Chicago Tribune

July 12, 1991

No home lake advantage in Offshore Challenge
By:  Robert Markus

Although they're both native Chicagoans, offshore powerboat racers Nick Gaglione and Dave Larson don't figure to have a home course advantage Sunday in the Chicago Offshore Challenge. How can they when, by the very nature of their sport, they won't know what the course will look like until they crank up the engines and start shredding the Lake Michigan waves at 110 m.p.h.

What they do know is they'll be keeping a sharp eye on the weather forecast because, says Gaglione, owner and throttleman of Matchless, a pro 1 class entry in the Chicago area's first offshore powerboat race: "racing in these lakes is dangerous, and from my experience Lake Michigan is the worst.

"We had eight-foot waves in our last race on Lake Ponchartrain, which is treacherous. They hit you from four different angles on these lakes.

"Ocean racing can get treacherous but there at least you have a wave pattern you can follow."

Offshore racing used to be strictly for the ocean-going set and, in fact, it basically was point-to-point racing. "It used to be you'd race from Nassau to Bimini," observes Gaglione. "Now you race in a circle."

And you race it on lakes and even rivers, as well as on the ocean. "We're trying to bring offshore racing to the public," explains Gaglione. The Chicago Challenge is a bit of a misnomer since the boats won't get within 30 miles of the city proper. The 16-mile course will begin just south of the Wisconsin-Illinois border at Winthrop Harbor and continue for seven miles down the shoreline along Illinois Beach State park.

Then the boats, which will be only 300 feet from the shore-the length of a football field minus the end zones-on the southbound run, will turn east for a mile before heading north again to complete the circuit.

Race promoters are hoping that at least 100,000 fans will line the beaches to watch the inaugural of what they hope will be a yearly event. There is no admission charge and John Carbonell, executive director of the Offshore Professional Tour, says as many as 300,000 turned out in New York last year to see actor Chuck Norris win a race held on the Hudson River. "We had 300,000 at Cocoa Beach this year," adds Gaglione.

Norris and fellow actors Don Johnson and Kurt Russell are the big draws on the circuit, but none has committed to the Chicago event.

Miami Vice star Johnson was one of the organizers of the pro tour and finished fourth in last year's inaugural series-which Norris won-but he has yet to race this season. "He says his insurance company won't let him," chides Unocal public relations director Bill Brodrick, whose company fuels all the boats. Johnson reportedly has been testing his boat in Florida, however, leading to speculation he could enter the Chicago race.

In the absence of the glamor stars, Brazilian Eike Batista won the first three events in his Spirit of the Amazon superboat.

The massive superboats, which can be 50 feet long with four 1,000 h.p. engines, reach speeds of up to 150 m.p.h. That compares with the top speed of 112 that Gaglione has reached in his Matchless.

"To run the superboats," says Gaglione, "you need a real major backer. They run from $2 1/2 million to $5 million." Even in his own class it's not a poor man's hobby. "Ours runs $250,000 to $500,000," he says.

The Matchless is 32 feet long and has three stock engines. It requires two men to drive it, and that requires matchless teamwork, if you will.

Larson is the driver and navigator while Gaglione works the throttle. If you can imagine Rick Mears steering an Indy car while Emerson Fittipaldi stands on the gas pedal, you can get some idea of how Larson and Gaglione must work together.

"I read the waves and negotiate the turns," says Larson, "while he reads the waves as well so he can throttle as we come off a wave to not get us airborne."

Larson also is watching the waves closely, hoping to find a trough to ride in and pick up a little speed. Gaglione says that Larson's job takes muscle as well as knowhow. "Cornering these boats is difficult," he says. "It's all horsepower. He needs a lot of power in his arms to turn it."

Both men are relatively new to powerboating, but not to racing. Gaglione is a former drag racer who was a manufacturer of offshore boats and decided to build one for himself.

"This is a little more glamorous," he says, "and I get to ride in it a little longer. I used to go down the track in five seconds when I was drag racing."

Larson, who had raced everything from Go Karts to snowmobiles, finds powerboat racing to be the ultimate. "Every driver is driven by the thrill of being behind the wheel of anything," he says. "It's the challenge, but this is more so. You're challenging the elements, not just a piece of asphalt. You're challenging Mother Nature."