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Shootout Organizers Decide to Shorten Course to 3/4-Mile Distance

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Shootout Organizers Decide to Shorten Course to 3/4-Mile Distance

Old 11-18-2016, 01:20 AM
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Shortening the LOTO course has been talked about for several years.

IMO, the boats in the running for Top Gun are not going much faster than they were 10 years ago. Callan was over 200mph 2003.
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Old 11-18-2016, 05:03 AM
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The open "pleasure" boats are way up in speed from then. I believe that's the concern.
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Old 11-18-2016, 05:38 AM
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At 160+ I am not sure there is much survivability race boat or pleasure.
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Old 11-18-2016, 05:47 AM
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The Big cats are still pulling at the end of a mile run.. the smaller course will probably help speed up the daily run count as the smaller boats have already maxed out within the 3/4 mile mark.

It will be interesting to see which of the Bog dogs bow away and who changes game plans to the new acceleration game
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Old 11-18-2016, 05:52 AM
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If it saves one life, I'm all for it.
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Old 11-18-2016, 06:35 AM
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We did the same thing in lap racing.
When safety catches up with our current abilities ,then lengthen course again if desired.
I like all these teams ,I want to be able to go say hello welcome back to teams like Kenny,s GONE AGAIN.

just an opinion.
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Old 11-18-2016, 06:45 AM
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Originally Posted by speicher lane
The Big cats are still pulling at the end of a mile run.. the smaller course will probably help speed up the daily run count as the smaller boats have already maxed out within the 3/4 mile mark.
agree....

I too think it will also limit the time spent maxed out on most that are banging off the rev limiter and not accelerating hard... It may reduce the risky chine walk spin outs or blow over. Seems as if alot happens in that last leg.
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Old 11-18-2016, 06:51 AM
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Originally Posted by SB
Shorter distance most definitely helped in your example. Think about it.

Not only that, but they found out that most of the catastrophic failures were in the last 300' of the run, it has saved teams thousands of $$$ over the course of the season.
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Old 11-18-2016, 07:04 AM
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Originally Posted by Griff
Shortening the LOTO course has been talked about for several years.

IMO, the boats in the running for Top Gun are not going much faster than they were 10 years ago. Callan was over 200mph 2003.
This. Dave Scott was lobbying for this some time ago and the length of the course was rumored to be one of the reason he walked away. Too long in his opinion.
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Old 11-18-2016, 09:30 AM
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I'm glad to see the event organizers going in the right direction (maybe discussions on my thread to shorten the courses helped). At 3,960' with a 40mph start, the boats are still going to be faster than is safe with open cockpits though. It would be great to see them drop the entry speed to just on plane - 20mph or so for the open boats. Allow the faster/safer canopy boats to still start at 40mph though. In my opinion, the open cockpit boat speeds should be held down around the 150mph mark, with the canopied boats being allowed to run as fast as possible in just under 4,000'. Not much different than the current rules in drag boat racing (145/165mph speed limits for open cockpit boats, no speed limits for capsuled boats on limited length - 1,000' - courses).

If they could control the water better, to provide for glass-smooth conditions, we could possibly see a 300mph pass in the future. Eddie Knox told me that they had it all planned out how they would run the first 3/4 of the course on alcohol in their TFH "Problem Child", then switch over to nitro for the last 1/4 mile. They could easily gear/prop their setup to run over 300mph with a running start like that. Hopefully the organizers would not allow it though (imo), as it would take away from what the run is all about - big 30'+ boats accelerating really hard over a relatively short course.

Anyway, I do sincerely applaud the organizers for changing the rules to try and make these events safer.
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