April 10, in friendly airspace. Southwest Flight 708 from Islip, Long Island to Orlando has been renamed the Patchogue-Daytona Shuttle today. Part of the Long Island contingent, off to the races.

They look awfully relaxed and spend their time perusing a girlie magazine.


More as it develops.

Manatee HQ, Florida. This is a bad day for the Manatees as the creme de la creme of powerboating descends on Dayotna, FL for the first race of the season. The Manatees, who usually rule the roost down here, have deserted their HQ (pictured below,) destination unknown.

Daytona Shores, 4/10 - The top of thre creme de la creme have made this ritzy residence their home away from home. Less fortunate racers must bunk in the seedier parts of town, such as the Plaza, the Hilton etc.

Daytona, 4/10 -
In expectation of the offshore racing crowd, management of the hotel has removed all valuable and breakable parts from the rooms. Even the safes have been removed. They are for sale, ranging from $20 to $50.

Clearly distressed merchandise.

Randy Schleuss and Glen Murray of Team Typhoon have arrived. Due to inclement weather in Joisey, F1-29 was dewiterized and loaded onto the trailer, untested. The truck was also untested. Last we heard was that it blew two tires somewhere north of South Of The Border.

Detail of the back of Glen's truck. In observance of open container regulations, all cans were meticulously emptied. The cans are temporarily retained, because: We recycle!

Warm-up calistenics for the weekend race: Randy, clearly not in shape, loses against a distant cousin. Randy and Glen brought half the family to Daytona, approximately 15 people, with mofre on the way.

The lifting of fellow racers is a tradition which is faithfully observed.

At a friendly get-together at the Plaza Hotel, Randy explains to a colleague racer: "There is only one place and that's first place!"

Randy shows some muscle ...