Photo Essay: Point Pleasant Beach Goes Sporty-Plus
You could make a strong case for New Jersey as the true cradle of offshore racing civilization. Competition there goes back five-plus decades. Cigarette Racing Team founder/owner Don Aronow hailed from the Garden State. The historic Point Pleasant Beach venue in particular is notorious for rough water—think of it as a New Jersey version of Cocoa Beach, Fla., only a bit sportier.
On its way to a Stock V win, Speed Marine logged a little air time off Point Pleasant Beach. Photos by Tim Sharkey copyright Sharkey Images.
And for last weekend’s Offshore Powerboat Association Point Pleasant Beach Grand Prix, the storied race-site more than lived up to its legacy for the teams that chose to tackle it.
Among those teams was Wicked, a new Super Cat-class outfit led by offshore racing veteran Jay Muller. The pre-season plan had Muller’s sons, 20-year-old Chase and 18-year-old Jax, manning the cockpit of the teams 40-foot Motion catamaran. The Muller boys did run together in their Chug It raceboat in the Bracket 700 class, but for the solo-boat Super Cat contest Chase Muller drove alongside his father, one of the sport’s most accomplished throttlemen.
Thanks to the Race 4 Charities.org team, photographer Tim Sharkey captured what could end up being the roughest offshore race of the 2022 season.
“The boat ran awesome,” said Jay Muller. “Chase didn’t have much test time but did a fantastic job and we had a blast.
“He said the Motion cat felt like a Cadillac compared to his Class 700 boat,” Muller added, then laughed.
Thanks to the Bracket 300-class Race 4 Charities.org team, photographer Tim Sharkey was in the air via helicopter and firing away at the raceboats tackling the sporty-plus Atlantic Ocean water. In addition to Wicked, teams that ran uncontested included Knucklehead Racing in Vee Extreme class, the Bracket 100-class Bounty Hunter team and Race 4 Charites.org, while in the two-team Bracket 500 battle Shoreline Plumbing bested Mean Streak for the win.
Enjoy more images from the 2022 Point Pleasant Beach Grand Prix.
In Stock V, Speed Marine took the checkered flag followed by Laticrete/Nobody’s Business and Typhoon. Apache Predator finished ahead of Full Send and Control Freak in Bracket 400, while Moderation finished ahead of Rum Runners and Smith Brothers in Bracket 600. As the class with the smallest boats, Bracket 700 took the biggest beating with Goofin’ Around claiming first place (as noted above) followed by Team Progression and Aquaholic.
But the real battle was between the high-flying teams and the conditions.
“It was four to five feet with the occasional six-footer, big holes and sloppy chop with Southeast winds that started gusting over 20 mph,” said Sharkey. “It made for some great racing.”
Chase Muller ran his first Super Cat race in Wicked, a 40-foot Motion catamaran owned and throttled by his father.
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