It was without a doubt the fastest offshore race in history. The Budweiser Select & Miss Geico boats were running 180~185+ down every straightway. Both Scotty & Marc did a fantastic job driving/throttling as well as their entire support team including John Arruda. That being said, piston boats should NOT be running in the same class as turbine powered boats. Two entirely different technologies/capabilities. If you think I am wrong, then just wait till Dave Callan & John Cosker bring out Miss Longlite or I bring out my turbine boat for a race. Both would obliverate the two Cat Extreme boats that just ran in St. Clair. If you have any doubt, then come to the LOTO Shootout. That is why both SBI/APBA & OSS have seperate Extreme classes. Doesn't mean you won't see the two classes competing. Just means that both of them deserve their own recognition for their efforts within their respective development programs. Just my .02!

JUST LIKE THE HOT ROD DAYS ..... JUST RUN MMMMMMM

Didn't look like "offshore" to me......

Just my 2 cents, if a race were all turbine boats there would be fewer spectators due to lack of thunder. For the casual spectator that is what builds the excitement. If NASCAR had all mufflered cars there would be a lot less red necks (pardon me but I had to get my point across) in the stands.

I recently took delivery of a 46 turbined skater. My neighbors are all very happy that it has replaced the barking/thundering pistoned power house. Everybody calls the 46 "the stealth boat". We always did a fly by in front of one of the local island restaurants when leaving. Literally hundreds of people would be standing on the docks, streets and restaurant balcony to "hear" the thunder and see the rooster tail. People cheering, jumping up and down and waving their hands in the air encouraging us to charge on.

The turbine initially drew a much larger crowd. A fly by with the turbine got comments like, "that was neat" due to the extreme rooster tail. No cheering, jumping or hand waving. A couple local business people want the other boat back. Watching a field of turbines will be like watching TV with no sound.

As Kilo mentioned it is a different technology and deserves a seperate class. Both boats looked great at St Clair however, when the GEICO boat finally came around by itself people were wondering why there was no sound.

All my videos are now online:

www.SharkeyMarine.com

You will also find over 2,000 photos I shot over the weekend...
Was up until 5:30 am this morning trying get everything online.
Maybe I should bring less memory cards with me next time....

I hope you enjoy them!

Thanks for commenting Dave !

They ruined Unlimited hydroplane racing when the turbines came in. Thunderboats became whisperboats.

Isn't an OFFSHORE race on StClair sort of an oxymoron? Maybe we can start getting races on the Ohio River.

Too much debris on the ohio!

Chris,
you make a good point! one that is stated all the time within offshore racing, its NOT offshore. well the sport IF it is ever to grow, needs to be spectator friendly. St Clair provides that,
Depending on the organization, many slam others when conducting a event on a river or lake, but these type events bring in the fans. especially up north where the boating season is only 4 to 5 months long. The St Clair race is not a walk in the park, as evidence of some of the incidents that occured over the weekend.

They still got air !

I don't know that offshore is ever going to be "spectator friendly". At least not in any fashion that correlates to other motorsports. For example, go to a NASCAR event or Indy and you can see the entire field. Same with Unlimited hydros. Now, on the other hand, it could be made "media friendly" if some decent production was applied to some of the events. If TV can make an event like Tour de France not only media friendly but well-watched, where is offshore racing missing the mark?

The last "offshore" race I weatched from shore was Cleveland several years ago. There were just too many people for the boat and I didn't want to choose who went and who didn't. After the second pass through the breakwall, everyone was ready to leave. There was no racing to see- just some fast boats zooming by every so often. And, Cleveland is about as close to the action as any course- including Key West.

I wish I knew how to fix it. I'm just not that bright. I just wonder how with an event as high-tech, high-buck and dramatic as Offshore, no one can package it. I know one thing- an hour-long show that's one-third commercials and has the production quality of local cable-access programming ISN'T the solution.

A couple of barges in the infield with camera's and bleachers for the fans???????