National Champion ...legit?
 

It seems to me that almost every boat past or present in offshore racing has "national or world champ whatever year " marked on their boat. While I will say most of them have been earned and earned well their are a few that i must question about their legitimacy. The ones Im talking about are the classes in which there is only one boat that shows up to more races than its competitors and they spend the entire season racing against themselves with no competion whatsoever. How could you go around and feel good or use a national or world championship to help market your marine business when you didnt race against any other boats all year? Ive seen it to many times in all the years i have watched and been apart of offshore racing . I think that offshore racing no matter the sanctioning body should have a rule in place that if you show up to a race in your class and no other racers show for your class that they should place you in a "P" class type race so that you have some competion to race against . In classes such as superboat unlimited or turbine classes where there are never many competitors put them together . Yes I know that turbines are generally faster than their piston counterparts but the rules for the turbines could be changed just like they did in the unlimited hydros to even the playing field by restricting the fuel going into the engine of the previous winner and if they win again restrict it more . At least this way there is more competion on the course and less boats running wide open for no reason and no competion and still getting to call themselves champion when they never really earned it .....they just spent way to much money to race against themselves. I mean really if I showed up and entered an offshore race in lets say a 40' Sea Ray cruiser and was the only one in my class and cruised around the course at 20mph all day long and I showed up to every race would you consider me an offshore racer or a national or word champ just because I earned all the points (the only points for the class). It happens all the time and it bothers me to not see some sort of rule to change this. If you dont think it happens look at the SBI standing for this year and last year for Superboat unlimited. only one competitor for most of the season and absolutly no competion most of the season. Kindda like a Sprint cup race season where Tony Stewart was the only one to show up to every race and called himself the champ.

I agree.

Another glitch would be if they haven't raced in 10 years, why would a manufacturer hang onto the WC logo. At some point it becomes a marketing idea vs. truth in advertising. Reg loves to say his boats went XXX MPH with the disclaimer of 10 gallons of fuel/ one skinny captain, no gear, no water on board. Honest but not realistic since no one will ever use the boat that way in real life.

I think these guys should just spend there unlimited funds and enter their boats in poker runswhere there are more boats that run the same speeds as they do and then they will at least have bragging rights as to who is faster......oh wait Reggie already did that sorry! But anyway it just doesnt make sense that you are a champ when all you had to do is show up , run one lap ,put the boat back on the trailer pick up your check and leave. If I ever get back into offshore racing I wouldnt even bother putting my boat in the water and risk breaking parts if noone else showed up to race against.

In most cases it means little or nothing. If you're buying an MTI, you're not a guy who would be swayed to that brand simply because of some purported championship they'd won.

On the other hand, the average Fountain buyer might also buy a Ford because they were a NASCAR or NHRA pro-stock champion. There's about that much difference between their production product and their race boats.

Id like to see someone from SBI/APBA or OSS chime in here to try to legitimize this and see if it could be fixed!....dont think it will happen though! Ever wonder why offshore cant keep any sort of real tv coverage.. could a lack of real competion in their premier classes be a contributing factor besides other issues.

sounds like the case in Sbi.The opa racers are earning it.

Bring back F-1 and F-2 racing the way it was intended to be, win and then announce 'World Champions' as your sales tool.

And you'e got to have some sort of mandatory minimum for each class as well.

and whats even worse...how about being inducted into the hall of champions just because you made all the races on the schedule, but beat no one. thats another joke in my book.

I completly agree and applaud the OPA for breaking loose and trying to create a real series. The other thing that really bothers me about this is that you dont even need to run any other races but can work and test your boat all season while others use their equipment and beat it up but you can show up and run in the world championships and win and now your the world champ. It happens not to jump on Kilocat but look at the Budlight/Bud select or whatever they are called now you run OSS races all year except for a select few then run the SBI world finals and win and call yourslf a SBI world champ when you didnt even run in any type of points championship type system. Yes I know the series need sponsor money and butts in the seats but I just dont think anything about this system is right!!!!