Re: A Positive Thread of what changes need to be made in Offshore Racing???
 

Back to P1 - P5 vs A-E.

We asked SBI for this change last year at the Atlanta meeting, with the understanding that OPA would follow their lead. SBI claimed scoring was easier with P1 - P5 as A - E got to be confusing because letters sounded alike. Fair enough.

Since all we want is for fans to be able to tell who's racing who.... how about different color backgrounds behind the numbers as an additional differentiator that can be seen from a distance.

Light pastel colors should work well. Blue, yellow, green, red, violet....

Thoughts?

Re: A Positive Thread of what changes need to be made in Offshore Racing???
 

www.peppersracing.com should be up tomorrow
videos
schedule
pics
info on boat
racer profiles
pretty cool site
Mike Stancombe
peppers racing
:evilb:
:drink:

Re: A Positive Thread of what changes need to be made in Offshore Racing???
 

Okay,

Since the discussion on the P-classes seems to be in this post instead of my other post, I've been requested to post my ideas here.

Here’s a few of my thoughts and ideas gathered from a few team owners and other posts for the SBI/APBA rules:

1. Para. 11.4.1. Add single engine restriction to P5. Rationale: Practiced but not identified in the rules.
2. Para. 11.14. Change prefix letter “P” and assigned class number to “A, B, C, D, E”. Rationale: Easier identification for the spectators and frees up more space for sponsor graphics for the team owner.
3. Para. 11.15. Add that a boat is put into a class based on the prop calc minus 7 mph. Rationale: We know the inspectors subtract 7 mph from the estimated top speed but it’s not identified in the rules.
4. Add a paragraph identifying types of former race boats that will fall into a respective class based on what class the boat had raced before. For example, former F1 boats will race in no less than P4/B-class, former SS boats will race in no less than P3/C-class, former SV boats will race in no less than P2/D-class. Rationale: By identifying this up front alleviates the perception that teams may be “sandbagging” or an inspector is “favoring” the team and/or boat toward a class it may or may not really fall into.

BTW: Let’s publish our class reps on the SBI/APBA web site so we don’t have to guess who they are. Also, let’s not forget that “The purpose of the series (i.e. P-classes)…is to provide boat, engine and accessory manufacturers an opportunity to test, display and sell their products…” I know quite a few folks out there focus on the “…entry level racers a place to compete” clause. However, I’ve been working with my manufacturer and other sponsors to promote their product in a class that best benefits themselves and our team, and the best bang for their buck right now is in a P-class.

And to add to the recent post made by Ron P. Have our scorers ever heard of the phonic alphabet? Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo...no confusion there. And although the colored background may better distinguish the class, I don't want to have any "pastel" colors on my boat if I can help it. :D

Sean

Re: A Positive Thread of what changes need to be made in Offshore Racing???
 

I guess you didn't like the color idea.... :p

Re: A Positive Thread of what changes need to be made in Offshore Racing???
 

I like the color idea Ron. In fact the way to do it is have each boat painted the same color in each class. The world champ gets to choose the color for all the boats next year. :D :D Then it would be easy, "see honey, the yellow boat in front is beating all the other yellow boats, but that pink one coming up behind is faster so he'll pull in front but the yellow boat will still be winning". :evilb: :drink:

Re: A Positive Thread of what changes need to be made in Offshore Racing???
 

Since the goal of OPA should be to get as many boats to a race site as possible, (to attract sponsors) why not offer tow package money instead of prize money? A boat that might skip an ocean race or a race far away, might be more inclined to race if a tow fee $500-1,000 is offered. This works for hydroplane racing. In auto racing cars that aren't competative, and are referred to as "field fillers". Certainly boat racing needs all these "field fillers". Instead of small boats skipping ocean races, this may motivate them to make all races. The opposit of this would be large race boats skipping flat water races. The tow money might be the incentive needed to get more boats on the race course?? This would essentialy become "trophy racing", the benefit to this would be less appeals/fighting/arguing after the races.
Is it worth giving up prize money to attract more boats? The Camden NJ race proved (with no entry fees) that money IS an issue. Just food for thought, what do you think???

Re: A Positive Thread of what changes need to be made in Offshore Racing???
 

Here's your boat Ted, you and Gordo should make a stunning team. :D

Re: A Positive Thread of what changes need to be made in Offshore Racing???
 

