people come to see the geico boat because it's fast as all he-ll...even looking at it from shore...

right now geico is holding this sport together! this is not my 2 cents! fact id they put a ton of money into making this work; whatever sport you want to call it!

I also agree geico brings in a ton of people to every event. It is really to bad you guys couldnt run in St. Clair that would of been a great show. The turbine boats is what a lot of people come to see.

If one boat is "holding the sport together" then you have no sport. With that statement you imply if Geico gets tired and decides to quit then racing goes by the wayside and you with the JBS boat just pissed away allot of money for nothing.

Do you not see how this is bad for the sport?

If Geico ran in a competitive class they would still be a big draw, they could compete with 2 boats like many of the Euro Teams used to do and with the way they run their operations would still probably be the team to beat.

If you are all convinced that the sports hangs on because of the Geico turbine boat you better just burn your race boats to the waterline right now because Geico will not be there forever, just like Popeyes, Spirit of the Amazon, Jessie James, etc, etc. You need to be able to sustain racing with out them or you have nothing.

it was a great show when geico and bud were running neck and neck at 180mph. to place it in perspective; geico and us raced deck to deck in biloxi last year as we went through corner 1 at 193mph sliding sideways! here in st.clair we setup to run at over 200mph deck to deck!

to quote someone: "i'm selling death"! LOL

Joe S -I like you! I'll buy you a cold one should we ever meet!

so please do enlighten me and mr. haggin for that matter. so all the money that geico is directly sponsoring the sport with is meaningless?

i have raced and beaten geico...but i have seen john haggin and the geico boys do more for the sport than anyone so far in the history of it! fans have no idea how many times the ball is dropped and he is there to pick it up!!!!

HJ:....thanks!

Joe S, you said Haggin is holding it together, I say if that is all that is holding it together then the money he's put in is meaningless because the sport on a whole has no following other than to see the Haggin show.

Haggin has done great things of course but he will go away someday also and then what? If the sport needs his money and needs his boats then what will happen - no more sport?

Look I hope I'm wrong, I hope people flock to seeing two giant boats run side by side (sounds like drag racing doesn't it - LOL) - I hope you're one of those two boats, and I hope the sports gets enough boats that each of the 22 classes has at least 3 boats in each so everyone still gets a prize!

You're out there I'm not, I wish I was again! So don't take what I say to heart and don't turn into me sitting at a computer Saturday night watching your kids play Guitar Hero wishing you were somewhere else!

Good luck get the boat fixed and let's see what you got!

geico is trying to make it something bigger than it has been....they have put their money where their mouth is! he is doing everything he possibly can so the sport can be not only self-sustaining but profitable. there has been talk of us doing a two boat jbs vs.geico 10 mile drag race that is deck to deck side by side for the speed record! even starting at opposite ends so we pass each other at 400mph 15 feet away form each other. JH has a vision and so do marc and scotty. jeff and i do too! jeff and i are racers. i have raced 3 different professional disciplines now.

we have talked about racing from one country to another in open waters. whatever is takes for tv to take notice. and on that note the "build it bigger" with geico is the most popular and most aired episode to date.

having spent weeks at turbine school i have learned so much! the manuals are written at a 6th grade level. my model t53 study guide is something every racer getting into one of these boats should be able to pass the tests in it!

EDUCATION or should i say the lack of it has hurt our class and the sport!

with that said i do see more turbines in the sport. they say "unlimited hydroplanes" ....yeah, they are LIMITED! with what i now know i can build and rig a supercat with a turbine to make 1000 hp a side and have it run all year for WAY cheaper than a 1075 merc! it would not be a 703 either. FAA spec is 1450 and we r pushing them to whatever; say 2000... there are generators in the field producing over 1000hp with massive dynamic loads on them! they run for THOUSANDS of hours!

IMO Geico is not completely holding the sport together, but they are the "Godfather" of the sport right now..If they went away the sport would still exist but it would lose its biggest draw and biggest contributor. As far as comparing racing today vs old time with the huge courses, no comparison. Nobody these days would go to a race when they can't even see the race. If you go to a big track Nascar race and you have bad seats, you can't see squat, imagine 10 times worse than that. (I'm not comparing boat racing with Nascar, just giving an example). Everybodies lives are so busy and jam packed with stuff, nobody is going to go to watch a race that they can't see. Hell, you can't even get half the racers to the race because their lives are so busy ( and lack of funds also ). While I'm on the "lack of funds" subject, racing boats is extremely expensive. No comparison to 20/30 years ago. Yes salaries go up, but not at the rate that boating expenses have gone up. I always tell people that are getting into boating for the first time, " congrats on your new boat, good luck, but remember, buying the boat is the cheapest part about being a boater". Good luck to all and Godspeed. P.S. Remember, I'm just giving my opinion