Wanna race.......

Yes my friends.... while the LLC may have "invented" "deck to deck" racing in 1999, "bow to bow" racing was created many years before.

T2x

As you can see "helmet to helmet" racing was also quite popular.................................

In those days when old man Kiekhaefer said..."let's go racing"....... Mercury stole the show.

By the way....#40 is Mr. Mercereau.

T2x

im waiting for more
 

youre not going to try and charge us for more old stories are you?:D

How come some of the boats in the above photos have letters and numbers and others just have numbers? Please don't tell me they had 30 classes then too?;) :p

At the time that picture was taken....the classes were quite simple and all of the boats with twin 80's would have been in one class......
Later the OPC classes went from E (50 HP) through JJ (twin 100 hp) to UU (modified twin Stackers)...and there were a total of 4 classes stock (motors/boats) and 6 classes modified (motors/boats). Remember , however that up to 200 boats competed in these 10 classes... and most events were'nt televised.

At that time it was a participant's and enthusiast's sport only, with wonderful, clear coverage available exclusively in boating magazines and newspapers.

The race pictured above was very easy to understand...obviously.

The multi class issue/problem now is due to the fact that we see twice that many classes, with far fewer entries, and lots of overlapping.... (how many classes currently allow twin big block vee bottoms in offshore?.....I count 7 or 8). This has made the television programs impossible to understand...or at least to build on.

T2x

The pictures above remind me of a scene in a movie with Elvis Presley where he is races offshore in a one-off design and beats a rich, spoiled guy. :D

The boat in that movie was actually Lou Brummett's "Miss Mandella"...... a legendery...and beautiful...marathon flat bottom. I loved the "hobby horse" close ups...in the "racing action" scenes.

Any other questions?

T2x

I'm sure I can come up with some other questions for ya... :D

I liked the hobby horse closeups as well. They were ridiculous but fun nonetheless.

Here ya go...............

So, were you driving any of the boats in the racing scene? Seems you've got some "inside knowledge" of this movie! ;)