It has been over one week since the accident between Repeat Offender Offshore Race Team and Smith Brothers Racing/CRC  at the Offshore Performance Association's Pt Pleasant Beach Grand Prix had taken place in which claimed the life of David Raabe and sunk the Smith Brothers/CRC race boat. A mandatory non-criminal investigation is still ongoing with the assistance of the NJ State Police and no criminal charges are expected to be filed. Both Rich & Pete Smith had been treated and released and the driver of Repeat Offender J.P. Byrne remains hospitalized and is expected to make a full recovery.  READ MORE by MaryAnn Spoto 

The Smith Brothers race boat remains on the ocean's bottom at this time but has been finally located over the Memorial Day Weekend. From recent storms the clarity of the ocean water was degraded, leaving the Divers very little visibility. They caught a break on Sunday May 28th with an incoming tide and the water clearing up. The boat has been found upside down making it even more of a challenge for the Divers to place air bags inside the hull in order to raise the boat. It took most of the day to get the boat right side up and ran out of time for the day so they postponed the recovery efforts until Tuesday waiting for the most recent bad weather conditions to subside. 

I have been following the progress of the search and recovery all week and hope the boat can finally be recovered on the next attempt. 

A huge thank you is well deserved for all of the personnel that have been donating their time and boats for this recovery effort.

Berkeley Twp Underwater Search & Rescue, Parkertown Fire/Rescue Search & Recovery and West Tuckerton Fire Rescue, Point Pleasant Beach Dive Team, NJ State Police, Jen & Dave w/their Fountain Center Console and in addition Brad Kaas at Kens Landing for continued use of the property during this recovery mission.

Next time you see a first responder, please say THANKS for what they do...  

CLICK HERE TO VIEW PHOTOS of these fine men and women first responders.