Speedboat racer killed in 110 mph crash during California competition remembered as a ‘great, great guy on and off the track’
Organizers of the Long Beach Sprint Nationals have identified the speedboat racer killed in a Sunday, Aug. 8, competition as Jay Hart, 37, of Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
The speedboat racer who died after crashing during a Sunday, Aug. 8, competition was Jay Hart, 37, of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, according to event organizers, who are now bracing for city officials to evaluate the future of the 75-year-old Long Beach Sprint Nationals.
Hart was fatally injured after his vessel flipped over at about 110 mph, ejecting him from its cockpit on the last day of the Southern California Speedboat Club event.
“He was just a great, great guy on and off the track,” Ross Wallach, president of the club and a friend of Hart’s, said on Monday. “He was a very well-respected driver. He had been doing it almost his whole life. He grew up in a big racing family. He came from a big racing family. And he was at the top of his game. He was a very, very good driver and unfortunately, as, we all know, sometimes racing incidents happen.”
Hart was the second racer in recent years to die after crashing at the event; in 2018, a speed boat driver died a week and a half after he was critically injured during the race.
The two tragedies led Councilwoman Suzie Price, whose Third District includes Marine Stadium, to say Sunday that “a full evaluation of this activity and whether it is something that (the) City of Long Beach should continue to host” is now warranted.
Mayor Robert Garcia agreed in a Monday statement.
“I am saddened to hear about the horrific loss of life at the Sprint Nationals speed boat race over the weekend,” Garcia said. “My thoughts and love go out to the victim’s family. The City will be conducting a thorough review of this race and make a decision that is best for all involved going forward, but I have very serious concerns about the future of this event.”
Brian Fisk, a spokesman for the Fire Department, said it’s still too early in the investigation to discuss what happened or how it may impact the event’s future.
Wallach, though, said he was “very concerned” about the possibility Hart’s death could mean the end of the event being held in Long Beach.
“What needs to be known was that the public was never in any danger at any time during the incident,” Wallach said, “or before the incident through the whole weekend.”
The Southern California Speedboat Club, based in Redondo Beach, has entertained fans with the ARP Long Beach Sprint National Championships for 75 years. Race teams from around the country convene on Long Beach, which promoters call the birthplace of powerboat racing on the West Coast.
But after the fatal crash in 2018, Long Beach officials imposed new insurance and safety requirements on the event before it would issue another permit, though city officials said at the time that the new mandates were not directly linked to the crash; they were simply part of the annual permit review process.
Some of the updates included more than doubling the required insurance, to $10 million, hiring a boat racing safety compliance manager, conducting water sample testing and hiring two lifeguards, instead of the one that was previously mandated.
“They’ve created all these additional requirements and we were in compliance with all of them,” Wallach said. “In 2021, the public, during this whole weekend leading up to and during this crash, never was in any danger. And that should have been the only reason you shut down an event.”
The bottom line, Wallach said, is tragedy happens in motorsports; it doesn’t mean there was any negligence.
“That’s exactly what that is,” he said. “That’s 100% correct. It was a racing incident. Sometimes racing incidents happen. It wasn’t that the drivers of either boat did anything to cause the crash.”
Staff writer Emily Rasmussen contributed to this report.