Smitty,
I am not trying to piss anyone off because I do truly admire what you and Augie are doing as well as Mr Haggin,but if you stick to the Parromaters that you have in place some of the SOBs that are being put together should be racing in P1 because of the top speeds that these boats can achieve,that would be really interesting to see a single outboard against a 40 foot Motion running in P1,come on level the playing field and make a few adjustments,like twins race against twins and singles race against singles and cats have there own classes,length limits and engine limits in classes is not to hard to adjust as I know there are guys that are putting boats together as we speek if they know what they are up against they can make the nessassary adjustments to be in the propor classes.I also think that the A THRU F class identification would be a positive to let the fans know who is racing who not thinking that all the boats are racing each other.Like I said I am very thankful that you are putting so much effort on to the racing that you are,I and our team greatly appreciate it but there deffinitly need to be some changes,and when are the meetings going to be.

Re: A Positive Thread of what changes need to be made in Offshore Racing???
 

Guy's, we're going to have our OPA/The Jersey Boyz winter meeting around the 2 nd. week of February 2006. Smitty is working out the details of where, when and what time. Write down all your questions and concerns and attend the meeting because YOUR VOTE WILL COUNT. Smitty and I will also go up to "The Other Eddie Smith's" in St. Clair to get feed back from The Central Division and get their votes as they will be a part of OPA and will have a say in their classes. GOOD THREAD THOUGH! KEEP IT UP AND KEEP IT POSITIVE.

Re: A Positive Thread of what changes need to be made in Offshore Racing???
 

Ron, spending too much time watching Christopher Lowell on Home and Garden channel?? :D

I agree with the change back to the letter class designation. #1, I feel it makes it easier for fans to understannd and the scorers to read.
#2 I think it's asthetically better looking on the boat itself( less crap cluttering up the hull.

Rules need to be much clearer, and adhered to and strictly enforced. The concept of "p" class racing was originally to give the little guy a chance to get out there and run his weekender or how would you sayit, "muscle car" boat. Now you have canopy factory purpose built race boats running against "pleasure boats". Little by little the class rules have been allowed to be bent and tweeked to accomadate specific boats. The same problem ruined the street stock class in auto racing. What was supposed to be a fun, competitive class for the average guy has turned into a class that only a guy with a all out setup has any chance of competeting in.
Trust me , I know its not a cheap sport to compete in,(as my boats sits unused) :( . We just need to keep some parity in the specific classes. Thats seems to be the main complaint i hear from most people.

As far as the races go, the promotion sucks,they need better local promotion, at least in our area. Nothing to benefit our sponsors, if nobody knows about the race. Years back, there used to be a four page pullout in the paper,days before the race. Now there is no mention of it until after the fact. and that is usually just a small column on page 7 of the sport section.

Re: A Positive Thread of what changes need to be made in Offshore Racing???
 

Ron I like your idea on colored background behind the boat #!!!! Color has a bigger impact on the brain to remember than numbers do. Or maybe each class has the beak of there boat colored to there class. Anything that has less letters and #'s is better. Should be a great year I will have 3 boats ready to race this year. I would also like to see some fine tunning done as well but will leave it up to you all.
PLEASE LISTEN TO WHAT THE RACERS WANT AND VOTE ON IT. SOME CHANGE IS GOOD GUY's
MD (TYPHOON)

Re: A Positive Thread of what changes need to be made in Offshore Racing???
 

Here are some class breakdowns from the past that worked.

The first time guy started in P class and worked his way up.

This is the Bacardi race in Miami in 1978.

Re: A Positive Thread of what changes need to be made in Offshore Racing???
 

I've seen that system used in off road racing and I'd be happy with it as well. My point is that I'd like more space on my boat to sell to sponsors, so if we could eliminate a character and a dash, that sounds good to me.

I kinda like the idea of being a "5 Series" boat. :drink:

P.S. "599" might ever be better cuz then I can just white out/black out the "P" and "-" on my team shirts without having to buy new ones right away. :D

Sean

Re: A Positive Thread of what changes need to be made in Offshore Racing???
 

I was hoping our class rep would have chimed in by now...Scott B...where ya at?

And I agree, the point here is to make the number panel smaller/shorter and still allow the scorers/spectators a way to identify the different boats/classes. Without discussing my sponsor fees in this public forum, another 12 to 18 inches on the side of my hull can make a financial difference to our team and help keep us racing. Is that a big deal? Maybe not to someone with deep pockets, but I don't know a lot of current P-class racers with deep pockets.

Sean

Re: A Positive Thread of what changes need to be made in Offshore Racing???
 

Since the Letter idea was shot down, I have no problem proposing the 100-500 idea for P classes. I need support to propose it so e-mail or pm me if you are a registered boat owner in support of this change, and I will propose it in Ft lauderdale.

My 2cents
Sponsors, sites, fan attraction can only be achieved through a higher boat count.
OPA is headed in that direction with the absence of entry fees and prize money. In order for this sport to grow, there also has to be a certain level of consistancy, professionalism, entertainment value, promotion, simplicity, and personal sacrifice by the racers.

