2023 Labor Day Issue

hydroplane racer for 30 years from New Jersey
to Florida. He said he got into the speedboat
community when he was working at Smitty’s
Marine in Jefferson and had the opportunity to
rebuild an old racer.
It was a championship career.
Bush, 69, was a member of the Lake Hopatcong
Racing Association from 1973 to 1987, winning
numerous national championships, including the
1982 Nationals at Tonawanda, a place he knows
well.
It’s where, after winning the title, he got married
to wife Amy.
“It wasn’t spontaneous,” Bush said. “We had
planned it. Amy knew the race was at Niagara Falls,
so we got married on the banks of the Niagara
River.”
But by placing first, Bush’s boat was subject to
scrutiny by race officials. The winning boat had to
be inspected after the races, which included having
the engine dismantled, he said. A time-consuming
task that nearly sabotaged the wedding.
“We were waiting to clear inspection and the
judge who was performing the ceremony kept
saying, ‘Tom, it’s getting darker,’” recalled Bush.
Bush said he is concerned about his sport.
Not as many youngsters are getting into racing
because of other interests. Then there are the
costs of travel, lodging, fuel, maintenance and the
long weekends that challenge the racing teams
and families, he said.
Still, the sport survives.
“We have a lot of legacy teams,” he said. “Sons
and daughters, grandchildren of racing families.”
What doesn’t change is the thrill of the sport,
Bush said.
The speed, the sensation of the boats skimming
along the water barely in contact the surface test
the skill of the drivers, he said.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Bush said.
The state park offers a clear view of the start
line, the pit area where the boats are prepped, and
the racecourse, said Fitzgerald.
That excitement and the fellowship of the
racers is what keeps them in the game, she said.
“This a great sport. We’ve been at it for 53
years,” she said with a laugh.
From the state park, the lake opens into a broad
expanse of water, offering unobstructed views to
park visitors, lakefront homeowners and boaters.
The course is 2.5 miles, said Shaw, whose three
adult children—Richard, John and Katelyn—all
race. The elder Shaw joined the association in
1970, after buying a classic flatbottom boat for a
few dollars and hustling it into racing shape.
The attraction of the event is the speed of the
boats and the skill of the drivers, he said. They
take chances.
The association’s goal is to offer competitive
races, but also “keep the course as safe as we can
make it,” he said.
Thompson, Tenacity’s driver, said the
competition is top-notch, which makes winning
the Governor’s Cup so special.
“That trophy is so big,” he said. “We all want to
be holding it at the end of the day.”
Weber said he has never been far from a New
Jersey lake. Nor has his family been far from boat
racing.
“I grew up on Lake Hopatcong in King’s Cove
and always attended the local races,” he said.
His father, Ron Weber, operated a marina on
Greenwood Lake and was also the president of
the Greenwood Lake Powerboat Association, he
said.
Weber said he had been the rider-mechanic
previously, but last year was his first race as driver.
“It is hard to describe what it feels like,” he said,
“but the ear to ear smile I have when I complete a
race is all that needs to be said.”
Skiffs are much faster than they look and many
would argue can be the most exciting category of
boat racing, said Weber.
What adds to the adventure, he said, is talking
to the other racers, listening for tips, hearing their
experiences. “It is a true community,” he said.
The 2023 race is special for Heather Johnson, the
daughter in a boat racing family.
This year her husband Kyle Johnson will pilot the
reconditioned Geronimo, a Pro-Lite hydroplane
built in the 1990s by her father Jay Brennan.
Her father, who still lives in the lake region,
watched the races as a child and decided he could
build his own racer, she said.
He built it in his backyard from okoume
plywood, Sitka spruce and sealed it with epoxy,
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she said.
He installed a 305 small-block Chevrolet engine
and successfully ran the boat, piloted by Mark
Johnson, in the 5-liter class, she said.
Now Geronimo belongs to her, her brother Jon,
and a grandson, she said.
“The deep-rooted passion for the sport was the
greatest driver of their success, and Jay instilled
that deep in his children’s hearts,” she said.
The rebuilt Geronimo is now powered by a
small-block Chevy 350 with a 400 horsepower
engine and will compete in the Hydro 350 class,
she said.
The trip from her home, now in Georgia, is
important, Johnson said.
“Lake Hopatcong is our hometown race,” she said.
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