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B
ob Brown has been a performance-boating journalist for 25 years.
His
own boat racing career began at age 12. For the past 18 years, he has operated Media Direction, an advertising/public relations agency that specializes In the outdoor recreation industry.
Clockwise, from top:
The A-class combo of Jerry Sorrentino and Norm Teague, the ‘99 POPRA overall high- points champions, set a new speed record; the Ocean Spray team does dockside repair after making a 140.423-mph attempt at a new Super V record; Rique Ford upped the Modified mark to over 138 mph; Team IMCO bettered the existing A-class record by more than seven mph; the late Jeff Christensen.
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T
wenty-five years ago,
I acquired the unenviable task of being race chairman for the annual Offshore World Speed Trials held
off the jetty
in Marina Del Rey, California. Back then, it was primarily a Bob Nordskog-sponsored affair that had both APBA and UIM sanction recognition. More importantly, it was really the only place in the U.S. at that time that conducted official speed trials in which offshore boats could establish genuine world records for top speed.
And
if
It hadn’t been for all the organizational hassle of putting on the darn event, I might have
bet
ter
enjoyed watching some of
offshore’s racing legends, like Bob Magoon, Rocky Aoki, Betty Cook, Tom Gentry, Nordskog and others, take their whack at posting big numbers over a one-nautical-mile, open-ocean straightaway course. For most, it was
a pretty humbling
experience.
Anyway, fast-forward to Saturday, October 30, 1999,
in
Long Beach, California. POPRA marketing man John Grannis and a host of volunteers were up at the break of dawn, inflating buoys, setting anchors and
stringing wire along
the Long Beach inner
harbor
in front of Belmont Pier, preparing for their own offshore speed
trials event. Although conceived
and organized on short notice, Grannis was successful in attracting 12 boats to take part.
For those who have never attended a kilo-run-type
speed event before, take my word for it, it’s
a
lot different than your normal race. At speed trials, the only thing that counts is the overall average top speed, which is calculated by how long takes the boat to go from the starting marker to the finish marker, a surveyed distance of exactly one kilometer. In order to make the run official, the boat has to return through the course in the opposite direction for another timed attempt. The time of the first run is combined with the time of the backup run, and the official overall average speed number is determined mathematically.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 138
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