Let me introduce myself, my name is Shaun Torrente and I am a boat racer. I am 31 years old and have been racing boats for 17 years. Along the way I have met people who have become more like an extended family, and raced boats of all sizes and horsepower.

I recently returned from our first race of the season in Port Neches, Texas, where we had a long, eventful and overwhelming weekend. We won the race and took an early lead in points, but that was not the overwhelming part.

Our team normally travels with two boats so that I always have a backup boat. With our budget being tight we decided to bring only one boat to the first race because we won in Port Neches last year and felt we knew which boat we were going to run.

Disaster struck when I set the boat in Turn 3—I hit something in the water and put an 8-inch-square hole in the boat and then ripped 5 feet of skin off the left sponson. Needless to say our entire team was in shock. Time trials were less than two hours away and we did not have a boat. I was at my trailer looking over the boat when R.J. West came over, looked at it and said: “We can fix this.”

I have known R.J. for a long time—we raced against each other in the SST-45 class (he still races SST-45 and is a multiple-time national champion). He also builds race boats (Revolution Boats). I have a ton of respect for him as a driver and a person, so if he says he can fix it, I believe and trust him.

We made a list of supplies we would need, and within an hour teams from all over the pits were dropping off materials to fix the boat. It was truly a community coming together simply because we asked and in some cases they just offered. Not 10 minutes later, as I sat in the drivers meeting, a member of the Sea-way Marine team approached me and asked if I would like to drive the team’s second boat for qualifying.

I asked what I was responsible for and he responded with a line that I will never forget. This is it word for word: “You are responsible for not getting hurt and we are responsible for the rest.” So in under an hour this “family” had stepped up to fix the boat, provide tools and materials to do the job and then, as if that wasn’t enough, provided me with another $100,000 boat to qualify.

Things worked out. R.J. did a superb job on the repair, my team did an equally superb job making sure the rest of the boat performed, we won the race and I was overwhelmed by the support we received.

People ask me all the time why I race boats, or what is the best thing about racing boats? My response is always the same—it is the people and the relationships with those people that make it special. To all those who helped, thank you, I will never forget it.