Mike,

Are you asking in relation to offshore category only or all of boat racing? And are you talking the last maybe 2 years or the last say 25? What other marine equipment company is giving ANY support, wether it be parts availible for sale at the races, test facilities, or prize money? GM is in this to sell trucks period and they make the best trucks available in my opinion. The reason you see Mercury so much in APBA is that they seem to be the only company willing to work with the racers for any lenth of time, yes they make money so could some other company if they would show some support in wanting to see the sport grow.
Before you say anything I don't own 1 item that Mercury Marine or Mercury Racing makes. But from what I have seen in my short 10 yrs of being involved in some way with boat racing is that Mercury is the only marine company that even cares, besides hull builders, that there are boats being raced at all.

Matt

Originally posted by Gordo
Ok Mr. Luhrs, Exactly WHAT has Mercury Racing done FOR the racers?


Umm let's see................

1. Provided a support truck with spare parts and helpful technicians at races for decades.

2. Designed and built the drive systems and engine packages that propel the boats. These motors replaced the "garage mechanic specials" that broke down all over the race course....for decades. How would racing be without #6 drives....or (as bad as they might be) Bravo drives?

3. Provided cooperative advertizing for performance boat manufacturers over the years, allowing them to better market their products and upgrade their image, while adding to the factory subsidies of racers.

4. Kept Fountain Powerboats alive, thereby letting Reggie piss even more money away on race sponsorship and racer assistance..

5. Provided Lake X, the finest performance rigging and testing facility in the World.....

6. Funded round the clock engineering in fresh and salt water environments which enabled many of the significant developments in marine propulsion over the past 50 years....much of which debuted on the race course.

7. Created most of the significant prop advancements of the past 50 years....... At one time all of the inboard and outboard classes of APBA relied on Mercury propellers.... and, by the way, Bobby Hering is an ex-Mercury employee.

8. Carl Kiekhaefer's factory teams put offshore racing on the map back in the early days, by providing the lion's share of the boats in the fleet.

9. Co-sponsored the TV programs for well over 10 years.

10. Marketed racing through their dealer outlets, catalogues, and press releases for decades.

11. Provided basically free advice to generations of new racers.

12. Provided various contingency purses for many years.

Gordo: The fact the Mercury has not automatically agreed to the demands of the LLC, does not mean that they are not racer friendly......... and the fact that GMC gives a discount on engines and passes out a few "official vehicles" does not mean that they are.

T2x

As I see it, there need to be a few specific distinctions made in discussing the situation:
1) Don't confuse Mercury (disposable Bravo drives and 496's) with Mercury Racing (#6 drives, HP 525's, etc.) One is a big company. The other one ain't.
2) Don't confuse sponsorship with support. While both are helpful, and often occur simultaneously, they are not one and the same. (For what it's worth, I don't think anyone will have a problem with Mercury Racing's support of offshore racers.)
3) That being said, there is a very good reason NASCAR doesn't run the "Chevrolet" Cup Series.

Look, most of the APBA naysayers have been blaming "it" all on MA for the last 5 years. MA has now (supposedly, at least) relenquished power. How come there is still such an anti-APBA (LLC) uproar? Can't this be seen as a positive opportunity instead?

"The one common aspect of all your disfunctional relationships is you." - Anonymous

:D (Rich - your #4 is a classic. LMAO!!)

Thanks........I try........................

T2x

Just in case any one has missed it, Allweiss is NOT out of the LLC or racing anymore then he was last year. Some think thats a good thing and some dont..

I suggest we all just cool it till after the elections..OR...if one really feels a specific action needs be taken, forward that suggestion to the person you are voting for.

At least go on record to your representative....Remember this thread does not get included into APBA minutes..

marc (just a fan)

Dan B.,

You are wrong. I am far more disengaged from the sport now than at the same time last year. And I am working on a daily basis to get completely out. I realize it is not fast enough for some but trust me, I want to get out as badly as many want to see me leave and I am making every reasonable effort to accomodate them, fast.

I have a multi-million doallr investment in this business which essentially has been destroyed. I spent a great deal of my own money to see that the racers had a place to race, had great sponsors and first class television.

In the future I will spend that money on my family and maybe my own race team. I did the best I could and in the end it was not good enough. I am proud of everything our team accomplished over the last five years and I wish the future leaders of the sport the best of luck. I will also be willing to help in any way possible including disappearing entirely from the sport if that will help.

It is simply time to move on.

Mike

amen ma

Well, there it is folks - straight from Mike himself.

Now all you guys that have had all the answers for the past five years are free to jump in there and show the rest if us how you will turn Offshore Racing into the Perfect World overnight. The door is open.

C'mon - put up or shut up.