Jokers right, wannabe, gonna be, maybe, Race and get over it. If you need to bicker and fight, call Mike Tyson.

Why should they complain,it either falls on deaf ears or they will get suspended for a year like Jerry Gilbreath did for so called derogatory statements...

Racer retention is the biggest problem facing offshore in my opinion. My first race was St Cloud 1999 and my last was Sarasota 2001. In April 1999 you never would have convinced me that I would hang up the helmet in three years. No way..... I loved the sport too much. Three years later I was out. I now own a boat without a number on the side, but it has room for a cooler and I can run the same engine configuration for more than one year.

Allweiss has the diplomacy skills of a bulldozer, but I like his vision. He is an entrepreneur that has made some drastic changes - some of which aren't so popular. As an offshore fan for over ten years, and racer for three of those, I like the direction that he has things headed. That doesn't necessarily mean that I always agree with him - but then again my only "offshore racing expenses" right now are the Freeze Frame videos that I buy. They help with the offshore racing "withdrawals".

Thanks to everyone for their posts. If people weren't interested in the future of the sport, they wouldn't be taking time to express their opinions ....... positive or negative ones.

oh boy ! I don't even have to say any more the (fact's ) are slowly coming out....

For the record.........
Someone on aother thread mentioned APBA Class participation in 2002. Unfortnately, that guy only reported numbers since 2000. Not the full picture

Now Id' like to give the category numbers SINCE 1998, the year before MA took over the offshore category.

Offshore racing members
1998 =570
1999=617
2000=772
2001=682
2002= 516
That's barely a 10% decrease since 1998 even with the economy taking a hit on many of these very expensive boat owners.
Also, you can tell by looking just which year LLC took over.

Now for some other categories to compare to Offshores decrease. On average, nearly all of boat racing has been declining over the past 5 years:

Superlight tun.
1998=84
2002=49 loss of 41.7%

OPC
1998=308
2002=272 - loss of 13.2%

RC
1998=186
2002=149 loss of 24.8%

Inboard
1998=522
2002=512 - loss of 2.%

P. outboard
1998=174
2002=152 - loss of 14.4%

M. outboard
1998=111
2002=114 - gain of 2.7%

Junior class
1998=49
2002=60 - gain of 22% - steady 2 or 3 racer gain each year

Stock outboar
1998=447
2000=471
2002=460 - gain of 2.9%, but losing over the past two years.

Drag
1998=120
2002=51 = loss of 61.2% (ODBA quit APBA as of 2001)

Unlimted
1998=24
2002=22 loss of 9.0%


Stats came from 2003 APBA reference book,,, For APBA referees of 1998 it dropped from 63 to 49 in 2002.
Scorers; down from 83 to 59
Asociate APBA members: 1075, to 655 in 2002
APBA clubs: 448 dropped to 317
Grand total for all memberships in APBA:
1998=5941
2002=5047 - this is a 18% drop for APBA overall.

So if someone tries to use the lower offshore numbers of 2002 for the attack, now we can account for all the membership stats not just those they want us to see. Note that Offshore also has the most members of all ctategories in APBA.
As Audio said, who is responsible for this mess? Whats up with all the muscle flexing here? Is someone out to settle a score with offshore??,, Revenge? All I know its only going to hurt the members in the long run, but I really dont think these guys care what is best as long as they get a jab in.
To all racers -Lets all work together and fix this.Call your people and tell them APBA needs to work this out,a benefit to everyone not just the guys with chips on their shoulders.Without offshore APBA is going clearly up a creek. True they can host the UIM kilos and still get their offshore memberships money just like before.But if a team wants to run both, that just means they will be forced into paying two associatein memberships when they should have only had to pay one.This is really screwed up.Lets get this mess settled.

Maybe it's me...
 

But I just reread 79 posts on this thread and have yet to see a single post that counter anything said in the first post. Nothing but brand new members who suddenly show up bashing, and no real counter claiming facts anywhere....

I Wonder what would happen if all offshore members held a meeting and voted out Stan Fitts? Or is this kinda like offshore members don't have any say in anything until the outboard/kneeldown guys have their way again with the category?
:eek:

I also find it interesting that the few that seem to be jumping on this subject like hungry jackals are people who work with/for the Fountain factory. The same few that were booted, (with everyones blessing) for blatant cheating.
As for Jerry Gilbreath, ain't it funny that he carries such a grudge that he served his suspension, then came back to race with us. Jerry was very nice to everyone, and seemed to be having a blast.

I love this place!!!!:D :D :D LMFAO......................again!!!

Mr Allweiss, could you please post the minutes of the Super Board meeting you referred to? I remind you that you also praised and called for openess and the end to secrecy in such activities.

Thanks,

Sam Cullis

One statistic I would like to see is how many of the offshore members returned year over year. There is a huge fall out rate and it seems with new classes etc. that the numbers that drop out are often replaced with new members. I may be wrong, just a gross assumption on my part. Here is some food for thought. Most people that race (that are not con artists) are successful business people in their own right. Whether they own a business or are executives at a firm, they all know what it takes to be successful. Seems to me, from those that I have spoken with and or are friends or aquaintances have left or are considering leaving the sport because of the lack of professionalism and the inability of any one association to run Offshore Racing as a business. I am by no means saying that I could do it any better than Mike A or Bubba, and it is certainly very easy to Monday Morning Quarterback the issues. However, before this leap into the future that we have all wanted for so many years actually can take place, there are some very serious fundamental issues that need to be resolved. So long as the bickering, lying, twisting of the truth, name calling, back stabbing etc. etc. etc. continues, offshore will continue to be a victim of its own success.