Penhall, Sigalos Weave Past Fans to Victory

Many of the onlookers at Sunday’s Dana Point Challenge got a close-up view of the high-speed offshore power boats thumping their way between the San Clemente and Aliso piers.

For some of the racers, however, it was a little too close for comfort.

Braving speeds that reached upward of 110 m.p.h on a rough and crowded course, the participants had to navigate their way past a throng of spectator boats, some of which nonchalantly crossed in front of the speeding watercrafts during the 1 1/2-hour race.

“We did have some problems trying to weed through the spectator boats,” said Dennis Sigalos, who throttled Ocean Spray to a victory in the Offshore D class with driver Bruce Penhall. “Even the sailboats were crossing in front of us.”

The conditions didn’t get any easier the second time around. The influx of floating vessels obstructed the buoys that marked the course for the drivers, and some racing boats made their own pass nowhere near the marked chute.

At one point, Magic Potion, which won the Offshore B class, passed within yards of the start/finish boat with the crews’ arms raised to signify they couldn’t find the course markers.

At the end of the race, Phase II, which raced alone in the Offshore AA class, came by the start/finish boat and driver Bob Vila shook his head at the racing officials and said, “What a joke.”

“This is the most spectator boats I’ve seen at a race,” said Kathy Hurt, an official for the Pacific Offshore Racing Assn. “But there’s nothing we can do about it. I’m just glad nobody was hurt.”

For Sigalos and Penhall of Newport Beach, they remained positive about the huge offshore crowd.

“It’s actually kind of exciting,” Penhall said. “In our second year, we have seen so much more involvement. I’ve never seen this many spectator boats.”

Sigalos and Penhall raced against each other years ago, but they have found competing together more rewarding.

“It’s great I don’t have to race against him anymore,” Penhall said. “It’s nice to share some success together.”

Penhall said it costs the team about $8,500 an hour to race the boat, which is owned by Dennis Sigalos’ father, Anthony Sigalos.

At the end of the race, Ocean Spray had a port motor full of water. The setback will cause the team to dig further into its pocket to be prepared for its next race July 2 in Sarasota, Fla.

“Luckily we have a lot of great sponsors who have faith that we can do this,” Penhall said. “Both Dennis and I haven’t burned any bridges over the years.”

Kip Grossman of Laguna Beach, who owns and piloted Outta Control to a first-place finish in the Local Competition class, found the rough water to his liking.

Despite giving up twice as much horsepower to the higher classes, Grossman said he was able to stay with those boats and keep his throttle wide open the entire race.

“This was really good water because this boat is built for the rough stuff,” Grossman said. “Our last race at Benicia had really glassy conditions and we got smoked by a little skater.”

It was only the third race for Grossman, throttleman John Beresford of Laguna Beach and navigator Tom Santoro of Fullerton.

“It was a little dangerous the first lap and we came down hard a few times, but it never got really scary,” Grossman said. “This is by far the most exciting thing I’ve done in my life.”

Other winners included Archer Marine Scarab driven by Nigel Hook of Del Mar in the Offshore A class and All You Can Eat driven by Mills Brown of Paradise Valley, Ariz., in the Pro Outboard class.