Offshoreonly.com - Seaside NJ Race Results

Hello Race Fans,

Today started out as a gorgeous morning, a clear blue sky, temperatures in the high 80s to low 90s and a soft west wind that promised calm seas for the first ever Seaside Heights Offshore Power Boat Race. Upon my arrival to the wet pits everything seemed to be very well organized as the boats were in
line for the crane, and all the drivers knew that we would be leaving at noon sharp.

At 11:45 we jumped into the two awaiting pace boats and fired them up to announce that the time was near when we would be leaving the docks to take the boats onto the race course. Pace Boat 1 was a beautiful 37’ Outerlimits know as Just Trucking. This boat usually races in F2 but is taking this year off to pursue other interests. I was serving as the race official on Pace Boat 2, a 38 Hustler Slingshot with big power and a real crisp exhaust note.

We fell in line behind our favorite State Trooper, Sergeant Harry Vliet, who would serve as our Police escort for the long, slow ride to the ocean. It took a full half hour to idle out to the ocean through the thick crowd of boats that typically occupies this busy body of water each summer weekend. Once we cleared the inlet we turned the pace boats south into a relatively calm ocean. Seas were one to two feet with about a foot tall chop across the
top. Conditions were right for a fast race. We then broke the boats into two mills in front of Jenkinsons Pavilion that was less than a half-mile south from the inlet. The actual racecourse lay 10 miles to the south in Seaside Heights where most of the support and safety boats were stationed. Now here is where it gets interesting. If you know any thing about offshore racing then you know that the fast boats take the first start and the slower boats
take the second start. Not this time. Since this was a Seaside Heights race we wanted all the boats to arrive in Seaside at about the same time. So we started the smaller boats first and then waited exactly two minutes before the second start got the green flag. I’m not sure but I think there may have been some money bet between a driver of an F1 boat and a throttleman of a P1 boat as to who would get to the racecourse first. This straight run of 10 miles was something out of the ordinary in today’s world of inshore small course racing circuits and subsequent conversations at the awards ceremony indicated that the racers loved the long straight run. I couldn’t actually see the race down the beach as the Pace Boats had dropped in behind the fleet and even though we ran at 75 to 80 MPH over the one to two foot
swells, the fast boats that we had just launched were easily pulling away from us. As we got to Seaside the big boats were just completing their first lap. It was Bandit out front by a boat length over Firewater at the end of lap 1 for the overall lead. As it turned out, Bandit and Firewater screamed down the beach together and it took them nine and a half miles to overtake the lead boat from the first start. The Delicate Sound of Thunder, a 38
Scarab had set the pace to lead the field of boats from the first start along the beach, but now these two #6 driven monsters made it known that is was their turn to take over the lead as the boats closed in on Casino Pier and the awaiting race course. Once all of the boats entered the actual super short three-mile oval it was amazing to see how close the classes remained
after a 10-mile straight run.

Bandit and Firewater (the older 41 Apache hull without canopies, sporting twin blower motors and #6 drives) were locked in a dual as the big 43 CUV cat doesn’t like to turn as hard as that bad ass Apache and Bandit needs some more straightaway to come up to full song because the engines are naturally aspirated. It was in turn 4 that the Big Apache cut the turn tight and Bandit made it’s usually wide sweep in an effort the keep the speed and
RPMs as high as possible, Firewater took the lead and ran like a bat out of hell to keep it as Bandit closed at the end of each straightaway.

Next came the P3 boats, Instigator took the early lead but had Wazzup stuck on their hip like glue. Dry Martini was a little off the pace as they had an early problem that took them off plane for a few minutes. The next time around it was Wazzup in the lead with Instigator only a boat length back. It went like this for five laps until Wazzup lost a drive and their winning streak. Wazzup with that?

In F1, a battle was taking place between Typhoon and Gecko, each time they came around a different boat would be in the lead. Shane Barrett Racing was doing their best to keep the little Scarab in the water long enough for the prop to grab a bite and propel them closer to the leaders. Typhoon and Gecko
were on a tear and not waiting for anyone to catch up to them.

