OPA 2016 Point Pleasant Beach Grand Prix, 5/19 - 5/22, Videos, Updates

[Serious News]

Thursday, May 19, 2016
7pm Racers Welcome Party & Charity Event - Jack Baker's Wharfside (101 Channel Drive, Point Pleasant Beach, NJ)

Friday, May 20, 2016
All Day Arrival of Race Boats - Race Village - Silver Lake Parking Lot (Ocean Ave & Arnold Ave Point Pleasant Beach, NJ
Crane Area - Ken's Landing (30 Broadway, Point Pleasant Beach, NJ) Ramp Area - Deep Creek Cove Marina (381 Brielle Rd, Manasquan, NJ) Wet Pits - Ken's Landing (30 Broadway, Point Pleasant Beach, NJ) Dry Pits - Silver Lake Parking Lot ( Arnold Ave Point Pleasant Beach, NJ Wash Down Area for Ramped Boats - Baltimore Avenue on street Near Bandshell Wash Down Area for Craned Boats - Ken's Landing
11am-2pm Racer Registration - Amethyst Beach Motel (202 Arnold Ave, Point Pleasant Beach, NJ)
11am-4pm Race Boat Inspections - Race Village
12pm-3pm Swim/Dunker Testing - Amethyst Beach Motel
12pm-3pm GPS Registration - GPS Trailer at the Amethyst Beach Motel
4pm-8pm Race Boats on Display at the Arnold Ave Block Party
9pm Racer Meet & Greet - White Sands Cocktail Bar/ hosted by Arugula (1205 Ocean Ave, Point Pleasant Beach, NJ)

Saturday, May 21, 2016
11am-5pm Race Village open to the pubic
8am-12pm Swim/Dunker Testing - Amethyst Beach Motel
9am Racer Meeting - Bandshell @ Silver Lake Parking Lot
10am-2pm Racer Registration - Amethyst Beach Motel
11am-4pm Race Boat Inspections - Race Village
11am-5pm GPS Registration - GPS Trailer at the Amethyst Beach Motel
10:30am Race Control Operational (Jenkinson's South - 610 Ocean Ave, Point Pleasant Beach, NJ)
10:30am-4pm Crane & Ramp Operational
11am-3pm Race Boat testing
5pm Boat Parade (up Ocean, Point Pleasant Beach, NJ) Parade Staging: 4:30pm Parade Start: 5pm
6pm Volunteer Meeting - Bandshell @ Silver Lake Parking Lot
7pm Racer Meet & Greet - Jenkinson's Pavllion (300 Ocean Ave, Point Pleasant, NJ)

Sunday, May 22, 2016
10am-5pm Race Village open
8am Team Physicals - Amethyst Beach Motel
9am Racer Meeting - Bandshell @ Silver Lake Parking Lot
9am Set Course Markers
9:30am Medical and Dive team briefing - Bandshell @ Silver Lake Parking Lot
9:30am Patrol Fleet Briefing - Bandshell @ Silver Lake Parking Lot
10am Race Control Operational
10am Crane and Ramp operational
11am Race Patrol Fleet & Course Support Fleet on station
12pm RACE 1 (subject to adjustment)
1:45pm RACE 2 (subject to adjustment)
3pm RACE 3 (if necessary)
GPS Readings - GPS Trailer :: Return immediately following completion of each race
7pm Awards Ceremony - Martell's Lobster House ( 308 Boardwalk & Ocean Ave, Point Pleasant Beach, NJ)

[Serious News]

Offshore Grand Prix returning to Point Pleasant Beach

Point Pleasant Beach rekindled a love affair that many had thought had long been over and the Shore resort is putting on a four-day event to celebrate.

After a 34-year separation of sorts followed by a long, drawn out breakup, the town is back to hosting the Offshore Grand Prix – the Daytona 500 of the race boat circuit that at one time drew huge crowds to the town.

"We are thrilled that offshore powerboat racing is returning in all its glory to Point Pleasant Beach," said Mayor Stephen Reid, who attended the races as a child. "Residents and visitors alike remember the races of yesteryear with great fondness."

