How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

Since most racers and fans seem to agree that for offshore racing to get legitimate
television coverage, there will have to be less classes with more boats per class.
Which classes should get TV coverage, would be simple to follow and will help grow the sport?


The NHRA has many classes but concentrate on four major professional classes for their TV coverage.
Usually later in the program they will show the final runs and winners of the less significant classes as fill in material.
The P class of boats could be this sportsman division in offshore and could be run on Saturday with
starts, finishes and highlights shown during the slow portions of the major races on Sunday.

It needs to be simple to attract new viewers. It seems to complicate things for the uninformed viewer if there
is more than one class of V-bottoms or more than one class of cats racing at the same time.

My wife pointed out to me while we were watching one of the live Destin webcasts that she usually has a hard time
knowing who is leading just a few laps in but there was one race was easy for her to follow. And she's seen many races.
It was outboard cats and SVL. Simple. First cat to come by is winning his class and the first V-bottom to come by is winning his class.

With those thoughts in mind, here's my 2 cents worth.
Run P classes on Saturday and if you have to add P-Turbine and/or P-Extreme Cat or V-bottom here.
This adds some superspeed excitement for the Saturday viewers and many of these racers will also have boats to race on Sunday also.

On Sunday, first race, OB cat with single engine V. Second race, Supercat and SuperVee.
If there become enough boats, Supercat and SuperVee may need their own race.

As far as engines go, I've said many times that I much prefer to hear racing engines and the higher RPM's over stock-type power,
but if Mercury has to have their cut run the 300's on the outboards, 525's or 600's in the single Vees, 850's in the Supercats and 1075's in the SuperVees.

What are your thoughts? What classes should run if there's only time for two races?

P.S. SCL guys, please don't all kill me at once, give your ideas, maybe SCL instead of SC...but I feel the Supercat class should be built to also accomodate the European teams, with our 66" maximum tunnel width.

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

2
Cat
Vee
Use Other Classes As Fillers, From Previous Race Days ( Busch Series)
Lets Talk Engines Later

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

me thinks the average couch potato with remote in hand wants to live vicariously thru his tv.., he wants to see big boats making big noise getting big air with big wipeouts, throw in some babes in bikinis doing a couple interviews and *poof* you got ratings...think about the tv audience that watches nascar on sunday...come monday is buba talking about the pass on lap 132?? or is he talking about the crash comming off 3 that took out 6 cars, one flipped and another burst into flames.

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

OSS has this right I think (did I say that?)

Supercat
Super V
Cat Light
V Light
Super Stock (Ourboard Cat)

that is it

Gregg Reichman

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

Big cats and big vee's? We pull into the races with 2 canopied supervee's and the 1st thing people ask us is where is Poppa Dukes? Crowd pleasers come in all shapes and size's, the personalities of the racers also help big. 1 more time, we aren't nascar, dirtbikes ,dragsters or motorcycles, what works for them isn't neccesarilly going to work for boat racing. Whatching BJ and Randy talking crap racin F-1 was the greatest, they were showman and promoters (and damn good racers). Offshore needs charactors that people can relate to and want to see and root for. If it gets to technical or only 2 classes the number of racers will fall off faster then my hair. And back to the question, put all of them on TV!! Short blast of all the boats showing there sponsors would help more then 2 supervees running a mile apart with the announcers struggling to find something to say. Watching the Big Cats race Supercat was cool. Watching the Dukes versus Tyler and the Grumpy Old Man was priceless. Watching the Chip's slugging it out with the cats in P-1, breathtaking. I could go on we've all had some real memorable races, point is limiting classes and TV exposure is the begining of the end.
We probably should get some TV exposure before we start restricting.

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

That Is Where Racing And Competition Comes Into Play. All These Classes And No Competition. Fewer Classes, More Competition And More Excitement. More Excitement For The Dollar. We Need To Join Classes For The Better. Not And More Confusion

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

Louie: I think that it is important to remember that you live and breathe this stuff, and I think that a lot of your ideas are great for those few who do, there just are so few of us that fall into that category. I can tell you that when I started back in 1992 I was towing around an open cockpit 28ft "A" class boat to the Races, from Arizona all over California. It had a racing number on it, etc. When I stoppped for Gas, no one noticed. In 1997 I built a canopied "Super V Light", traveled the same routes, and every place I stopped, a crowd gathered. They wanted to know where the launch pad was. The battles you talk about were awesome, and I'm not suggesting that open cockpit races cant be exciting, case in point Year 2000 St. Pete Worlds, Factory 2, but I think there were something like 25 boats in that start. For today, we have the most available boats in Super V, Super Cat, Cat Light, V Light and pro Outboard, all canopied classes. That is the primary reason I an endorsing those classes.

Gregg Reichman

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

Mr. Ugly Hat:

I think that close racing makes a difference, and maybe F-1 was providing that, but I can tell you, for absolute sure, people are not looking at that equipment in the Dry or Wet Pits, the interest is in the more or most exotic hardware.

Park a Ferrari next to a Yogo in your Grocery Store parking lot and see what garners attention.

I miss you Man

Reichman

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

My 2 Cents. Nothing exotic about a nascar cup car. Basically, a shiny tin can. The charachters made the sport. Women all over the country now follow Nascar. Casey Kane, Dale Jr. etc. Most women can't even tell you what car they race. It's all in the marketing. Wrangler Jeans dosn't sponsor Jr, because he has a fat a@@. Work on that smile Louie, hearts are breaking all over the world. Smitty

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

Thanx Smitty,
:D I'm tryin, Wrangler jeans told my to take a hike too. I'm gonna work on the pythons over the winter, there starting to shrink. Matter of fact I'll do some curls tonite during supper.lol.
Happy New Year,
Louie

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

Not for nothin but I pulled into a parking lot with my 65' Mustang Convertable, next to 3! yes I said 3 Ferrari's and let me tell you it was a sad day in Ferrari land, lol.

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

2 classes only!!!! One big like Super cat lite that is a show stopper with 20 boats in it. And one smaller Vee class like SVL with 30 boats in it. The smaller SVL is as close to affordable as a safe race boat can be with lots of boats around it and has a more relateable function to the fan base. The SCL has the WOW factor for the larger sponsors. Both classes only work if you have large numbers of them racing together. We have to make the show more exciting all over the field and you need more boats per class to do that. I would think it would snowball if that could be done. If there were just 2 classes and people in the future built for them only, it would be outrages. Now you can triple the purse get sponsors and possably race for free. If you dont want to build for these classes its OK but make them the classes to shoot for as a racer. Its been said time and time agian its hard to follow and there arent enough boats in most classes. Heck Hagen could buy 10 SVL's and we could have 20 boats in that class. Get-R-Done
MD

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

Supervee lites?:p

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

60 minute show........

45 minutes "Feature" class ( Cat or Vee)

15 minutes "secondary" class ( The one that didn't get 45 minutes)

All other classes use traditional, confusing format on another network....with another budget.

T2x

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

What if the two classes both ran 750 HP Supercat engines? We know they work well
in the current Supercat class, but would this be too much power in the smaller Vee's?

How much power was being used in these boats when it was A-class?
Many people consider the old A-class as one of their favorite classes, and I agree.

I realize that the Bravo couldn't handle this and that would be a major issue.
A SSM#5, SSM#6, Mercury NXT or Konrad ACE would be needed.

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

Its not how much power will it handell its the reliability factor that would build the class. SVL is the starter class for canopy boats for guys that love to race and are maxed out on there money. Its perfect for most P class guys to make the next move into. If it were just a little more afordable I am sure it would be the next biggest class! Its the snow ball thing again. More boats in a class draws more teams to the class beacause of more compatition.
MD

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

Two classes; one cat and one vee.

CAT 36-40 FT built to spec engines (combine SC & SCL).

VEE 36-40 FT built to spec engines, same as Cat specs.

The races should be held in open water...the ocean,the gulf or the great lakes.What makes offshore racing such an exciting motorsport is the constantly changing conditions.Imagine 15 or more boats in each class going at it in rough water!That would be something that would no doubt help build the fan base.Even a boat running by itself in rough water is exciting.Seeing the big offshore boats scream around a lake or a river is not exciting...that water is for hydroplanes and tunnel boats.Just an opinion.

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

By the time you get all those teams to chump up all that money to build all those boats, we could by NBC and have our own show. I vote for Randy to be the Host.

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

Amen ... and you know why? cuz race fans want to see racing. Race fans dont give a damn how much your rig cost or what size motor it has if all your doin is playing follow the leader. In the pits? Maybe they are cool to look at but that doesnt always translate onto the race course.

Smitty ... your a smart man and Im glad you said "most women" when referring to women nascar fans not knowing what car their favorite driver is in.. definitely not true for all of us :p

and Ive read several times where some are saying less classes ..... so ... will someone please educate me again, because I still dont get why there are seperate classes for V bottoms and cats ... one of the best races in Destin was On the Chip (v bottom) against Reliable (cat) ... gave me goose bumps when OTC caught and passed Reliable ... only to have Reliable pass them back :drink: Makes it pretty cool for the fan to be able to root for their favorite type of boat ... :cool:



Oh and Louie .... you know your a fan favorite ... who can resist that smile :D

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

Sheesh! no one that I can think of, oh I know someone, the cop that weighed my crane the other day, I thought I had won him over till his scale exploded. Ain't like it was his, us tax payers own it really. And speaking of goose bumps, I got them too, when Wanted passed Wahoo in race 2 pushing us back into 1st place only to have Wahoo pass them again when they broke:drink: Oh and did you notice the people that are pushing for "2 classes only" have conveniently picked boats they already have, lol.
Happy New Year,
Louie

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

You know I was thinkin and signed back on to revise my post to include the other cool cat/v race from last season ... Wahoo and Strictly Business :p Dont tell Dave and Dean I didnt think of our team first :D

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

"A" Class engine spec was as follows: 510 Cubic Inch, Iron Head, (Dart) 9.5 to 1 compression, single Carb, 1050 Holly DOM was the choice (heavily modified) , 15" limitation on header runner length, ANY valve train, (to builders used Jesel) no porting restrictions. Few manifold restrictions. Top builders were making over 800 ft lbs at around 6400 RPM. Blew Bravo Drives off the back like popcorn, I did R&D for IMCO on my Phantom SVL.

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

Like we say in South Brooklyn, whats it worth to ya?:cool:
I was gonna edit my post too, I think we need more girls in bikini's at the races, it's a definate fan pleaser( not to mention the racers).

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

Too Late! I already noticed.

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

:D Im makin it up to you .... Dave called earlier and put me to work. :D

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

Thank you RG3, atleast someone on here gets it. Randy wants 20 boats out on the course so maybe a race (you know 2 boats side-by-side) breaks out. That is what fans want.

Work on getting the boats to run together, that will bring success.

Mike Sadlon
UL-89

Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
 

Mike how do you propose to get the boats to run together?
MD