HORBA Sad News
 

Very sorry to report the death of Bill Wishnick.

His wife e-mailed me a short time ago, I will fill in the details as I get them.

Sorry to here this, Bill was a true Icon in Offshore Racing.

Sorry to hear, RIP.

A Sad Day
Remember seeing Bill race offshore in NJ, and also with his street stock car at Wall Stadium in NJ A real racer ,, boats and cars. He picked the lowest class stock car just to have fun on a Saturday night.

RIP.

Thank you
Jim

Damn Bill was cool. What other CEO of a huge company wears a pony tail.

RIP

My condolences to the family.

R.i.p.

Sorry to hear the news. Jamie

Our condolances to his entire family.
RIP and Godspeed, Bill.

Julie & Matt

Rip

sorry to hear..Boss O' Nova was one of my 1st fav's as a kid..R.I.P.

God Speed! Jo

We all knew of Bill Wishnick's great love for offshore racing, but not many knew of his other love...Drag Racing.

Bill was the Chairman of the Board of Witco Chemical Co., a billion dollar business. Bill found a way to combine both loves and his business.

He was one of the first to recognize a skinny kid out of Tampa, Florida as a potential superstar in drag racing, so he sponsored him with one of his company's products...Kendall Motor Oil....the kid of course was Don Garlits.

God Bless Bill and his family.

Bill used a Cigarette in defense of his World Championship title. The boat pictured here was purchased from him by a fellow by the name of Howard Arneson. Howard converted it into a pleasure boat called Nauti Eve and ran it for many years on San Frnacisco bay.

The second photo is of Bill and one of his trophies, you can see the pure joy he got out of racing.

He was most generous to HORBA, a few years ago, he donated all of his trophies to HORBA in the hope that someday we would have a museum for the great history of offshore.

The other photo of Bill in a race boat was taken in California and really shows the generous spirit of the man. Another race boat crewed by Rene and Gale Jacoby had suffered mechanical failure right before the start of the race. Bill saw the look of disappoinment on their faces and invited them to ride along with him in his boat....if you look closely, you can see there is a crowd in the cockpit.

Just thought of the losses over the past year or so.....Billy Elswick, John Crouse and now Bill Wishnick.

The rest of us have to make good use of the time left.

So true. Make every day count!

RIP, Billy. He was a cool dude.

Very sad news. He was a real racer in every sense of the word. I will always remember him at an Around Long Island Race in the 60's, chasing Brownie and hollering "Who's a turtle???"

Vincenzo sent a very nice comment on Bill's passing from Rome.

Dear Bill, you were not only a very good friend of mine, but a great and loyal competitor, a real and complete sportsman, what I could call "A CHAMPION! Vincenzo Balestrieri

They raced in the era of gentlemen racers. When they were battling for the World Championship, and it got down to the end and it was just the two of them with a chance to win, if one could not attend a race somewhere in the world due to business reasons or whatever, the other one would not race either.

When Bill's boat needed repairs in Uruguay, Vincenzo found another boat that he could rent so they could race against each other.

Condolences to the family and friends, if Bill Wishnick. It sounds like Bill Wishnick was a great guy, gentleman and loved racing. R.I.P.

1976 Benihana Committee Member...the beginnings
 

Very sad to hear of Bill Wishnick's passing...
I was proud to serve on his team that produced the 1976 Benihana Race in Point Pleasant, NJ and got to go to his corporate offices in NYC in the "Board Room" for a noon-time meeting one day, while his secretary (Dorothy?) threw out sandwiches to everyone across this 20' long table. Bill went around the room assigning everyone their duties very efficiently...then Bill tossed me a whistle, a shirt, and the keys to the Mo-Ped...I was put in-charge of the parking lot! OUCH...certailnly not the glamerous job I was expecting, but I accepted it and started "at the bottom".
I certainly learned alot though and it reflected in my productions in the Northeast; the GATEWAY POWERBOAT REGATTA put me on the map and that grew into the NATIONAL POWERBOAT ASSOCIATION Race Circuit of the 80's and presently our Poker Run Series.
His name surfaced recently (within' the last 10 years) when WITCO sold out to Chemtura, while my wife Natalie was working for the company. One day, after all the Board of Directors completed the sale of WITCO, an 80 year old guy with a pony-tail in a Cadillac was spotted doing burn-outs and donuts/4 wheel drifts in the courtyard around the flagpole...smoke pouring out of all 4 wheel wells...
...Bill did not like the terms of the sale of his company I found out. Recently, Chemtura filed for bankruptcy.
He had some SPIRIT...and I hope/know a little bit has rubbed off on me!
Bill, Please smile down from heaven when we produce the "RACE AROUND LONG ISLAND" this fall, ...the event you established during the 60's.
It was an honor to meet, serve, and enjoy "thrills" with BILL WISHNICK...a genuine offshore powerboat race hero!

Sincerely,
Billy Frenz
NATIONAL POWERBOAT ASSOCIATION
www.nationalpowerboat.com

God Bless Bill and his family.