Having watched his father race during the 1960s, the 1970's saw David Jones catch the powerboat racing bug and with mechanics Andy Wilson-Sutter and Steven Riches, the Area 31 Racing Team was born.
The first boat that Area 31 Racing Team competed with on the local circuit during the early 1970's was the Canadian built Ogier hull named 'Old Thunder'. This outfit was raced by David Jones Senior during the late 1960's and had been passed down to David and the Area 31 Racing Team keeping it in the family. Powered by a 500cc Crescent engine David soon mastered the skills required to race hydroplanes at a high level.
After a season of racing on their local circuit of Oulton Broad the Area 31 Racing Team ventured onto the national circuit competing at venues such as South Ockenden, Lydd Aquadrome, South Cerney, Bodymoor Heath, Stewartby Lake and Welsh Harp near Brent.
During this time Area 31 continued with the 500cc Crescent engine but competed in the Rhune Cabover hull formerly raced by Swedish great Goran Linder. During a very competitive era for British hydroplane racing, the Area 31 Racing Team competed against the likes of Peter Bright, Mick Pentney, Phil Stacey, Doug Willey, Chris Appleby, George Sawyer and Frank Prior who were some of many great British Hydroplane drivers.
The late 1970's saw the Area 31 Racing Team move to the ex John Rose Cabover hull and experimented with trying to run the 500cc Crescent engine on methanol, after obtaining special Amal Carburetors from Sweden's Goran Linder. The only real successful night for this was at Oulton Broad when it was awesome in practice but the meeting was boycotted due to debris on the course.
The 1970's also saw the introduction of the 500cc Konig hydroplane engine which as the decade progressed provided hydroplane drivers with much more speed than the classic 500cc Crescent engines. This resulted in the demise in demand for the Crescent engine. However the Crescent name will always be associated with the history of hydroplane and powerboat racing.
