By Terry Tomalin

At the Super Boat International season opener, everybody was talking about the two new Skaters from Douglas Marine that had joined the Super Vee fleet. Fans and racers crowded the waterfront hoping to get a peak inside the new machines.

But off to the side, veteran racer Bill Gazell took it all in stride.

"I've seen so many boats come and go over the years," said the 62-year-old Floridian. "It is the same thing every year ... new boats, new people, new sponsors. But it takes more than money to stay in this sport for the long haul."

Gazell races in the Production class, a speed-bracketed grouping of what some have called weekend warriors. Though they make up roughly half of the SBI fleet, the P-boats seldom get the coverage that the one-design or tight spec-classes receive. Yet these P-classes feed the Pro classes, much the way a farm team sends ballplayers to the majors.

"We are a close-knit bunch of guys," said Gazell, who throttles Great Adventure in the P-4 class. "We all work together. There is camaraderie you don't get in the other classes."

Unlike the high-dollar Super Cat and Super Vee classes where the drivers and throttlemen show up and race, P-class racers have greater challenges. They must take time off from work and usually haul the boat and support truck to races themselves.

Driver Chris Schoenbohm and throttleman Tony Pandolfo of Team Catattack started off the 2006 season racing in the P-3 class, but then switched to the Stock class midway through the season.

The team consists of the driver, throttleman and Gene Lewis, a friend who is a professional marine mechanic. Pandolfo and Lewis typically leave for a race on a Thursday night after work, driving the boat to the race site.

"It is really hard because all of us have regular jobs," Schoenbohm said. "Sometimes it is hard getting back to work on a Monday morning. You're tired and sore. But it is always a little easier when you win."

Schoenbohm said he spends about $50,000 a season to campaign his boat.

THE GLORY DAYS

Gazell started racing in 1976. Back then, if you wanted a fast boat, you went to Miami and paid a visit to the King of Thunderboat Row.

"I met with Don Aronow when he was making the best race boats back then and I was kind of awestruck," he said. "I told him what I wanted: A boat that was light and fast to run offshore races. He listened to what I had to say and said, "No problem. We'll make it for you.'"

In those glory days of the APBA Offshore, there weren't as many classes. There were just four categories of race boats: Production (stock), Modified, Sport and Open. The 28-foot Cigarette cost Gazell $20,000, which seemed like a fortune at the time.

Offshore powerboat racing has changed a lot in 30 years. When Gazell first started, boats truly did race offshore.

"When you left the dock, you took off and were out of sight of land ... on your own," he said. "Races weren't always won by the fastest boat. Races were won by the boat that made it back."

CHANGING ERA

Offshore racing in the early 1980s saw the beginning of a new era—the age of the cat.

"People started moving into cats because they were faster," Gazell said. "I spent a lot of time in 1983, 1984 and 1985 setting up boats with friends."

After racing cats for a few years, Gazell moved back into a V-bottom—a 31-foot Sutphen.

"I never had any trouble moving back and forth between V-bottoms and catamarans," said Gazell, who is equally adept at both driving and throttling. "They are different animals. You just have to know how to handle them."

In 1990, Gazell teamed up with his younger brother, Warren, and downsized to a smaller, 25-foot Motion built by Jay Pilini, who would later go on to Spectre fame.

Sick of the politics that plagued the APBA, Gazell signed up with John Carbonell's Offshore Performance Tour. Carbonell, the longest-running race promoter, had enlisted the help of celebrities Don Johnson, Chuck Norris and Kurt Russell to race on his new tour.

"It was a lot of fun ... there were lots of movie stars, fans and sponsors," Gazell said. "We thought all the publicity was going to take powerboat racing to the next level."

Gazell won national championships in 1990 and 1991. He added a world title to his résumé in 1991, followed by two more in 1992 and 1993.

By the mid 1990s, Carbonell's tour had morphed into Super Boat International, quickly attracting a loyal following among racers because of Carbonell's ability to get their boats on television. Gazell raced in several different boats, including a Baja and a Jaguar, under the SBI and U.S. Offshore banners.

"It would have been great if everybody had come together," he said. "But that is powerboat racing. It is what it is."

EARNING RESPECT

Gazell's boats have always carried the name Great Adventure, named after his first sponsor, the New Jersey amusement park.

"Most of the racers in the P-class are just like me, paying their own way," he said. "But I think that is one reason why I have lasted so long. You see a lot of guys get in the Open class, spend all their money and in three years they are out of the sport."

The "Pro" classes may get all the respect, but the P-class racers are every bit as competitive, he said.

"We have to stay within a speed limit," he said. "So you often end up with some real close races won by the skill of the driver and throttleman."

So far in 2006, Gazell and teammate Rodney Petruzzi have won 10 of their 11 races in the P-4 class, which has a top speed of 82 mph.

"We have our own little Lake X here on the Okeechobee Waterway," Petruzzi said. "It is a 27-mile straightaway and we can get out there and test without any slow-speed zones." Petruzzi, who raced in Long Island before moving to Florida to open a marine repair business, described Gazell as a cross between "Dale Earnhardt and Jack Nicholson."

"I'm not worried about getting hurt out there," Petruzzi said. "What scares me is making a mistake. Bill has been at this so long, for him, everything is just second nature."

Gazell doesn't know how long he will race, but he hopes to make it another four years.

"Right now, I have four decades of championships," he said. "If I can make it to 2010, that will be five decades of racing. I think that's a record that will be pretty hard to beat."

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