bidpro

Poli makes a good point - even a blind squirril finds a nut every once in a while

Just kidding Ron,

Gregg Reichman

Captnmike

Offshore needs to be honest with itself and realize it's racing format, in the current form, sucks to watch, if you are only a casual fan.

Look at Marc's(boatme) examples...in the single pass events, fans cheer every competitors who goes by, but at least you can tell who's first...bike, buggy, truck, etc

Offshore wears them out, first they cheer, then they get all confused who to cheer for, then they have to try and figure out who's racing who. After 45 min. they just give up in frustration.

If you are going to race long..you have to have some means to keep competitors close.....look at all roundy-round (I hate to use the N word on this site) does to keep racers together(including having Robby Gordon through out debris)

Offshore would benefit if they would change the racing format......start with 15 min max races, single class on course at a time. That gives built in commercial breaks, and ends confusion for the fans. I know, I know, offshore is about endurance. Well then run multiply heats or better yet, throw in some point to point races now and then. Isn't that what off road does...some for the fans, some for the racers.

Mike Sadlon
UL-89

Check us out...ULHRA.ORG

gdfatha

As a fan as I am, What happened to the boat parde infront of the stands/beach prior to the start?

I also feel a shorter course presents a better visual and sponsor exposure than the long course.

Perhaps a course length mix would satisfy all???

Run a few short course races close to shore then a longer course.

Sponsors only receive recognation in the dry and wet pits or when running close to the fans.

JM2$

phragle

iTrader: (3)

Im an offroad veteren myself, and find incredible similarities between the sports. I actually see offshore as much more marketable from a sponsor standpoint, as offshore has races and pokeruns increasing visibility. having worked with Mcmillan racing big money corporate sponsorship is rare. there is some help here and there, BFG has a good support program, but by and large the vehicles are paid for by the racers, the bja 1000 is unique in its popularity as its the grand daddy of all offroad races, but even winning my class in that, some sponsorship came but I still spent a LOT of money. not to mention SCORE is far from being the only orginization out there. not to mention a couple offroad "sub species" like pro truck and jeep speed..spec trucks that have there own series so to speak using races in different orginizations to base there series points on.

what I think will happen offshore eventually is there will be one major body the big boys with the big toys and big bucks will call home and the others will become more of "feeder originazations, were new racers will learn there skills, the classes are more limited, and the costs are kept as low as possible. hopefully this will happen and prevent some of the things that almost killed score and offroad racing.
that is to much money came in and technology grew and grew expensively. offroad started as fairly low cost friendly racing, but it became almost impossible for the average joe to race anymore not to mention a bit more dangerous, trucks became trophy trucks with big hp and wheel travel and people like errr I hate to name names but people like robby gordon happened and litterly started running over the little guys..when a 6000 pound trophy truck comes barrelin down on a 80 hp 5-1600 car and blasts him in the ass so hard he blows him off the course, racing becomes not much fun for anybody but him..
so we need to make sure the little guy can race in a competitive fun atmosphere, and we need to have the big guys goin fast, if we loose either the sport is dead.
another thing that has happened offroad that would benefit us is mixing races, one orginaztion would have its guys race another orginazations race for points and vice versa, it would add to the nuimber of boats at an event and it keeps it fresh, racing in your local org. you race the same couple guys time and time again, mixing races you race against different boats..kkeep things interesting.

another idea i posted in another thread is a distance race, a true offshore event, as long as we have several orgs racing, take the top couple guys from each class, bring them all together for a super bowl at the end of the season..the offshore endurance world championships, that would unite and tie everyone together at the end of the year with one overall champion in each class

so to summarize it we need several smaller local sanc. bodies to give boaters a place to become racers and be competitive without them getting discouraged because they can never keep up with team big bucks, and we need a sanc body to put on races for the guys that have graduated from local racing and be the big buck go fast racers they have become.

as for sponsors..there two types, inside and outside
inside sponsors will come because it sells there products to boaters and racers, outside big money sponsors will only come for major media exposure.

we must always remeber what sponsorship is and isnt..
sponsor ship IS about advertising and selling product
sponsorship ISNT about helping you..your just a means to an end, that end being selling there product.

9 Lives

Great thread. I do wholeheartedly agree about the comparison to offroad racing.

Love seeing the big trucks tearin' through an off-camber downhiller at speed, on the verge of spin-out and rolling over, just like a SVL haulin ass through a rough corner.

You can't just compare the NASCAR thing to offshore. Not at all the same. Don't get me wrong, I love NASCAR, but frankly, I think they got a little lucky on the marketing idea of what is essentially taxi-cab racing.

One thing NASCAR does that should work for offshore is that they have Daytona and Talladega. Different than normal tracks with different than normal winning teams.

Offshore should just designate one or two races that they know will be rough and make the poor fans suffer with wonderful technology of Helicopters and Jumbotrons for the outward legs. We'll call these two "The Big Water Races."
Maybe Ocean City and Key West. The non-padded, non-stepped boats would always be looking forward to these. I'd love to see the older Apache, Cigarette and Sutphens, etc. wup some ass.

Five short laps followed by five long laps would be really cool, but at this stage, I don't want to overcomplicate things.

John Haggin

[QUOTE=MIAMIBOYS]WOW!!!!!!
Gentlemen...............
WITH POSITIVE ENERGY FROM ALL OF YOU
AMF, CAN AND WILL MOVE MOUNTAINS!!!
UNITED WE RACE!!!!
Let's take a vote, all racer's to be unified .
If All Racer's Vote, We Can Be Unified By The World's!
Won't All The Organization's Back The Racer's ???
I believe On this Special Day, We Can Have That One Special Wish!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!
From Team AMF
www.amfoffshoreracing.com

BRUCE SEROFF

I

T2x

While........

I appreciate the fact that Mr. Haggin has been very generous to the sport...and he certainly has. He is not the first and, sadly, may not be the last. Eicke Battista, Al Copeland, HFC, Rocky Aoki, Hennesey, Bill Gifford, and a number of others have thrown large sums of money at the sport (all of which was eagerly scooped up)...... with little long term effect.

Because........

racers, both highly funded or scraping for pennies, tend to be short sighted and look only as far as what's good for themselves, their desires, and their particular race boat...(racer/owners are both competitive and inflexible at the same time).

So...........

as long as the inmates run the asylum, we will have a disjointed, non goal oriented, mess in search of a home.

Until.............

The sport becomes bigger than the participants. The goal of any good coalition/confederation is for the whole to be greater than the sum of its parts....for 2 + 2 to equal 5. In offshore racing, the parts (the boats + Haggin's funding) equal less than the value of the individual assets. (The large Vegas/Destin television spends didn't get on any network...we now have a turbine class that NO ONE in the real world relates to...etc, etc, etc).

We are missing Nascar's chief value.....KISS
one class....
simplicity...
Viewer/sponsor friendliness.

When........

the powers that be stop long enough in their incessant drive for more classes, blind cheerleading, and spectator confusion, and take the time to make a truly critical self assessment...we might see a light at the end of the tunnel.

I hope it happens in my lifetime.

But, I doubt it.

Happy New Year to all........

T2x

louietherigger

Ouch Ebenezer just stole Chrismas. What you've said is well versed and educated, the only problem I have is the constant comparison to nascar. Though it is extremly popular not everyone watches it. I myself would rather watch a home improvement show with my wife asking me if we could do that to our house, then to watch the cars going round and round. Please put the nooses away I'm not knocking it, I just like boat racing better. Problem I see is Mr. Haggin is not being helped enough. Not everyone who races has assets equal to his finacially, and there are only a few who truly try to help him. By help I mean Promotion, we have a small and select demographic so it is up to everyone of us to push and make people aware of our sport. I have a family of nascar junkies, 1/2 the Christmas gifts had to do with nascar. So I thought there was no better time to break out some race video's.(Ocean City, Destin,etc.) My little nephew (who sleeps in a nascar bed) was in awe watching the boats fly through the air! he is hooked. That's what I'm talking about, bring them over even if it's one at a time. Build it and they will come.

Happy New Year,
Louie

bidpro

Lou the Rigger - I'm glad you post here... very well thought out. Totally agree, the recent AMF Effort is not getting enough support.

Rich (aka TX2), you are just Mr. F'n sunshine huh.. as usual. I mean you have such a vast knowledge base, any chance on making apositive suggestion once in awhile?

I raced the (I think it was) 1995 Key West Worlds, APBA, SBI unification race. I think there were 130 boats there, something crazy like 32 boats in my class, it was called "A" class at the time. It was like a Motocross start to the 1st turn, totally cool.

I do think Unification is the answer.

Rich, how can we accomplish this?.

Gregg Reichman