2011:
Military Class: Mike Arnold
Amateur Class: Tom Cruz
Technical Advisor John "Peewee" Price
The Gunz Group will augment PWCOFFSHORE's Sponsored Racer's Group that focuses primarily on racing in the professional PWC class. The PWCOFFSHORE Gunz Group will focus primarily on racing and excelling in the Amateur, Military classes of PWC endurance and offshore racing. "Those designated for GUNZ have differentiated themselves with tremendous passion for the endurance and offshore racing niche and have excelled in the sport. They have represented the sport with class, knowledge and professionalism. We expect them to continue to represent the sport accordingly and assist the club in growing the sport while affiliated with PWCOFFSHORE."
Mike Arnold, PWCOFFSHORE.com Gunz Racing for the 2009/2010 Season
Introducing our newest member of PWCOFFSHORE.com Gunz Racing, Mr. Mike Arnold! Mike Arnold brings tremendous passion, drive and dedication to PWC offshore racing. An accomplished retired United States Marine, a former member of the USMC Boxing Team and motorsports enthusiast, Mike Arnold won the 2009 APBA Long Beach To Catalina PWC Offshore Military Class National Championship. Mike Arnold has already set a new standard for PWC offshore athletes competing in the Military Class and is paving the way for this new category of PWC racing athletes. PWCOFFSHORE Gunz Racing welcomes Mike into the Gunz Racing Group with great enthusiasm!
The PWCOFFSHORE.com Race Team looks forward to working with Mike Arnold in pursuit of growth of the sport and success on the offshore racecourse. Mike has also been able to extend his hand in working with CFA “challenged” athletes, he applies himself in creating awareness and support for challenged and able bodied athletes to compete in PWC offshore events. Mike truly believes in giving back to the sport and supporting those who want to experience PWC Offshore Endurance Racing.
Mike Arnold’s racing compliments his enthusiasm for speed and pushing his own limits.
Mike started PWC racing in April of 2008 and competed in the Dana Point to Avalon Offshore Sprint, continuing on to win the Military Class at the prestigious 2009 LB2CAT. To augment his PWC offshore training regime, Mike can be found pumping iron at the Page Field House Camp Pendleton Gym at 0500 every day. Arnold said “I want to thank everyone at PWCOFFSHORE.com, their sponsors and supporters for accepting me into this elite group of racers and advocates for the PWC offshore racing sport, being part of the PWCOFFSHORE team is an Honor.”
About Mike Arnold:
Mike is a retired US Marine serving twenty years in the Corps on active duty. His career includes Barracks duty Subic Bay Philippines, STA Platoon, Instructor MCT H co. Infantry Platoon Sergeant 2/3 KMCAS Hi., Primary Marksmanship Instructor Edson Range, Drill Instructor and Senior Drill Instructor, Infantry Platoon Sergeant 1/1, Drill Master NCO School, Infantry Platoon Sergeant 1/1, combat Tour Afghanistan, Assistant Marine Officer Instructor at the University of Southern California, Drill Instructor Marine Corps Officer Candidate School. Recently retired from the Marine Corps, Arnold continues to serve the Corps as a DOD Civilian working as a Tactical Safety Specialist. In January of 2008 Mike deployed in support of The 5th Marine Regiment to AlAsad Iraq.
"Some people spend an entire lifetime and wonder if they ever made a Difference. Marines Don’t have that problem (President Ronald Regan)." 8/25/2009, Mike Arnold
Tom Cruz:
Early Years
Tom was born in Beaufort, South Carolina. His father was a Drill Sergeant on Parris Island. During his early years, the family moved from place to place including Hawaii, Okinawa, Indiana and finally California. His father retired at Camp Pendleton after 30 years of service.
Tom is married to Angie and they have three sons, ages 6, 14 and 17.
Business Life
Tom graduated from El Camino High School in Oceanside and then graduated from the two year General Motors ASEP program. Tom has been an automotive technician for 20 years, working at Cadillac, Chevrolet and Buick dealerships for 15 years. He has been at Suzuki/Kia Depot for the last five years and is Shop Foreman.
Tom is an ASE Master Technician with an L1 certificate, a Platinum level Suzuki technician and a Master Elite Plus Kia Technician.
Sporting Life
Hobbies include fishing, scuba diving, spear-fishing, snowboarding and any type of family oriented activities. He also plays on a coed softball team with his wife. Tom started jet skiing and wakeboarding in the mid 1990’s and made regular trips to Yuma, AZ. His first organized PWC event was a Muscular Dystrophy run from the Oceanside Harbor to Mission Bay. Although it wasn’t a race, it certainly felt like one! He participated in this event for several more years. His experience with this event gave him the courage to participate in his first IJSBA race.
The first event was the Long Beach to Catalina race. However, the race was cancelled due to fog and rescheduled. Tom took first place in the Beginner Bone Stock class. This was the beginning of his interest in PWC racing. After meeting K.C. Heidler and Peewee Price, they went on to win several team races put on by BP in the Beginner Bone Stock and then the Open Bone Stock Classes. This has led to a long time friendship and shared interest for racing.
Endurance racing has since become a passion. Participating in the Team 300’s, Long Beach 2 Catalina’s, and Mark Hahn’s races have been and will be Tom’s favorite races.
Tom is an advocate for recreation and safety on the ocean from boating to body boarding. To be involved in an organized group that shares the same goals is an exciting prospect for Tom.
John (Peewee) Price:
John Price (Peewee) was born and raised in Orange County, CA. He married in 1987 to Brandi, and has a daughter Candice, who this year made him and Brandi grandparents to a grandson, Freddy.
Business Life
Peewee graduated from Saddleback High School in Santa Ana, CA, and attended Universal Technical Institute Truck / Diesel program in Phoenix AZ. After graduating, Peewee was hired at Tom’s Truck Center, Inc. as an apprentice technician, where he learned the art of flat rate commission. Over the next 29 years, Peewee’s tenure included becoming the top producing Technician and Service Advisor. He was then promoted on to Service Manager, Parts Manager, and he is currently the Parts Director overseeing 3 dealership parts departments and a 40,000 square foot parts distribution center.
Sports Life
From his early years, Peewee has enjoyed outdoor sports like camping, hunting and fishing with his parents. He still enjoys those activities with his wife and daughter and her new family. He played baseball as a kid and continued playing through his high school years. Peewee played hockey for 10 years as a goal tender on foot, Inline sports court, and ice. He enjoys restoring cars for fun in his spare time, and enjoys open wheel dirt track racing.
Peewee enjoys the competiveness of racing which led him to join a sprint car race team. He quickly learned to build, set up and become the crew chief of the team and was lucky to be able to crew chief the team through the complete US Tour CRA Series.
After being approached by long time friend, K.C. Heidler, to build him a PWC to race, Peewee and K.C. started building his Yamaha 1200 GPR. PWC racing has given him the opportunity to network with many experienced watercraft enthusiasts which he finds extremely rewarding. Besides meeting all of the great people involved in the sport, it re-lit the competitive flame that led to 3 Veterans Class World Titles and 1st place Finish in the 2006 Pro Western States Cup Arena Cross Tour.