Offshoreonly.com - Which was better SBI Miami/APBA Daytona

Screamin: As to how to improve the current split situation..... my humble suggestions............

1. Find a leader:......As I said look in the encyclopedia under David, Steve ..... the closest person I know to Gene Whipp in style and leadership skills. He can assemble a top team in hours and have a specific plan in days....................

2. Reach out to the other two organizations and find some common ground...split the season...split the country..... split the money...who cares......but, unify the sport. CART and IRL have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that even a GOOD INTERESTING product like single class open wheel racing (as opposed to our 17 + class fiascos) can't succeed with competing sanctioning bodies

3. Create a Television "model" and drive the business plan off that...not vice versa....... Single premier class(45 minutes of one hour show), .......and MAYBE one "support" class(15 minutes of one hour show)....i.e. Super Cat #1...... Super Vee lite #2...... Run both classes ALONE on a course...shorten course based on number of entrants and enforce rules that keep pack together......yet quick and agile. Plenty of directors can get fantastic converage of this if all TV dollars are channeled to only two classes. You can almost write the shot sheets in advance. By the way, if you only have a 30 minute show...skip the second class entirely.

The biggest hurdle here, and it is huge, has been silencing all of the boat owners in the "other" classes and their sponsors. The lesson for boat owners.....buy a boat for one of the premier classes, if you want a sponsor opportunity.....otherwise understand, that you're a "sportsman"...on your own nickle...and not ready for prime time. If Formula or Baja clammer for coverage of their class or classes...have them fund their own exclusive "series" rather than parasitically draining viewer interest and confusing program integrity.

4. Bite the bullet and televise only those classes for at least 1-2 FULL seasons, developing personalities, rivalries and real fan interest...... in the RACING..... not the "hype" and locales. This will provide you with a tangible product to take to a major (not boating or tourist related) sponsor.....

5. Create a team based organization. Gene Whipp had the most dramatic impact on the sport in history, when he rescued APBA from life support under his predecessor and placed faith and responsibility in his various sub-chairmen...with no MICRO MANAGING....... This resulted in the largest fleets in the past 12 years..... and had the most promise.......He had a competition guy who knew more than Gene in that area and Gene held him accountable for results...ditto tech chairman, safety, TV et al.... Each member was motivated by Gene's positive encouragement and the whole immediately became greater than the sum of its parts. Under Gene.......... Factory class racing was born. The model that led to the original "Spec" (super) classes was designed by George Linder (with a little nudging from his trusty side kick Tonto...but that's another story). The TV was constantly improving..... had too many classes, but were reducing year by year......and the racing world was uniting under Gene's friendly, open style. He reached out to people and it worked................ Most of his team worked gratis towards the common goal of creating a viable profitable enterprise ...in the future...and the future was closer than it is now.

There will be arguments and resistance to much of the above. These will range from "economic realities", to sponsor commitments, to plain old greed and financial needs. There are two fiercely entrenched and manipulative groups waging a destructive war that rivals the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in terms of the damage that both are doing to the Offshore Racing community. In my opinion while both sides are "right" and "better" and "bigger", neither side is honest, forthright or accountable to you the racer.

Remember it's your sport...not theirs.......Without you, the racer, nothing happens....What the heck if this continues...throw them all away and start with a clean sheet of paper...... I know from starting 4 separate businesses and running others that it is a whole lot easier to start from scratch, than it is to clean up the mess made by others.

T2x