racing today and yesterday
 

broke out a old offshore tape toinght jest grabbed one out of the case . it was from 1998 when we had open class b sv s a 1 2 do you realy thank todays racing is better as far as a fan point view i realy enjoyed seeing mat jerry john forest boby more going at it to bad we diont have them know what's your point of view

I saw Forest Barber racing cars on Speed last night. Wonder why he left offshore.

Seems that people race for about 5 years and then split. The exceptions are people like Team Instigator, Bandit racing, Firewater. Its hard to name people who have been racing for more than 10 years consecutively. I'm talking about people who pay for their ride, not hired guns like JT or Jerry G.

Forests team was called Feeds the need. He is feeding that with sportscars.
Another team I know said they would quit when it was no longer fun. They quit 2 seasons ago. They were in for well over 10 years.

I was watching the f1 racecar race last night. The thing that made it interesting was Alonso running down Shumacher. There will always be new blood in racing, it is keeping them in the sport that is the challenge.

pat W

i thank gene whipp did a damn good job i loved seeing 160+ a whole lot better than 120 i thank we had the best back then

Amen

T2x

Whittier, Patel, Muller, Mauff, Stancombe, Glovick, Troppoli, all of these guys are 10 + year vetrans. I've down some work for Forrests racecar team this year and I can tell you he is having a VERY frustrating time working the bugs out of his new Doran/Chevy Daytona Prototype.

I have been following offshore powerboat racing since the mid seventies.While there has always been expensive, cool, loud ,fast boats at the race events.....the biggest difference is in the level of competition.The competition based rules established in the last few years have made the events a RACE and not a SHOW.The Super Cat class boats may not run as fast or be as exotic as the old Open or Superboat class boats, but the boats are more evenly matched and thus, in my opinion, much more exciting to watch!

I also think the other spec classes:SCL,SV,F2 & F1 are better to watch than the old Modified,Super Vee, B & A classes.

One class that I wish that could be brought back, is the original Stock class.Watching those small Skaters,Motions and Talons with twin stock 200HP outboards battle it out in rough seas was really exciting.I am sure Ryan agrees with me on this one!

Very good points.........However:

1. The top classes are underpowered and have no mid range "punch". Therefore they can't throttle out of harm's way.
This is unsafe ...and........ reduces the sex appeal of those classes in the pits.

2. The Factory vee classes resemble a Poker Run. They are fine development classes, but they have no impact (nor business being) on TV. .........As a result no fan base is being developed.

3. There are too many classes .....by a factor of 4.....This is bewildering to the casual (and dedicated) observor.....As a result no fan base is being developed.

5. There is no meaningful outboard representation........especially a single engine starter class........ This is where you REALLY see (and experience) close competition....It is a much better training ground than Factory One (Boats more responsive to water conditions etc...) and is considerably more economical.

Embroider the above points into "The Plan" and , I believe, the sport will be better than it ever was....

T2x

very comical
 

Rich:

Here you go again! No fan base? The new Super V class is not gaining a fan base? A Skater V- Bottom VS Fountains VS Phantoms VS Cigarettes - etc. Poker Runs? Tell Rick Turmel he's running a Poker Run when they're sliding that Fountain in the turns in Marathon. So I guess the fan base was better back in the 80's when boats were broken down and lost at sea? In 1999 there were (2) Open Class boats running and then Alcone went to Europe and left Drambuie to run as a exibition class - BH

Small Open class fields = thrilling exhibition, but more of a technical exercise between a few teams.
Current Super Cat/Super V = 20 mph slower, but very few fans can tell from shore. Way more potential winners. Better racing.
Too many classes? Yep.