the cracked tunnel,torn deck and 11yrs that confused me.I met Rich in 89 at Holiday Isle when the APBA screwed us out of our position in the race,us 2nd and Rich 3rd for turning the turnboat instead of the bouy that had broke loose and drifted into the spectator area like the rules provided.It was purely to let Dollar Marine win the Southeast point Championship.
That night Rich and I were drinking at Cocomo's when John Kenyon showed up and Rich started to kick his butt.I stepped in front of him to keep him from probably getting kicked out of the APBA but he had good reason.Even the safety boat tried to tell Gene Whip that we did the right thing but we heard that there was radio conversation during the race for Dollar to turn the bouy anyway so they could gain advantage.Maybe I shoud have stayed out of Richey's way:D
The last time was in 91 in Annapolis at a 2 race event.We finish 3rd the first day and broke a gearcase,Bob and Rich was 2nd behind I think Rolling Thunder.My boat owner didn't want to fix the boat even though we had a friend who drove all the way there and had the parts,instead he went sightseeing in Washington.WOW I stayed and helped Bad Move repiar their boat after they rolled it in the second turn in the 1st race.After we got their boat fixed(3 new harnesses,batteries,pumps and powerheads) they asked if we where ready,I told them that we broke the case and they offered to give us one to run or get their mechanic to fix ours free and begged me to take it.I told Jack when he got back and he still refused,that broke up a good team because I had to quit as his throttleman.When I go 800 miles to race i don't want to sightsee,I want to race.Anyway I helped Pipeline prep for the race which they won and help them during the post race inspection.It was easy making one of the motors read the right compression ratio but with a little help on the second try it passed.Is Rich still around? it was alot of fun hangin out with those guys,what racing is supposed to be.

By the way Bad Move made one lap and tore a powerhead off in the same turn 2nd lap.They smiled and said thats racing,I would have thown up.
Lonnie

I really enjoyed watching the fire department wash out the powerheads with a 2" hose after Bad Move was dragged back through the mud to the dock:rolleyes: Gotta hand it to those guys for getting back out on Saturday-we were really rooting for them.

Bad Move
 

Thats right Inspetech I was standing by you I guess,after all that they only got to run two laps,I could not believe how calm they were.You would have heard me cussing in New Jersey.And to go one step further in a sportsmanship lesson when they went to Corpus Christy and the boat burnt up they put a full page in the Racers Edge congradulating all the winners but said they were still the" Hottest Boat There".
Bill and Doug Durham were truly a 1st Class racers.

Lonnie

Those guys put that HYDRATECH through hell!!! and it stayed together. That was the only way they were gonna lose that boat I guess...fire:eek: Remember the "Cartwheel" flip in Key West???:eek: :eek: :eek:

Hey Sharky
 

Wasn't there but I heard about it.It was a tough boat,their whole Rig was one of the nicest from the truck to trailer.They deserved to have better luck than they did.:)

Surprisingly, I think they went into a COBRA Cat after that??? Not sure.......

I know this is an old thread, but I'm new on OSO and just getting to read everything. It was 1985 when Town and Country tore the boat up at Key West. I know because I was in the boat in front of them. It was really rough. Last race, making the turn from the roughest part of the course right into a quartering sea. They were pushing really hard. But then again, so were we. At the time we just thought they broke down. All of a sudden they weren't there. They were a great bunch, and a blast to race against.

What ever happened to Caldwell?

I met him in Orlando at a Fort Myers race in the mid 80's. At the time, I was told he was correcting some kind of bottom design flaws on the 32 Maelstrom pleasure. He was also designing, or involved in the Fountain 24 and the Seebold 32 design (offshore model).

The ONLY reason i remember him is, someone walked up to say hi to him, and this guy (like a football player) literally tackeled this guy simply out of fun - of course, the "other" guy didn't find it too funny as they both flew accross the table and slammed onto the concrete. Jim was having a good time and the other guy, a little pissed off. At the time, everyone was saying that this was a typical thing for him to do. But he did seem extremely knowledgable about designs.

If T2x reads this, I would like to hear about whatever happened to him.

Jimmy Caldwell was/is a very smart guy...maybe too smart. I originally met him back in 1973 or so when we raced tunnel boats against each other. He was always very driven and talented. He designed a few tunnel hulls including one that had air relief holes from the tunnel to the deck that I nicknamed the "vacuam cleaner" becaused it sucked down onto the water surface due to the negative air pressure it developed.

Later he made smaller tunnels that were somewhat copies of a Seebold and he raced for Mercury in the Mod 50 class with some success. Finally he scaled up that design to about 30 feet and made one of two ill fated Offshore tunnel hulls (the other being an even larger Seebold that sunk in Europe). Reggie wound up with the single engine Caldwell version and immediately made it a "Fountain", painting it white with red and blue stripes like his old tunnel hulls and unfortunately watched it blow over with a fellow named Sky Gillespie at the wheel.... The accident was sadly fatal and proved once again how tunnels can bite you.

Later in the early 80's Jimmy had Ken Adams, who built our Conquest hulls, build a full cat with a ridiculously deep tunnel. It didn't run very well, resulted in a big financial loss, and led to some deep acrimony between the involved parties.

A few years later he emerged at Fountain as Technical Director or similar title. Reggie has a habit of surrounding himself with old OPC racers (Benny Robertson, Michael Seebold, etc) because, IMHO, they are better drivers/racers than anyone who started in bigger boats...and also much better able to diagnose set up and speed issues.

I have not heard Jimmy's name in about 5 years and assumed he was still at Fountain. I hope he is doing well.

T2x

Thanks for the info - guess he didn't act too crazy around you!

I didn't say he wasn't crazy... He is a boat racer after all.:p:p

T2x

He is now in Costa Rica designing boats

old days gone by
 

Wow! Can't believe my last post was 3/15/02. Been working on the sister ship to Rolling Thunder at Full Throttle Powerboats .This 34 Baha cat was red white and blue originally.Not sure what the name was but it was in fairly good shape for a boat that age.When we get it finished i'll post a pic. Building the fastest outboard drag boats in the world isn't all we do.I don't think there is anything Jack can't fix although if you don't want it done right he won't do it.

Is there a punch line to this?

www.caldwellgroup.spaces.live.com

Like I said ....he's a smart guy......

a bit of a knucklehead....but a smart guy none the less.

He just got done designing a 40 ft v bottom hull for me you can see it at www.evolutionperformanceboats.com

Link doesn't work.

Link works fine.

Yes it does.Cool boat 2