Points made: OSS makes Supercat racing affordable

TheBS · 07-19-2006, 02:32 AM

If you check the OSS standings at http://www.offshoresuperseries.com/s...hp?season=2006 , you will notice something that looks a little strange. OSSC WHM shows 105 points for Fort Myers, 106 points for Puerto Rico and 102 points for Toronto, which puts Billy and Jay 31 points in front of Reliable Carriers. Anyone who closely follows OSS, knows that the maximum number of points attainable at a race is 100. What’s going on here?

At the beginning of the 06 race season, the OSSC class had voted and decided to award extra points to OSSC boats that had their engine NOT rebuilt. This was an effort to make OSSC as affordable as possible. Previously, some OSSC teams rebuilt their engines every one or two races. Rebuilding Supercat engines costs around $20,000, new ones go for around $100,000

Team WHM raced their Mercury Supercat engines in 4 races without touching them. In Toronto, Billy and Jay led almost 14 1/2 laps on motors that had seen in excess of 300 miles, not including practice time. Mercury and WHM ventured on uncharted territories, and not without a lot of praying in both camps. Although the engines did lose some power in the 12th lap in Toronto, Billy and Jay completed the race completely under their own power.

Before the race, Jay Muller begged Billy to have the engines rebuilt while they lasted. Headstrong as ever, Billy was out to prove his point and picked up the extra 7 bonus points. Even with a 2nd place, he finished Toronto with 2 more points than JD Byrider. Tony Marcantonio and Mark Kowalski (welcome back!!!) ran a fierce race, and probably did their own praying to the attrition gods to keep WHM off their behinds. “A lot of racers are sitting on the sidelines, wishing that they could afford to race Super Cat, “ Billy said. “With that new rule, we’ve saved around $300,000 and earned an extra 18 points in the bargain.”

The OSSC bonus rule reads:

“22. – Bonus points – If the seals are not broken the following points will be awarded for each race run without breaking the seals and rebuilding the engines: 0 points for the first race, 5 points for the second race, 6 points for the third race and 7 points for the fourth race. After the fourth race maximum points have been achieved and the system reverts back to the first race.”