A little update on the new race org opgp thing....
 

Steve Curtis’s Offshore Grand Prix unveiled
Posted on November 25, 2014 by RichardCarrRacing
Last week, former British powerboat Champion Richard Carr announced his support of Steve Curtis’ (picture above far right) proposed Offshore Powerboat Grand Prix (OPGP) – and now the Championship has officially been unveiled.

Qatar on the powerboat map

During its first season as a powerboat series, the OPGP will team up with the Qatar Marine Sports Federation to jointly promote the brand new Qatar Cup.

Sheikh Hasson bin Jabor Al-Thani and Steve Curtis, who broke the powerboat speed record, are the people behind the new series and Curtis, who will act as interim president of the OPGP, confirmed that the Qatar Cup will feature exciting classes for Super Cat, Super Vee Light, Super Vees and a new handicap racing-type format.

The four day festival will take place in early February, 2015 in Doha Bay, with boats being shipped out from the USA on December 8th. Boats are also expected to compete from New Zealand and Australia.

Handicap grid system

OPGP interim President Curtis also talked about another boat class and the possibility of having all the boats on the course at the same time: “We also have the Cat Lights coming. These are very similar to XCats – where we hope to have 8 to 10 boats competing.

“Mohammed Al-Nasser (Qatar’s XCat driver) has also been invited, but the engine rules are slightly different so he will need to do some work with his engines.

“Super Cats, with around 800hp, is the main class we are bringing over, but we also have the V hulls and we will try a new handicap system that is used in sailing to have all the boats on the course at the same time.

“This has never been done before. Basically there will be two laps on the course – the fastest boats may do 10 of the longer laps and the smaller boats may do 10 of the shorter ones. A handicap will be determined to put the racing on a level playing field and they will use the same chequered flag.

“This format was used before in a series called Offshore 2000 in the 1990s and was very successful.”

Richard Carr excited by the future

As previously stated, Richard believes that the OPGP is excellent news for the sport and would one day love to compete in the series.

He believes the formation of the series was very timely and at a point when powerboating was beginning to see a decline. He believes Steve Curtis’ new venture has the potential to reinvigorate the sport.

Steve Curtis’s Offshore Grand Prix unveiled
Posted on November 25, 2014 by RichardCarrRacing
Last week, former British powerboat Champion Richard Carr announced his support of Steve Curtis’ (picture above far right) proposed Offshore Powerboat Grand Prix (OPGP) – and now the Championship has officially been unveiled.

Qatar on the powerboat map

During its first season as a powerboat series, the OPGP will team up with the Qatar Marine Sports Federation to jointly promote the brand new Qatar Cup.

Sheikh Hasson bin Jabor Al-Thani and Steve Curtis, who broke the powerboat speed record, are the people behind the new series and Curtis, who will act as interim president of the OPGP, confirmed that the Qatar Cup will feature exciting classes for Super Cat, Super Vee Light, Super Vees and a new handicap racing-type format.

The four day festival will take place in early February, 2015 in Doha Bay, with boats being shipped out from the USA on December 8th. Boats are also expected to compete from New Zealand and Australia.

Handicap grid system

OPGP interim President Curtis also talked about another boat class and the possibility of having all the boats on the course at the same time: “We also have the Cat Lights coming. These are very similar to XCats – where we hope to have 8 to 10 boats competing.

“Mohammed Al-Nasser (Qatar’s XCat driver) has also been invited, but the engine rules are slightly different so he will need to do some work with his engines.

“Super Cats, with around 800hp, is the main class we are bringing over, but we also have the V hulls and we will try a new handicap system that is used in sailing to have all the boats on the course at the same time.

“This has never been done before. Basically there will be two laps on the course – the fastest boats may do 10 of the longer laps and the smaller boats may do 10 of the shorter ones. A handicap will be determined to put the racing on a level playing field and they will use the same chequered flag.

“This format was used before in a series called Offshore 2000 in the 1990s and was very successful.”

Richard Carr excited by the future

As previously stated, Richard believes that the OPGP is excellent news for the sport and would one day love to compete in the series.

He believes the formation of the series was very timely and at a point when powerboating was beginning to see a decline. He believes Steve Curtis’ new venture has the potential to reinvigorate the sport.

About Richard Carr

Awesome a terrorism supporter has created a race organisation that will cater to his race team? Sounds legit

you could call it isossis :gfight:

i'm first and foremost a team geico supporter, and in general, a race fan for all the teams. sheikh hassan has done more to promote this sport than thousands before him - in any country. everyone has a big critical and in some cases ill-informed mouth, but i don't see any of you putting up your 6 or 7 figures to bring your teams to the races. as for opgp, win lose or draw vs sbi, sbi needs the competition...lots of unhappy racers and not the best racing experience especially for new fans. this sport needs all the organization and sponsorship funding it can get.

Very well said and I could not agree more.

Ultimately there only needs to be one major organization. There aren't four forms of NASCAR or 3 different organizations for NHRA!!

I mean I get your point, but there can't be I'm gonna take my ball and go start my own group whenever a RICH guy doesn't like something. It's just the nature of our sport

This is correct to but ego and pride seem to work their way into this sport. It us a real shame really.

why is it always about how rich someone is? every commissioner, or head of any major sporting organization is 'rich.' immaterial to me who's super rich, rich, or poor. agree it would be nice to have one unified organization, but with the existing fragmentation and lack of 'proper' organization and funding, maybe it does take a bigger funded entity to shake things up, or at least make the existing mom-and-pop sanctioning bodies be more introspective in what they are offering.

My words were not critisizing any one specific group. It was in very general terms. I think if anyone is ever to go off and do it RIGHT it's all good. It's just been the history of the sport. No reason to THINK it will be diffrent this time. But I sure HOPE it goes for the best!!