George and his son have been racing boats since 1985 and at this year’s show he brought his 36 foot racing boat.
He shared with us his life-changing encounter with speed on a lake race where he was traveling at speed of over 120 miles per hour. That is incredibly fast over water.
They were heading for a turn and unbeknown to George a contestant’s boat had overturned, and a rescue boat had crossed their path just ahead of their bow. The wake from the rescue boat forced his boat to go bow up, heading for the sky only to flip over on its back. The force of hitting the water ripped off the cockpit and held him upside-down in the water. He described it as being forced to breath water while he fought to reorient his body and get out of the water and onto the boat’s hull. By that time another rescue crew was at his boat and pulling him away from the wreck of his boat. At that point he just wanted to recover himself. He said that while the expectation was that over time his trauma would fade and he could move on, but instead he says it slowly has gotten worse. Even taking a shower can bring on anxiety and bad memories. George still races along with his son.
It was amazing to meet him and have him share these memories.
JIM'S GARAGE 
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