In those days, when the races were first known as the Hennessey Offshore Grand Prix and then the Benihana grand prix, the town held a week-long list of festivities, including a parade of boats through town. That's also when the event attracted more than 100 boats and celebrity racers such as Don Johnson and Kurt Russell helped draw even larger crowds.

But as the races got more expensive to finance, participation and interest started dying off. Slowly, Point Pleasant Beach started cutting its budget for the events until it finally eliminated funding altogether and started asking organizers to pay. By 2007, the town's relationship with promoter and producer New Jersey Offshore Powerboat Racing Association was severed and only smaller races without all the hoopla and not affiliated with the town were held each summer, said Angelo Juliano, NJOPRA treasurer.

Reid, who took office this year, said he wanted the race back partially out of nostalgia but also out of a desire to bring an influx of business into the local economy.

The festivities kick off May 19 with a "Meet the Racers" charity event at the Wharfside restaurant.

On May 20, the pit area opens in the Silver Lake parking lot on Arnold Avenue and a "Meet the Racers" block party will be held along Arnold Avenue from 4 to 8 p.m. The street, to be closed to cars, will be filled with race boats, sidewalk sales and family events.

On May 21, the pit area will be open for the public to get an up-close view of the boats. At the same time, the Rotary Club of Point Pleasant Beach, celebrating its 90th anniversary, will hold a festival alongside the pit area from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The boats will go into the water for testing at Ken's Landing on Broadway between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.

On the May 22 race day, spectators can watch the teams make final preparations behind the Wharfside restaurant on Channel Drive, then watch the race from the boardwalk or the beach. The 4-mile course takes boats from Martell's Tiki Bar south to Bridge Avenue in Bay Head where they will loop back to the starting line.

Juliano said that with races scheduled for noon and 2 p.m., between 35 and 50 boats will be competing in eight different classes.

MaryAnn Spoto may be reached at mspoto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @MaryAnnSpoto. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
http://www.nj.com/ocean/index.ssf/20...easant_be.html

[Serious News]

[Serious News]

UPDATE: Grand Prix Returns To Point Pleasant Beach Later This Week

A full schedule of events will begin on May 20.
By Patricia A. Miller (Patch Staff) 

POINT PLEASANT BEACH — It won't be long now before the roar of power boats tearing through the ocean echoes throughout this small borough.

The Point Pleasant Beach Grand Prix is returning to Point Beach after an absence of many years, beginning on May 20.

The event is sponsored by the host club - The New Jersey Powerboat Racing Association - which has been the host club since the race began more than 40 years ago in Point Pleasant Beach.

"There is probably no single race more famous than The Benihana Offshore Grand Prix," according to the Offshore Powerboat Association's website. This race was known as the Indy 500 of Offshore Racing and was held in Point Pleasant Beach during the 1970s"

The name of the race has changed over the years and so has the length of the course. Back in the Benihana days, the race course was over 200 miles long, from Fire Island to Seaside Heights, the website states. Now the race is a small, four-mile overall as close to the beach as possible.

A series of events, beginning on Thursday night and through Sunday.

For more information about the powerboat association and the event, visit www.oparacing.org/race8.

http://patch.com/new-jersey/berkeley...ant-beach-soon

[Serious News]

Safety is the aim of the Offshore Grand Prix in Point Pleasant
By MaryAnn Spoto | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Photos and Video: http://www.nj.com/ocean/index.ssf/20...rix_in_po.html

POINT PLEASANT BEACH — When racers take to the water Sunday for the Offshore Grand Prix off Point Pleasant Beach, many of them will be equipped with some of the most advanced safety gear in the sport.

Likened to NASCAR racing, powerboat racing also has water as an added risk factor, which requires the racers to take extra precautions, they say.

And with some of Sunday's racers capable of running up to 160 mph in this showdown, these operators say they're grateful for the advances in technology.

"It's really gotten high tech the past 15 years," said Jimmy Cazzani 3rd, throttleman for the renowned 42-foot Alex and Ani. "We want to get air under these things – let them break loose, but we want to be safe."

