I have to second KiloKats comment!
I saw first hand in Malta, when a breaker kept popping on the merc engines, in the Cigarette, he climbed out of the cockpit, opened the hatch, fixed the problem and jumped back in to get it going........five times a lap, for 4 laps..........in six foot seas! And he was very gracious and smiling once in the pits.
(eventhough, like the rest of us, he felt like he had gone 10 rounds with Ali)

Larry "rosario" Fontecha.

Nope, you're thinking of Harry Wellman...he ran a couple of our boats, a Shadow and a Conquest....

I'm the racer/builder that was given a microphone by mistake.....:D

And I watched those diesel monsters closer than anybody....... from a perch about 35 feet away.....and they were a piece of cake compared to the smaller hulls they ran against.

T2x

Agreed!!!!!!!!!!

T2X - your right Harry Wellman, someone else was there also I thought or maybe just used the shop when they were in town?

J.T.
Gilbreath
Bellough
Imprescia
Tres Martin
Bobby Moore
and my old friend Bob Morgan, and i'm sure there are alot we have missed

When I was announcing each race.....I would make it a habit to point out the truly great T-men...... and why. I also noted their mistakes.......... I was able to see just about all of them in action from 1965 (driver-throttlemen) through 2000........ I have been villified by many for leaving out of my play by play or articles performances by their friends, brothers in law, mentors, boyfriends and husbands (most of them sucked), but I called 'em like I saw 'em. I also rarely complemented drivers..... since with the occasional exceptions (Lavin, Kaiser, Serralles, Patel, etc)...most of them were irrelevant to the boat's success or failure.

Bottom line.... I learned two things over the years:

...Without a good T-man/crew chief, you're nothing

.... Nobody who lives conveniently close to you, and has "bargain prices" can build an offshore engine worth a damn.

So........

Powers, Moore, Imprescia, Tomlinson, Serralles, Diaz, Lewis, Gilmore, Martin, Dyke, Curtis, Gilbreath, Saccenti, Smitty, Lanier, Sirois, Vickers, etc, etc.............. all made their boats winners against others of like talent and experience.......

They competed in big seas all over the world in some cases against fleets of 30-40 boats or more with equally talented guys on all sides....... This is called racing. You rarely heard a rule discussed...much less changed, they ran innovative engines and hulls and tried their best to bring the right gun to the right gun fight. In short they simply shut up and raced.....magnificently. They also worked round the clock changing engines, glassing bulkheads, and nursing injuries. They never whined...never showed off, and never bragged..........THey helped another guy if possible, but never...NEVER...at the expense of their own program and competitive edge.

If you can't make the above claims....don't dare put yourself or a buddy in their league. If you can, then shut up and race..... The world will notice without an ounce of hype.

For me, today I see parties, bravado, backslapping, parties, finger pointing, breakdowns and failures caused by poor maintenance, parties, paint jobs and tow vehicles that exceed the actual racing budgets, bolt on breasts, parties, naivete', bling, but not a lot of actual same class, heads up racing against true competition. What I also don't see are true T-men and capable crew chiefs. Racing moneys are misspent on the wrong things, given to people with limited or no talent, or pissed away on the wrong stuff (opposite of "The Right Stuff"). We used to call that spending 99 cent dollars...and it's still true. When you elevate the team truck driver to crew chief..to save a few sheckles... you get what you pay for...a race boat that runs like a Freightliner.

I went to Sunny Isles...and loved the Don Aronow festivities... and seeing some truly great racers. I thought the event showed a lot of promise...... not because of the usual gang of ever changing short term racers and their myriad of different classes....but because the young guys finally got a chance to see the truly great ones....Frankly with the exception of JT, Stevie, and a handful of others..... there's no one left to emulate.

Now maybe some enterprizing person will reach out to a Richie Powers, or a Joey Imprescia, or a Tom Akoury....and learn how to run with JT....and learn how to compete at the highest levels....and put the truck drivers back in the trucks...where they belong. Listen I love truck drivers, I make my living working with them...but none of them get's to choose my props.

At the end of the day....I truly wish all racers ....all true racers...good luck.......and I wish all poseurs...a nice Merlot.

Finally, if you attended last weekend and still don't know who Dave Craig is...and what he did...... You're hopeless.

T2x

Yet another T2X post to put in the book. So true.


There is hope my geriatric friend. A new breed is trying break into the sport.

My vote is the man that shows up with the most beer and has great stories to tell............ :)

Thank you !!!!!!!!!!!! If it wasn`t for the Searace book,and our introductions nobody would know who one of the greatest of all really was. ODELL LEWIS throttleman and driver and Alligator wrestler, many who I introduced him to had no idea until I turned to the pages in Searace, and showed him running Turbines back in 1964, and winning races from Long Beach to San Fran, and 539 miles Bahama 500`s. He showed us pictures of himself in 1956 going out haulover in a 15` speedliner with a 40 hp merc. to do the around Miami Beach race, he finished second. Also showed pictures early 1960`s of himself in a Switzercraft, with a canopy a pair of 100 hp mercs running 117 mph, and oh yeah, the thing on top of his helmet was for radio to the crew, Funny how the new guys invented all the inovations of today, had nothing to do with the past history. Another famous person was Carl Moesly 88 yrs old, and his wife Jean, the founder of Seacraft boats, and famous aviator, and powerboat racer, and the list goes on.
Finally it`s a real shame and disgrace, how some people in these forums feel they have to ridicule these threads, I don`t get it, what do they have to gain by showing their ass.