johnnyoffshore

Hey Smitty,

I think we may have met at Ft Myers in 2000, early in the year at the Hooter's sponsored race. I raced a 24' Baja Outlaw for Team Baja/Full Throttle P5-69.

Hope to be back 2008, just getting my stuff back together now.
Take Care and God Speed,
Johnny

johnnyoffshore

Going Racing OPA 2008! (Looking for a FUN Sponsor!!!)

SHARKEY-IMAGES

I look forward to seeing that boat perform!

vinny kostelac

A very good point, a single engine boat capable of alittle over 90 put in the same class as a twin engine wazzup power boat capable of well over 100, Mr. President you should be ashamed of youself! Hell now you have the slow vee guys wanting there own class. Just kidding,not, but that is pclass racing and if we stayed in it we would be blowing well over 50k a year chasing you. I think pclass racing is great as long as you truly run what you brung, once you start building bigger motors then the other guy and so on, you should consider spec racing it saves thousand and you spend alot more time racing and testing and a hell of alot less time fixing things, plus that pleasure boat after several races will no longer be a pleasure boat. Everybody chooses to ignore it but the biggest reason is safety! We went to Daytona and a pclass racer get killed and went to Marathon next and saw how sweet it is roll right in front of us and we were in a open cat and figured that would not worked out for us to well, 4 years later several spin outs and a couple of deep stuffs and I am still here to type about it is a good thing. Back to the numbers game last year we made over $20,000 in prize money plus mercury contigency, ran our 525 for two years sold it got in a new one for 6k, 3k a year in motor expense, not bad at all! So for us the money spent is way below the fun factor, especially when you figure the value of kicking Randy's ass as price less!

bidpro

Speaking for myself, I would not race in an open cockpit boat again after being thrown out at speed and run over in 1996. It makes no difference to me if it is P-Class racing or a Spec class I would still need a Canopy to Race.

By the way, having now raced in both Spec and P-Class the level of competition is probably better in a GPS regulated class like P-Class since the ever present cheater deal does not help you and the P-Class Guys racae just as hard.

Super V tells the entier story - you can't go out as a "normal" participant who want to be competative and expect to be competatative with the Factory Teams who can afford to build a new boat, and cut it to pieces every 90 days to build a faster one. Even very well funded teams get sick of fighting this fight.

I agree that in the beginning P-Class was designed for a way to get into the sport with what you already Own without having to make a commitment to a purpose built race boat, but I don't think that is the current profile at all and I don't think that is a bad thing either.

Gregg Reichman

Pete B

In any motorsport the goal is to be the fastest and win, while P-class has its merits, is it good for the sport?? is it good for the industry??

Simply put technology has exceeded the need, or desire.

so all the manufacturer's can go back to heavy layups, forget about hydrodynamics, and why even bother to set a boat up to run its maximum speed when a X speed will work.

While it is important for those that cant afford a state of the art boat to race, the sport needs a place to show its latest hardware, and on a national type level!

bidpro

I think you are missing the point - those who can afford state of the art boats are generally not going to voluntarily bang their heads against the wall or stick bamboo shoots udner their fingernails "for the love of the sport". They have the funds they have becuase they are generally smart. As I look at my Competitors in Super V, most of them can afford to do whatever they weant to do if it makes sense - the point is - it simply does not make sense because thgey won't build a boat every few months to stay with the leaders.

Does winning races really, truly sell Boats?.

The latest Hardware is always available for Viewing at the Miami Boat Show, and you don't even have to get a sun burn to see it.

What makes a good "boat race" is deck to deck competition.

What eliminates competiton is ... well... people who are smart enough to know that despite best efforts, they won't be competative.

Gregg Reichman

bidpro

And one more thing - The new Canopied V Bottom Class that Doyle and SBI put together is definetly good for the sport, if it is P-Class, fine, whatever it is called you will have a bunch of Guys racing in similar equipment that would otherwise not be.

Gregg Reichman

Pete B

When you bought youre boat did you think it was obsolete, when it came out of the mold??? or did you think you would dominate the Competition??

When the Skater Came out with 6's they new it would be fast!
that was the intent!

MANITIE

Also rember when the Skater first came out....it fell on its face in its first race in Key West...it took a lot of money and time and changes to get it faster...which it was disqualified in the APBA race for moving strakes...
With enough money...any manufacture can make a better and faster boat every year....

Why did everyone stop racing F1....I will bet you even with the 525...if all the F1 boats could only hit a top speed of say...79 or 80 mph...a lot of boats would have continued to race...but why bring out a 77 mph F1 boat when you have to compete with 83 to 84 mph boats....

When F1 was big in 2001 and 2002 with its 20+ boat fleet...
you could win with a 2 or 3 year old boat becasue of the hymoligation rule...it kept new boats being built theh same as the 2 or 3 year old boat....

Pete B....you should know the answer...
Were are all the OSS Super Vee's and Svl's

Its been stated you have the best rules,
Stricted inforcements
Great race sites
Biggest prize money
A non profit group
Race all around the country.....and yet have the smallest boat count since OSS formed in 2004...

One of the reason OSS SCL is so great is becasue most all of the teams have the newest and best equipment...its either a MTI or SKATER....

It show's you even if you have money...you will not buy racers to come out and spend there's.

Again its funny...someone posted the other day....in the US a lot of racers don't want to race in P-Class becasue its for the beginner racers....but in P1 in Europe its the hottest thing in the World right now and teams are now traveling over there...

So like louie said in the earler posts...he his happy and having a great time in P-Class...and so are a lot of other racers...
P-Class racing makes up more then 65 to 70% of all Offshore racers today....and some spec teams are making the move over to P-Class....

To each is own....but the majority has spoken in OSS, SBI/APBA and OPA Organizations...and ask yourself...
If spec Class was really all of it...we all would be racing in there....