I've read from several sources on Facebook that only 3 boats showed up. Wix and Simmons Marine brought their 2 boats. What a terrible turnout. RWO should be embarrassed. I feel bad for the city and fans. It's not a good outlook for Key West or Clearwater. RWO needs to partner up with OPA or something, otherwise they won't be around next year.

Yep, I drove over yesterday afternoon. At 2:30 just three race boats and a Cigarette pace boat. A newspaper article reported that that was all there was for the Friday evening parade. An official was quoted that they expected an additional 10 boats were expected. I hope so but a driver I talked to hinted that politics were involved. Why can't these organizations get there ****e together? If weather is good I might throw the Velocity in and run up lake to watch tomorrow.

Padraig

What politics are involved? when you're first race of the season is in the waning days of summer how many people do you expect to jump on board??? in KW 2017 RWO said they had a schedule for 2018 , they had 2 races, Mentor and Dunkirk, they threw their name in the hat for KW, knowing they had inside connections and buried SBI, but had yet to establish a true following. OPA/APBA/P-1 came to a agreement and teams liked what they seen. empty promises don't fill the pits! and loyalty goes on long way!

Yup. The OPA/P1/APBA championship series has been doing well. 60+ boats at each race. Next up is the roar offshore Ft. Myers race for that series. The racers uniting under one body has been a great thing for the fans at those races.

Pete, I have no idea what politics were involved. All I know is what was said to me by one of the few teams that were there yesterday.

Padraig

The Dunkirk Fyre Festival..... its off the hook yo !!!

Only 6 boats here now

It seems as if the race teams have spoken. It is unfortunate for the sport if the Dunkirk, Clearwater, Key West races don't deliver what RWO promised, it hurts the sport as a whole. However, in the case of KW, if they had done any due diligence before awarding the contract, they may have been able to foresee this result. As for Dunkirtk & Clearwater, they as well should have done some investigating. As racers, we want to race. The APBA/OPA/P1 union has given the teams a solid 6 race national series as well as the OPA races for the bracket classes.

Time will tell what 2020 will look like, but 2019 was all APBA/OPA/P1 so far.