Two inducted into Stjernstrom-Jacobsen Hall of Fame

Two Lake Havasu City men were inducted into the Stjernstrom-Jacobsen Hall of Fame of the International Jet Sports Boating Association Saturday in a ceremony at the London Bridge Convention Center.

Jeff Prieur was honored as a three IJSBA world champion. He retired from personal watercraft racing 10 years ago and now owns Champion Watersport Rentals.

Bill Chapin was awarded a lifetime achievement award in recognition of his work developing after-market performance products through his company R&D Performance Products.

Prieur said he retired after breaking the same leg in two places in two separate incidents on the same day of racing.

"I went totally cold turkey — just quit everything," Prieur said. "I walked away totally, basically to start my new life."

Prieur said that while it was easy to know who to thank after winning a single race, thanking everyone after an entire career was much more difficult.

"Who I really want to thank is Clayton Jacobsen, the inventor of the Jet Ski, for giving me something to do with the last 25 years," Prieur said.

Chapin, who estimated he has been involved in the PWC industry for at least 22 year, said he had "no idea" what he had done to deserve the lifetime achievement award.

"I moved here, like Robert McCulloch did, so that I could test my products out on the lake," he said.

"(Getting in the Hall of Fame) is never something you think of while you're racing. But 10 years later you know it wasn't all a waste of time. You left your mark," Prieur said.

Also honored at Saturday's induction ceremony were Celeste Peterson, Brenda Burns, Art Chambers, Harry Goatcher, Jeff Kantz, Bo Dupriest, Tim McKercher, Diane O’Neal, Kane Cahill, Chaowalit Kuajaroon, Todd Ross, Matt Alligood, Yves Van Heers, John Stevens and Ken Stuart.

You may contact the reporter at dparker@havasunews.com.