A great idea. Less talk and more action.

who then will do it? O.P.A. is a small organization, my guess is Smitty and Anthony put in lots of hours trying to keep us racing with a purse that pays some of our raw cost. they have a race boat of their own and really enjoy racing. You know how much effort it takes to keep a competive boat going. How do you think they could find the time and energy to tech properly a field of boats in some sort of spec. class.this would require a number of dedicated people to follow the scheduled races. the travel for the tech crew would have to asorbed by someone. If O.P.A. does it the money would come from the purse or entry fees would go up.John Haggin has greatly helped our cause ,it certainly isn't right to ask him for more help. the G.P.S. system isn't perfect but it does address alot of issues. Franks addition to the cause this season has given more credibility to the process. The prop calc. formula must be policed diligently. in the event a G.P.S. fails to work or is intentionally rendered inopertive,a closly montered prop calc.formula will keep it close. in the event the same competor has repeated malfuctions of the G.P.S. a harsh penalty must be applied. While we aren't running at W.O.T. which is alot more fun,running against another boat and a G.P.S. limit is very challenging and hardly a walk in the park. This system isn't broke! lets all look for ways to make it better.Smitty is easy to talk to and keeps an open mind. Grumpy Geo. Crockett Rockett

George,
I was thinking the same thing. Who are you going to get to
inspect and police theses boats?
While bracket racing may not be everybodys thing, It
has worked out for OPA. There have been great boat counts
and close racing. Smitty and his team have done a great job
putting it all together.
The bracket racing concept doesn't guarantee you can win
or even be competitive, but it gives everyone a place to race
without having to invest in a spec class motor.
Now, if someone wants to put a spec class together with their own rules and there own inspectors, I'm all for it, but not at the expense of our current setup.

Rich Smith
611 Undertow

Guys,you have valid points..OPA and all involved are doing a GREAT job.
The intent was to not creat anything that would detur from what is curently going on in any exisiting class
It was just a idea to see if we could maybe just get 3- 6 boats set up the old way by choice off the racer,police ourselves and see if we could regenerate more interest in the class before trying to go any further...just a friendly race with a few running wot as close as possible to the old std..no techs etc..just trying to get a few of the old boats out..
I think the thought that was if we had a few boats set up this way we could just ask if we could run in one or more of the events paying everything as it is now..example 3-6 boats ran at the same time a P$ or P% race was running,just have our own start..it was just for fun like betting on a game or something..
Again,not asking or suggesting that OPA have to change anything,its working fine for exactly what it was set up to do..

And all good points taken. I think what'll we'll see in 2008 is some of the old gang and maybe some of the new guy's with equal power(and some basic F1 rules) ask OPA or SBI if we can have a playground , grudgematch. I'm not against anybody , any org or any team. Lord knows Smitty rolled out the red carpet for me w/ the ORL deal. We'll tip toe along and keep an open mind. There will always however be people like myself that will want to run equal power , meet mininum weight and have a chance to run WOT. As far as teching boats , Tyler on OPA would help I'm sure and Miklos would come to mind in the Southeast. Just some thoughts!

Listen to George, he knows what he is talking about. I have a question that is going to ruffle some feathers, How many of the people on here posting are actually racing right now? My hand is up, I know George and Gino are at every race, and a few more on this thread. Guys ( to semi quote Steppenwolf)get your motors running and head out on the water and race, waiting for things to be perfect for you sounds like an excuse not to race to me. Smitty and the OPA teams are making this happen, why don't you try it out? Louietherigger-Strictly Business 206

It's not going to ruffle my feathers. I started racing in 1999 in F1. I also got some hair brained idea that I wanted to be a boat dealer for a West Coast company. After loosing about $300,000 in that deal I bought my own molds in 2000 aka Joker Powerboats. I managed to win the 1999 APBA Rookie of The Year and (2) Pro Series races in F1. I went on to win a National and Southeast Title in F1 and many wins is SVL , P3 , P4 and P5 and gave F2 a try. I also won a World Title in P3 in KW. My last race was Sarasota 2003. I did all of this at the same time I was paying off bad judgement debt and my injuries sustained from a violent ejection in the 1999 Worlds. Put some icing on the cake w/ my brother almost dying in my F1 boat from a severe of his spine. I'll be back Louie , I'm not a quitter and a big BS'r. Brian Hollis

I know Brian, I'm just trying to get you guys running with us. I've seen your boats in action and know you build a superior product.Sometimes it's easier to hop on board a running machine like the OPA, and like George said Smitty isn't a stuffed shirt, he is a racer along with being the Pres. and if you guys were onboard and the classes were over filled I'm sure some kinda spec class could be born from them.
Louie

I'm w/ ya and you can go back and read my posts. I'm not trying to cause anybody any trouble. There's a place for for spec and bracket racing. If we could pull off one or two " grudge match races" at an event , we could gain some interests and momemtum. Another thing....do you see any other mfg on here trying to promote the sport of offshore powerboat racing? Where are all the other mfg's? I'm the smallest mfg in the world but nobody loves it more than me!

Brian,

You should test the waters again after the Wolrds and see if some of the guys will jump on board....
There are plenty of F1 boats out there that are running with a 500 in them...
Flash Wave
Volocity
You guys
Propco
get a Laveycraft
plus some current F1 boats that are running today.....and see what happens....
Most old F1 boats are tweeking or have stepped up the HP a little to be able to run in Class 5 in OPA....
Run a few races in any Org under F1 and see what kind of turn out you get...this way you still can run P5 the rest of the season....If guys are really serious...they will come and it will take off from there.....its getting guys to committ...