96 World Finals Mod Champion

[SeaLion]

Frank Romero on the winning 96 triple piped stunner.

[ph2ocraft]

Man, was that an awesome day or what? All you could see was dropped jaws at the entire place, I'll see if I can find my pictures when Connie was crying as HER Polaris team won.

[CrazyA]

Might as well throw Kris Hall into the mix!!!

[ph2ocraft]

Man that reminds me of my old buddy JoJo Ludwig. Man I have to find my pictures of that year!!Who else raced for Polaris 96/97?

[SeaLion]

I have a Jo Jo but on a Doo. I have a Mark Sessions also but that is Enduro. Maybe Hydrotoys knows him? I have another of Frank too. This is all under the PSI team of 95.

[SeaLion]

Here's the scan.

[ph2ocraft]

That's a great scan, look at Mark, he's barefoot.

[CrazyA]

Ah... the good 'ole days when aftermarket companies were plentiful!!!

[SeaLion]

They have the pipe pictures for Yamaha and Polaris mixed up.

[CrazyA]

I know!!!

[Hydrotoys]

I have a Jo Jo but on a Doo. I have a Mark Sessions also but that is Enduro. Maybe Hydrotoys knows him? I have another of Frank too. This is all under the PSI team of 95.

Mark Sessions!!!!
Boy do I know Mark. He is a character. He lives about 5 miles from me. Him and his family are doing GREAT. He has a wife now, and 3-4 kids...can't remember how many. He's one smart welding designing, creating, kind of guy. The original team of Polaris Endurance Racers for the west coast were Mark Sessions (pro), Dave Somebodyoranother (expert), Dorin Olsen (novice), and Robert Johns(Vet.) Dorin got my into runabout watercraft. One of my FIRST runabout experiences was with Dorin and Mark in 1996. We were running bouys at a local lake about 2 miles from the ramp when Mark blew off a cylinder. I had to sit stranded on a sandy beach for 2 hours while they towed in the ski, and figured out how to get me to the ramp. At one point, I was thinking they left me! Mark was un-officially, one of the first racers in 1995 to win a Polaris-powered IJSBA race...but Polaris hadn't put their blood money into the Kawasaki-owned IJSBA that year, so the promoter put down he was riding a kawi. He was riding a 1995 triple pipe PSI SL-785. We called it the "Burn Boat" since he about burned his house down in the garage when the carbs caught on fire one day.
Dorin at the Colorodo River sitting on the Burn boat during a practice session.
http://www.hydrotoys.com/vesthead.jpg
Here is a picture of Mark Session drinking a soda. He was racing one of my SLTX in the 1997 Long Course in Parker.
http://www.hydrotoys.com/parker.jpg

Robert's son Jason won a few endurance championships with BP on a PRO785, and of course with a SLTX in the 2 and 3 hour endurance Gran Prix in 97-99. Rob and Jason's SLTX skis. http://www.hydrotoys.com/sgt3334.jpg

Jason after his win in Parker over a super-compettitive field of SeaDoos.
http://www.hydrotoys.com/785win.jpg
A picture taken of Jason past Queen Marys gate in Long Beach during a 2hour GP.
http://www.hydrotoys.com/jjohns1.jpg

Tracy Fowler was on the scene in 98 with his SLTX and dominated the BP novice stock class with a bone stock SLTX that year. He would do battle with Bryan Gerard (nov) on my Group-K SLTX. Their battle in the Long Beach to Catalina race was awesome, with them switching the lead over and over. http://www.hydrotoys.com/tracy3.jpg Bryan won the Nov Open Class that year in the LB to Cat race.

Bryan and myself in Ensenada Mexico in 1999 2 hour Gran Prix.
http://www.hydrotoys.com/99gprace.jpg

Krista Chapman raced with us a few times on my Polaris,SLTX winning the womens class in the Long Beach to Catalina race in 2000.
http://www.hydrotoys.com/krista10.jpg
http://www.hydrotoys.com/sgtb0a4.jpg

I think that 1996 Womak won it for his first time on a Polaris?

Wasn't Jack Struthers another 1996 Pro team mate?

[Hydrotoys]

Mark's racing days pretty much got cut short due to a wave jumping accident in Ensenada Mexico, a year earlier in 1996.

DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE SQUIMISH!

To set the stage: We were all at the beach watching a BRUTAL Gp race with BP. The waves were 8-10ft front side rollers with whitecaps out in the 2 mile turn bouys. Mark's ski died of an electrical fire the day before, so he couldn't race. Dave and Dorin and Rob raced. Dave gave up after an hour with severe arm pump. Dorin ski lost an ignition. Mark decided to take Dave's ski and go wave jumping down the beach a ways. His whole extended family was there. We were watching him from a distance getting close to 40ft of air verticle on the SL900. About 30 minutes later we see Mark headed to shore at high speed, and ran the SL900 about 50ft up the soft beach, and just sat there. He waved us over to him. When we got there, BOTH of his legs were split open from Just below the knees ALL THE WAY DOWN to just above the ankle, right down the front of the shin bone. His left knee patella was broken up, and his right leg bone was visible. We waved in Rob, since he is a doctor, and took him out of the race. He came over in full race gear and inspected the injuries. He literally opened up the leg and had Mark move his foot. You could see all the tendons and stuff going up/down and stuff. He causually bandaged him up, and we got him to the local emergency room, where they pretty much sent him home to get a knee speciallist. He mostly recovered but had to deal with leg problems for 5-6 years after that. The 97 race was the only one he ever did after that.

What caused the accident, was when he was verticle, his BAREFEET slipped off the smooth footwells, and the ski came down on his legs, with the rear platform fileting open both legs, and hammering the knee.

[Hydrotoys]

That's a great scan, look at Mark, he's barefoot.

Read my last article.

[Hydrotoys]

I left out Fred Tuttle from 98-02 and Dwayne Musxxx???? from about 97-98 in the BP series using Polaris. A couple of the ladies were racing Polaris including the Mother/Daughter team of Jill and Anne-Marie Fritz. They were beautiful ladies and damn good racers too!

[Watcon]

Some of the 1996 Polaris racers.

Jojo Ludwig, Frank Romero, Jack Struthers, Jeff Priuer, David Olson, Corey Wimpfheimer, Chris Heinrich, Chris hall, Billy Womack. I'm sure I missed a few.. But these guys were all "A" team riders.. There were tons of "B" support racers.. Polaris spent zillions on racing in 96, 97 & 98. Their free "T-shirt" budget was amazing, I didn't buy shirts for years.. LOL

Thoese were the days !!

Randy