Photo Essay: One Scary View From Point Pleasant Beach

ByMatt Trulio

Last weekend’s Offshore Powerboat Association Point Pleasant Beach Grand Prix in New Jersey dished out typical Atlantic Ocean conditions, meaning rougher than it looked from the beach. Raceboats often disappeared from view in the four- to five-foot seas that were loaded with deep holes. By all accounts, it was tough and tightly contested race.

The cockpit camera inside the cockpit of Nobody’s Business captured a terrifying moment of contact with Speed Marine.

The Stock V class contest proved rowdy with at least two collisions in which no one seriously injured. The tangle-up between eventual first-place finishers Kyle Miller and Jay Wohltman in Speed Marine and second-place finishers Chris Uzzolina and Rob Hartmann in Nobody’s Business was particularly nasty, with Speed Marine ending atop Nobody’s Business for a fraction of a second.

“We had a great, hard battle with them for three or four laps and it was fun,” said Uzzolina, “It was a racing accident from hard racing.

“But there was someone or something watching over us,” he continued. “It could been much worse. We lost some gelcoat and rub-rail screws. That’s it.”

The incident, plus a mechanical glitch, made the Nobody Business team’s runner-up finish in Point Pleasant Beach especially satisfying.

“A faulty relay caused our ballast-tank pumps to stay on and dump all our water,” said Uzzolina. “Rob did an awesome job adapting and keeping us on the podium.”

Nobody’s Business still managed to finish second in the Stock V class in Point Pleasant Beach. Photo by Tim Sharkey copyright Sharkey Images.

Unless he sells it before then, Uzzolina is planning to run the team’s current 30-foot Phantom in next month’s American Power Boat Association-sanctioned kilo runs in Maryland. After the sale, he’ll order another 30-footer from Phantom owner/founder Will Smith. Nobody’s Business crew chief Chad Shutter of North Carolina-based BRP Marine Custom will handle its rigging and interior.

“We want to build a new Phantom to put on the podium,” said Uzzolina. “Will builds an awesome piece and I am definitely a Phantom loyalist after running them.”

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