Consistancy-stick with the rules and do not try to accomodate every boat out there. Go back to the same venues year after year. If someone can count on the rules being the same, they will find a way to to fit into a class.

Proffesionalism-Team uniforms, professionally conducted meetings, and mandatory attendance to certain fan/racer events.

Entertainment value-a fan will come back if the entertainment value is there. As we have seen with most of out sites, the entertainment value of a race by itself will not bring out fans. We almost need to make the pits the focus for bringing out the fans and the race as an added bonus. If the pits were set up with a carnival type atmosphere(like Sarasota) or a race held in conjunction with a local festival that already draws crowds, then the fans will already be there and its our jobs to sell them on what we do.

Promotion-Tv ads and radio ads are very expensive. If you are doing races in conjunction with other events, a certain amount of promtion will already be built in. Send out press releases to every, radio, tv station, and print media within 30 miles. Invite local radio or TV personality's out for a ride in a boat. Local racers get your equipment out, pass out flyers and sticks posters in every store window in town.

Simplicity-keep it simple, small # of classes.

Personal sacrifice-first and foremost, if you really want the sport to grow, make a committment and show up. Pick a race you want to help with locally and do it. Don't wait for someone else to ask for help, be proactive.
If you not local, you can help via internet or telephone. Second, take you equipment out and do boatshows, local parades, events etc. Take you equipment to a local school on career day. We have done all of these and they really are fun.
On career days, we talk about everything marine mechanics, marketing, engineering, photography, painting, and a whole host of carreers that could be related to boat racing.

Efforts are in motion for a lot of this stuff already with OPA this year and the growth of this sport as a whole can and will happen, but everyone needs to chip in. A lot of hard work from a few people pails in comparison to a little bit of work from many people.

The burden of growing Offshore Racing has to be put on the shoulders of the racers. Lets face it, forever it has been the job of promoters and sanctioning bodies to do this and they have failed with the exception of a few individual races

Re: A Positive Thread of what changes need to be made in Offshore Racing???
 

Well said my friend. Scotty for President

Re: A Positive Thread of what changes need to be made in Offshore Racing???
 

Scott,

Well said...I agree wholeheartedly.

I support the renumbering of the P-classes using the 100-500 series. Most of my aforementioned ideas were to capture in writing the rules we are using yet are not identified in the current rule book.

Thanks...and ya got my vote for President! :drink:

Sean

Re: A Positive Thread of what changes need to be made in Offshore Racing???
 

Well said Scott.

Allow me to add a bit more in regards to sponsors. In 1980, I was sponsored by the Government of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is a Commonwealth and not a state.

What this means, is all federal excise tax collected by our Federal government at the time a bottle of rum from Puerto Rico is purchased here, has to be returned to Puerto Rico. The government there in dealing with me, represented all the rum manufacturers not just one brand.

In the previous year to my sponsorship, the total excise tax money was over $350 million dollars sent back to Puerto Rico. The government had a very clear vision of what they were trying to accomplish with this sponsorship.

The demographics of offshore powerboat racing at that time, was exactly the market they were after. They specifically wanted to raise the awareness of the American drinking public that rum could be used for any drink, not just Rum and Coke. If they could just get them to try it they would like it and continue to buy rum products.

The plan they executed was, that we as a team would go into the race area a few days ahead of the actual race and visit with the liquor distributors and do press interviews. Then the night before the race itself, they would hold an open party for everyone at the race site. They set up an open bar that provided any drink you wanted, as long as it was made with with rum, Rum martini's etc.

They then measured (quantify) the impact on the geographical market after we left, and the rum sales always were higher than before the event.....in other words they accomplished their objective.

My sponsorship money was $25,000 per race for a 10 race season.

BUT IN ADDITION.....They spent farmore in promoting this whole package themselves. This is really key with a sponsor...they must take responsibility to do as much as they can to promote their vision of a successful sponsorship on their own, using the team as a backup to their own efforts.

We did the press interviews and liquor distributor meetings, and we were at the parties to hand out t-shirts and sign autographs but they had planned it all to the last detail.

For individual sponsors for a team, or race event sponsors, find a way to show them the results in a quantifiable way...numbers. This takes out all the emotion and shows them that the money they are spending is getting a big return versus any other way they could spend it.

Re: A Positive Thread of what changes need to be made in Offshore Racing???
 

scott b amen as a fan. you had a outstanding party last year at fountain . took us in invited us to supper sat nigh. way cool thanks augie . but your show was great. you and amf are the class of the fleet. cant wait to see you at the races. robbie, allison, hunter, rogers . :D :drink: