DPT MOTORSPORTS

To all Racers, Promoters, and Fans of Offshore Powerboat Racing in the USA,

I thought a thread like this needed to be constructed for all the Racers, Promoters, and Fans of Offshore Powerboat Racing here in the USA. For the past few years it very much seems that the sport that we all very much love is being more and more fragmented every year. What Positive changes could be made to better the sport of Offshore Powerboat Racing here in the USA?????

PLEASE KEEP THIS POST AS CONSTRUCTIVE AND POSITIVE AS POSSIBLE.

THANK YOU AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL,
DPT

DPT MOTORSPORTS

1st Suggestion.

Please try to keep the OFFSHORE in Powerboat Racing. Racing on flat lakes is not Offshore Racing by any means and it takes away from the overall draw of Fan Base that Offshore Powerboat Racing has had over the years.

Hauling Trash

Change P-class to A,B,C,D @ E class`s

Gordo

Dennis,
Great thread!
Find a way to get back to the TV show we had a few years ago. No favoritism to any one brand of boat, but lots of highlights of the side by side racing regardless of brand or who was ahead. I don't know who produced the shows before, but they did a great show of Racing!
Give us (the racers) something we can offer to the sponsors. If we can get more sponsors back into the game then the smaller guys can have a chance to compete head to head against "the machine".
Which leads me to my next suggestion, Tech Inspections. Simply put, make them thurough and equal for all.

Captnmike

Get the costs down and the parity up.

3 year old boats can not be allowed to be obsolete.

Mike Sadlon

SCRAPMAN1

Start Handing Out Ecms Randomly At The Race Sites -- This Will Eliminate Any Question Of Creative Programming.

mmwalters

One small change for SBI , require class letters on all boats so spectators know who is running against who. In key west I could not tell what boats were in what class.

Ted G

iTrader: (1)

Okay, here it is, my idea-it is worth exactly what it cost you. The racers need to be accountable to the organizations for extra-curricular events and there has to be some type of penalty if they do not participate. What I mean is that many guys spend many hours doing meet and greets, photo ops, sponsor schmoozing, etc. BUT, many teams do not. This puts an unnecessary burden on the teams that help out and in many cases makes it difficult for the organizations and promotors to meet their obligations.
NASCAR teams have 2 or 3 "fake" cars that travel all over the country doing just this all year long. Every race team should be given a certain number of hours each year that they must give to the organization and some type of penalty should be assesed if they don't meet those hours. Heck, even a broken boat can sit in front of a sponsor location even if it can't race ( unless it's missing large pieces of hull ). Many of those hours could be taken care of in the off-season and would help the sport tremendously. As an aside to this it would not be a bad idea to award some points just for showing up at the race site- make it worthwhile for a guy with equipment issues to at least get the boat there and then use it for appearances, photo ops, etc.

I think in part because of the fragmentation of the sport many racers feel no obligation to the organizations they race with other than to show up and have at it on the water, this leaves the racers that are part of the overall "team" holding the bag way too often. And at the same time makes it very difficult for the organizations to promote and grow the sport.

Shane B

It would be nice to see the National races on different weekends to allow more of a cross over of teams between SBI/OSS.

Fast Shafts

Put some parameters on "P" class racing. When APBA started this class it was for the "occassional" racer. Now it has become the main event in some organizations. I would like to see length and number of engines factored into this. I dont think a single engine boat should ever race a twin. This is also confusing to fans. Birds of a feather should race together.