Like NASCAR drivers, these racers are harnessed into seats that fit their bodies like a glove and they wear helmets like the ones worn by their on-land counterparts, Cazzani said.

Some of the more sophisticated boats like his and his chief rival, Miss Geico, are equipped with cameras in the engine compartment so the driver and throttleman can see if the engine is overheating.

Besides some crewmen having canisters of oxygen strapped to their leg, some of the larger boats have their own oxygen systems.

John Parks, a member of the Miss Geico team, said the 50-foot Victory hull is designed to let the crew breathe ambient air. However, with anything greater than a 30-degree tilt, the oxygen system automatically kicks in.

No longer is canvas used to cover these race boats. These high-tech boats – some of which have enclosed cockpits – have covers that can't be crushed in the event of a flip at high speeds, Parks said.

Cazzani, who lives in Rhode Island, said the Point Pleasant race is challenging because it's in an ocean where conditions can be unpredictable. If Sunday's ocean is calm, he predicts he'll run the boat at up to 170 mph. With heavy chop, that could be as slow as 100 mph.

"Generally, Point Pleasant is a little bit challenging," he said. "But that's what makes it fun."

The larger boats also have escape hatches built into the hull in the event the boat flips. The hatch also has a porthole through which rescuers can look to view the condition of the crew.

The full-fledged event hasn't been hosted by the town since 1982, organizers say

Those operating enclosed boats have to pass a special water safety certification. Val Fiorillo, driver of WeHaulBoats.com, had his certification on Friday. Besides having to be able to swim to safety and tow his partner to safety, Fiorillo was placed in a cylinder to simulate being in a capsized boat. When the cylinder was flipped upside-down, Fiorillo had to show that he was able to get out.

Only those who pass these certifications are allowed to be on board on race day. Racers are also given Breathalyzer tests and their vital signs are taken the day of the race, said Angelo Juliano, treasurer of the New Jersey Offshore Powerboat Racing Association, which produces and promotes the race.

The races, at noon and 2 p.m., will take the boats in a loop from Martell's Tiki Bar in Point Pleasant Beach south to Bridge Avenue in Bay Head.

Peter Meyer, throttleman for the world champion Instigator, said he's excited the race is back in Point Pleasant after a hiatus. Meyer, from Long Island, said his love for racing started with this event decades ago.

"When they said they were having it here again, I got shivers," Meyer said during a block party in downtown Point Pleasant Beach on Friday when his 42-foot Fountain was on display with dozens of other participating boats. "It's a great race. It's good to be back."

[Serious News]

Hundreds Turn Out For Point Pleasant Beach Grand Prix

A longtime borough tradition returned on Sunday, much to the delight of the crowds.
By Patricia A. Miller (Patch Staff)

Dispite less than perfect weather and a late start, a large crowd came out to watch the first major offshore boat races in years.

POINT PLEASANT BEACH — The race was like a resurrected memory of Point Pleasant Beach's past.

Powerboats slammed the water, shooting salt spray high into the air, as they sped around orange buoys before thousands of spectators.

Their engines filled the air with a thunderous roar that was heard here in the 1970s, when the Benihana Offshore Grand Prix brought boaters from across the world to Point Pleasant Beach.

On Sunday, the powerboat races returned for the first time in years.

Ken Blondek, 54, of Tinton Falls pressed binoculars to his eyes where he stood in the sand outside of Jenkinson's Pavilion. As he did decades ago for the Benihana races, Blondek returned to Point Pleasant Beach to see the relaunch of powerboat racing.

Though just 35 boats competed in Point Pleasant Beach's Offshore Grand Prix, Blondek said he was impressed by the spectator turnout.

"It's pretty crowded for a cloudy Sunday," he said.

In fact, spectators lined the beachside eateries, restaurant balconies, the boardwalk, beach and jetty along the inlet to watch the boats.

Out of sight of the crowds, behind Jack Baker's Wharfside Patio Bar, a team readied "Miss Geico." The 50-foot Victory catamaran can travel at speeds over 200 mph over calm water, said 49-year-old Scott Begovich, the boat's throttleman.

