HOW IT ALL BEGAN

The Gringo's, as we are now known by all at the OCR fraternity, are no newcomers to the world of boating, as far back as I can remember, at some stage or another, we have always owned boats in the family. Our grandfather his brother and our father have owned different types of vessel's, from cabin cruiser's to smaller powercraft, so Mark and I have always been around and played about with all these family owned boats.
M AND J RACING TEAM, contrary to popular belief, originally stood for Mark Walker and Julio Lopez. Julio is one of the Gringo's very good friends, he was actually the first navigator Mark raced with, he would have been racing today with Mark had he not suffered an unfortunate accident on his bicycle, when he run over a cat, causing him to fly off his bike and entertain the public by perfoming aerobatics, his landing was even more spectacular as he misjudged his fall, and broke both his arms. "Step into the navigators seat, and get thrown around a bit Jason" were Mark's words. At that time Jason, was the team administrator, going out looking for sponsors, and ensuring everything was ready for the race days. Then along Came another good friend, Michael Ballester, aka Egg. Michael took over the teams administration during Gringo Jay's long period of absence from Gibraltar. Mark was at the time thinking of giving the Team a new name, but as the people invloved with the team all had initials begining with the Letter's M and J, he decided to leave it as it stood.
During the year 2000, when OCR came to Gibraltar, to hold the British National Finals, Mark befriended Bob McCarthy. A year later the festival was again held in Gibraltar and The Gibraltar Motorboat Racing Association, were invited to take part in the basic race. Mark and Julio put together a Sharp 18 powered by a mercury 150HP. This combination proved to be efficient and workable, as the power to weight ratio worked extemely well, and the Team took a respectable 2nd place in that race, contrary to public opinion that the Phantoms with the 200HP, would leave the little sharp in their wake. At the time people were looking at the boats and engines, but not everyone gave a thought to who was going to be driving the boats (tools are meant to be used by craftsmen).
The following year,2002, we purchased a Bernico 23, F1. This was powered by A Mercury 200HP, the boat arrived just as the festival had started, no time was allowed for testing, however, thankfully, this was not needed as the setup could not have been better, and the Dynamic Duo (as they were now known by the local press) went on to win the Gibraltar basic series from that year onwards.
Racing ceased in Gibraltar during 2004, the fleet was depleating slowly, and it all came to an end. There is always time and scope to revive the sport in Gibraltar. At this point Mark decided he would want to continue racing. Mark made contact with Bob at OCR, and was invited to take part in the British National Series and represent Gibraltar at the event. Mark flew, to The UK, and met Nick Barsch at the Torquay festival, and the plans for the production of the 19XL were born.
The Bernico was sold , and the sale funded the purchase of our current boat, a Phantom 19XL, powered by a 1.8Ltr 140HP Tohatsu. The Tohatsu served well for the first racing season, as it had more initial acceleration than the other engines, and would allow us to get to the first turn buoy well in the lead or level with another boat. However, the Tohatsu would have to be worked on after every race as the top mounts and sandwich plate would break. For the second racing season we opted for a Yamaha 130hp, this engine has more top end speed than the Tohatsu and the grunt required to keep us in leadership contention, the disadvantage is that we are now level with the other competitor's on the start run, which makes getting to that first turn buoy a bit more hair raising.
The boat was built by Banana Shark Racing, and engineered by The 7 times OCR British Champion and World Champion Nick Barsch.
When we arrived at our first venue, we were not to sure on what to expect, however we were given a warm welcome and looked after by all.
A special mention must go to The McCarthy family for putting us up, and providing all sorts of logistical support, which is still on going, now that the Gringo's have a foot in the household and workshop, it wont be easy to get them out (sorry Mr & Mrs M).
Back to the racing, from that first venue at Torquay onwards, which was preceeded by a total of 8 hours running in, 5 hours by us, and 3 hours by Barschy carried out at Farnsworth, day one was unfortunately not raced due to a mechanical fault, (the earth cable had come loose causing the CDI to burn out) which was deemed to be a manufacturers error, and found and rectified by Bob and Tony McCarthy.After a few phone calls we managed to get a replacement part for the next day. The Rock, Team A11, battled on to acheive top 3 placings at National Level at every other venue. The racing was never easy and will never be easy, when competing against the likes of Bob McCarthy, Stuart Williams, Gavin Hanks, Derek Basham, Graham Loughton and the ever improving Steve Allen, ( no disrespect to those not mentioned) who are the most experienced drivers to have raced last year in A Class, and hopefully continue to do so this year.
The 2005 season ended with Team A11 bringing home an overall 2nd place at the RYA National Championship, and a 3rd place in the Devon Cup series. The 2006 season gave us a better insight to the racing as we were now more aware of the other teams capabilities and after a much fought season we managed to return to Gibraltar as The RYA British National Champions 2006, we also took second place in the Devon cup series and third place in the OCR Cup. we are now looking foward to this seasons racing and will be upping gears to put up a bigger fight to keep the much coverted Championship Trophy in Gibraltar.
We would also like to thank The Government of Gibraltar and The Royal Gibraltar Regiment for their continuos support which has helped us tremendously, and of course our families, wives and children who put up with us leaving home constantly to attend races, leaving them behind.