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?

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

Sean

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

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. 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".

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???

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

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.

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.

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

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.