Begovich, a 1984 Brick Memorial High School graduate who now lives in Jupiter, Florida, remembered how he watched his own father and uncles race boats off Point Pleasant Beach and how he pretended as a child, from a skiff in the Metedeconk River to do the same. On Sunday he was living his childhood dream.

"This is what got me hooked on the sport, this race," Begovich said Sunday afternoon before taking Miss Geico out into the rough seas to compete against Alex and Ani, a 42-foot gray catamaran.

Both "superboats" are made of carbon fiber with reinforced hulls designed to withstand the fierce pounding of ocean waves during these high speed races.

Around the 4.3-mile course, eight classes of boats raced outside of Jenkinson's Pavilion, where Mike Yowaiski, a powerboat racer from Maryland, acted as a race announcer.

"They're just built stronger and heavier" than most commercially available varieties of powerboats, said Yowaiski, who also races powerboats.

Despite each vessel's strength, racing is particularly perilous. Begovich said the sport lost seven or eight members in recent years from boating accidents.

"It's quite a dangerous sport," he said. "We've been prepping all season, rebuilding engines and going over everything with a fine tooth comb."

"A boat can launch off of a wave and fly through the air, which is not necessarily dangerous as long as it lands right," Yowaiski said.

Yet problems can happen when boats do not land correctly, he said.

Drivers run the risk of colliding with waves during rough landings or losing sight of nearby boats as they run through the troughs of waves, Yowaiski said.

"You'll go to turn and ride over over a wave and there could be a boat right there, so there's a lot of different variables that go into a rough water race like this," he said.

On Sunday, a helicopter hovered overhead as divers within sat ready to plunge into the water if a boat should crash. Coast Guard personnel in blue uniforms walked the beach as a Coast Guard vessel floated a quarter mile away from the race course. Ambulances lined Ocean Avenue and Channel Drive in case of injuries.

Each boat had a driver and throttleman, who controls the speed, in helmets with intercoms and safety harnesses, said Begovich. In addition, they have oxygen supplies in case they need to escape, he said.

Despite the risks, the danger does not deter men like Begovich or Yowaiski.

"In any form of motor sports, you're always going to lose somebody," said Yowaiski. "You may not come home. My wife knows when I go into a race boat, I might not come out of it."

The adrenaline rush keeps them coming back.

Begovich has been racing boats since 1996, but his love of the sport started during his childhood in Brick.

"When I was a little kid, 6 or 7 years old, my dad and my uncles would take our pleasure boat and turn it into a race boat," he said. "It was a dream of mine, my entire life, to race boats. So when I graduated college, my whole goal in life was to make enough money to buy a race boat."

Since making his dream a reality and a profession, the Miss Geico has won eight world championships and set five water speed records, Begovich said.

"I played high school football for Brick Memorial, and the feeling you get when you're about to charge onto the field with the whole team, it's very similar to this, except... it's nonstop adrenaline," he said.

Miss Geico went on to defeat Alex and Ani Sunday afternoon as Janice and Scott Lukaitis of Brick watched from the shore. Though the couple is involved in motorcycle racing, they said it was their first time watching powerboat racing. The overcast skies and damp, chilly temperatures for mid-May, would not keep the Lukaitis' nor thousands of others away from the beach.

That's precisely what Mayor Stephen D. Reid hoped to hear. The Offshore Grand Prix provided a jump start to Point Pleasant Beach's traditional summer season opening on Memorial Day weekend, he said.

"I wanted to bring this back," Reid said Sunday afternoon from the balcony of Jenkinson's Pavilion. "This is a shot in the arm for Point Pleasant Beach."

Restaurants, hotels and local shops were all benefiting from the influx of boaters and spectators, he said.

"We're definitely going to do it again," Reid said.

Photos and Video: http://www.app.com/story/news/local/...each/84506570/

[Serious News]

[Serious News]

[Serious News]

[Serious News]

[Serious News]

[Serious News]

[Serious News]

[Serious News]

[Serious News]

[Serious News]

[Serious News]

[Serious News]

[Serious News]