I've been watching offshore since the early 90's when teams had to park boats at the hotels becasue there were too many for the pits to accomadate. Those were the best times for me as a fan. Then there was the 1999 Worlds in St Pete with Alcone and Barber battling it out. Not to mention a whole host of other open class and superboats along with vees and super stock. After that, the early 2000's with the factory classes and Super Cat.

The best racing came when they took the blowers off and ran naturally aspirated because you would get a good number of boats in each class and they would last the entire race. Which brings me to Key West 2010. The best races, as Pete said, were Super Cat, Cat Light, Super Stock, and Vee Light. Most of these boats went the distance.

I like the big boys (CMS, Cintron) but they don't usually last the entire race; I'm not sure why either. I remember guys like Dave Scott, Alcone, Hayim, and Barber used to last to the end (most of the time) with big blower motors. CMS, Cintron, SuperHeat, and Mixed Emotions didn't last an entire race in KW this year that I can remember. I don't know what it takes to get big power to last an entire race, but they used to do it.

Having said all that, I will continue to spend my money go to a race site and watch those who show up and I will like it.

Never saw the back of your boat for sure. How many Pro Series races did you win? Championships?

The Merc 525 and Allweiss leaving the sport did it in. If we could of kept the 500 efi and the 500 carbs in the game I think we could of survived. The boat mfgs like: Kyprtonite , Activator , Progression , Baja , Warlock , Fountain , Joker , Corsa , Wellcraft , Formula all benefitted from the Factory Series. I know how to fix it but it will take some money and the right people in charge.

Well, Paradise, that's the thing about commentary. It elicits comment and I respect your opinion—minus the name-calling, which is just silly.

However, if you are suggesting I mentioned the Amsoil-Stihl battle, which I covered (on my own time, thanks, for speedonthewater and offshoreonly) because Bob Teague is a colleague, you're wrong on at least two fronts.

First, heading into Sunday's race Amsoil and Sthil were tied in points and separated by seconds, which was the way Sunday's race ended. By several accounts, and I spoke to multiple sources, it was one of the best races of the event, as was the Mapei-Talbot battle.

Second, when Stihl won on Wednesday I went straight to owner J.R Noble, who was gracious, for his take and quote.

Regarding Cintron versus CMS: After Friday's results, Sunday was still anyone's race. Cintron went with the tactic of turning down the boost and making its engines last. CMS went out hard with full power and showed, at least in the first couple of laps, what that kind of power can do with an average 120 mph on its first lap. Despite that CMS dropped out of the final race with just five laps completed, it was engaging from the perspective of tactics, which really matter in a three-race format.

Paradise ... my commentary did, in fact, have a theme of unity—that being unity among the racers, who at the end of the day are all that really matter. You might disagree with my opinion based on my experience covering the sport and that I do respect. But do everyone a favor and save the insults and personal attacks. They serve no one and, more important, do nothing to advance the discussion.

Brian, didn't the canopy controversy (some builders wanted them, some didn't) also play a role in the demise of the F2 class?

I don't think so. The Super Vee w/ the 525's was a great class. They'll always be the guy that wants the canopy but I raced both and loved the open cockpit. The F1 / F2 boats with the 525's were getting too fast and too expensive. We had it all when SPEED Channel covered the races and we had the smaller motors.

I was just thinking back and as I recall that Formula (as a factory) was opposed to canopied F2 boats, and Fountain (as a factory) was for them. There were lots of arguments at the time—the pro-canopy camp thought they were much safer, the anti-canopy camp thought it would encourage racers to take risks they wouldn't have taken in open-cockpit boat. Plus, they were afraid they'd lose the pleasure boat/race boat marketing advantage. I just recall it being a major "S-storm."

Obviously, being on the inside you have a much more-informed take than I do.

One element to the demise of F2 to and F1 that can't be denied: the plummeting economy. The tech bubble burst in spring of 2000, but the high-performance boat industry had already begun its decline.

As "Freeze Frame Jeff" said to me a few months ago, "When the money stops, the fun stops."

I am the world champ in 99 and more wins than most. i only saw the back of your boat once broi. its was my first race. after that all you saw was the back baby. lol

come on boys, lets get the factory racing back together. Just with the two classe we would havemore boats than what they have now. Use the new 8.2 and lighten the boats up a little. The speeds would be perfect. Upper 70's low 80's in f1 ans upper 80's in f2. with all the advances in props we should be able to run a good number with the 8.2 and keep the boats cheaper. I believe we could have awesome racing again.

The original concept behind the Factory classes was to bring existing boats with stock retail Mercruiser power (496's) out of the boatyards and marinas around the country. The idea was to create a nice starter class for the average boater to get his (or her) feet wet at little to no cost. This was before the 500HP came along and became the core engine, forcing every racer to, at the very least, re-power to make the class. After that the "factories" began to make ultralight hulls which also drove the cost of entry straight up. Finally the 525HP came along bringing the speeds up to levels that were absolutely deadly in open cockpit hulls. Fountain and Phantom stepped up with canopies, the others did not. Formula, one of the mainstays of the class, ran for the hills after a fatal accident claimed one of their best racers and it became obvious that the classes were becoming a marketing liability rather than an attraction.

To me, from my observor's seat watching and commentating from the very start to the ultimate demise of these classes, they seemed pretty vanilla. The class racers loved the racing, but they did not translate well to TV simply because they looked like many boats the average viewer might see cruising by his lake, river or bay. They were, at the end of the day, little more than family runabouts with big power and Bravo drives....neither purpose built race designs, nor true representatives of "showroom" boats. After all of the dust and spray settled and the golf shirt wearing marketing types left the arena, the racing was good, but no better than the old "B" class or the original "Production, Modified, Sport, and Open" classes that the sport thrived on during the 70's and 80's, before the "better ideas" took hold. In that era fleets of up to 30 evenly matched boats took to big seas in open water and manufacturers competed at the highest levels. New "P" class entrants could develop in the regional club races and National races had true significance. IMHO THAT MODEL wasn't broke and was "fixed" anyway. It worked then...and it will work today.

T2x