In P5 Simply Awesome and Carrabbas were evenly matched and enjoying a fight of the fittest. F2 saw the brand new canopied 36 Cigarette Gladiator of the Lynch Mob in their first race. The new boat was flying, actually they were in front of the P3 boats, until a drive shaft from the forward staggered motor let go and took out part of the other motor with it. Ouch! The P4 boats, Delicate Sound of Thunder and Panther were having their own battle
with attrition. First one broke then the other. A few minutes later Panther got it running again and ran the extra laps needed to take the win.

On about the 5th lap the little Scarab was working hard to catch the leaders in F1 and took an unscheduled flight that landed hard on its chine. The boat grabbed, hooked and rolled over tossing the two souls on board into the refreshing Atlantic for an afternoon swim. Our rescue teams (thankfully) haven’t seen an incident in several years but they are well trained professionals and responded to the accident in seconds. The NJ Offshore
Racing Association is a dedicated group of volunteers that support these races out of their love of the sport and their desire to provide the most hospitable and safe race sites in the country. We always have about fifty safety boats on the course, at least eight boats have medics on board and another eight have divers suited up and ready to get wet. This is in addition to the two divers in Angel One, our helicopter that is always in the air during the race. Talk about springing into action. I don’t think the spray had settled from the crash when the first dive boat arrived at the
scene and got its divers over the side. Both driver and hrottleman were OK but a bit shaken up. The boat however was upside down but still staying afloat. Budget Towing grabbed hold of it and brought it back to the pits without further incident.

During the accident and subsequent clean up that seemed to take no more than 5 minutes the race boats came off plane and sat back, as soon as everything was calmed down, the course was cleared of safety boats and once race control gave the green light for a restart we paced the boats for 1000 feet, gave them the green flag and it was back to racing.

Two laps later as the boats rounded turn 1 to head south along the beach the P5 boat Simply Awesome, simply lost it. He came around the turn and hooked the nose. Both crash test dummies went flying through the air and into the nice refreshing Atlantic Ocean for an afternoon swim. The boat didn’t tip over and came to a rest only 50 feet away. We rushed to the scene to block
oncoming race boats from the two crash test dummies that were now reduced to being just two bobbing orange dots in the ocean. Once again our resources sprang into action with a reaction time of under 15 seconds and surrounded the possibly hurt acrobats. At this point Sgt Harry and I made eye contact
and he gave me the thumb across the throat signal, which I completely understood as time to stop the race. The red flag went up and we called it a day.

In the end, it was Firewater who went out and kicked Bandit’s ass to take the overall win. Although these boats were in different classes. Who cares? It was a great race.

P1 Bandit Racing

P2 Firewater

Once Wazzup lost the drive Instigator coasted as Dry Martini was a half lap back.

P3 Instigator
Dry Martini
Wazzup

P4 Panther
Delicate Sound of Thunder

P5 Carrabba’s
Simply Awesome - crash

F2 Lynch Mob
Outlaw DNS

With Shane Barrett out of the way, Typhoon was able to hold the lead over Gecko until the race was stopped early.

F1 Typhoon
Gecko
Shane Barrett - crash

Once again, at the awards ceremony in a wonderful tribute to the closeness of the offshore racing community, it was Peter Meyer of Instigator who was the first racer to offer his prize money to the Doug Lewis charity. The other teams followed Peter’s lead in donating their winnings as well. Doug is a close friend of ours and we wish him the best. Hopefully these donations will help him through his time of need and assist him in a speedy recovery from his life threatening illness.

Enjoy a few minutes and visit the photo page of www.njoffshore.com to see
some pictures of the two-day event. Especially look for the one of Bruce from Simply Awesome holding the bent steering wheel that he just ripped out of the dash in a attempt to avoid the afternoon swim. And www.offshoreperformanceassociation.com has many photos from the dry pits and race as well.

Mark your calendar for the next offshore race that will be held on Friday, August 16th in Point Pleasant Beach NJ. This next race will be an OPA/SBI National that will bring the big SuperBoats and Super Vs back to the Jersey Shore. We are expecting this race to draw at least 40 boats, as it will be our biggest race of the year.

Until then, I’ll see you at the races,

Ron Polli
Director of Water Ops
NJ Offshore Racing Association
NJ Offshore.com OPA site