for this to go anywhere you first need somthing people want to see.
1 all the boats in one place
2 ocean racing.boats flying out of the water and motors screaming is exciting. offshore boats ruinning on a lake is like watching paint dry.thats what hydroplanes are for.
3.reduce the number of classes .make it easy for fans to understand.
its a start. lets go from there

Don`t forget the BIG 3 need you

There were 97 boats in Key West. Racing started at 10am and lasted until about 3:30. Is that size of event really needed to have a great race? I would think anything over 50 boats is a great show.

As a racer, would you prefer to have 3 boats in your class and 70 overall or 9 in your class and 50 overall? The point is, what do you really want. Lots of boats in the pits or lots of boats in your class to race against?

Ron,
I agree if we can all race at one venue the boat turnout for SV could be 20+....Personally for 2005 we will be racing 2 santioning bodys, I rather do that then turn my back on good people who have been their in the 4 years of racing.....but not every team can do this..... I think what Bob Bull did this year was the right way, racing APBA and race some OSS and SBI races, If anything racing with 12 - 15 boats in one class in 2 or 3 santioning bodys can only be a positive thing for the racers and most of all the fans.

If it sounds stupid....my dog got the new password and my computer was on when I got home.

Both!

In the mid- 1980's when I was involved with the NHRA the Pro Catagories (Top Fuel Dragster, Fuel Funny Car, Pro Stock, etc.) took issue with some of the things that the NHRA was doing and how the Racers were being treated. A Group called "PRO" was created, and Kenny Bernstein served as the Racers Voice in sharing ideas and suggestions for change, and he turned out to be the Perfect Guy, a lot like Paul Whittier, lots of credibility and a Cool Head. We elected not to "start a war" with the NHRA because we saw the same Vision that they did in terms of advancing the Sport. Some of the tings that came out of that were no entry fee for the pro catagories, etc.

I'm not suggsting eliminating Entry Fees in our Sport, at present, we could not stand the economic impact of that, I'm merely pointing out that none of us (Drag Racers) wanted to Own or Run a sanctioning Body, and no one made threats or took action to do so. Out of cool heads and a common vision came change that benefited both the Racers AND the Sanctioning Body.

We knew instinctively that breaking it up into pieces was a Bad thing, and so did the NHRA, so they listened, and we negotiated reasonable concessions.

Unfortunately, in our sport, the prevailing method has been to take thier marbles and go play some other game if the current game does not go the way they would like it.

Bret, I think one of the problems we have is that while it is clear that the bigger shows are more saleable and more intersting, what I see is happy Racers who are content to be where they are at and looking forward to next year, so to some extent, I think that a long list of racers see this as succesting we fix something that is not broken.

I for one am excited to be racing the APBA Circuit next year, I think it will be an exciting Year with good competition.

I'm sure the OSS Guys and SBI Guys would say the same thing.

Gregg Reichman

Gino,
You make some good points, and the most important one is sponsor,and coverage that the sponsor expect,TV is most important and SBI is the only one with TV at this time,and second is a schedule. I know alot of teams that would agree with you,and wouldn't still have a sponsor today if it wasn't for TV., they were told flat out no TV no money. We've talked about it many times,and we all know we aren't racing for the prize money because a team just couldn't make it. The only way this sport is going to be fixed is with MONEY and LOTS OF IT. All the other problems would go away if someone injected the sport with a huge amount of money,everyone always talks about Nascar but they forget how and why it now is as big as it is...BIG MONEY behind it and if you think back it wasn't all that long ago.

Frank
"Koolhand"

SMYTH1
Have you ever raced on Lake Erie,or any where for that matter.
When we raced Cleveland the boats were flying.

1. better management,I do realize now all the organizers are dealing with other problems and trying to stay alive,profit can be made,but first,a solid companie has to establish there sponsors through there promotions,not from there contestants,I mean really,how good would fear factor be if the contestants had to pay 50 grand each to enter.

2.the winers need to stay home,if its legal,race it,to much contreversy from the little guys,race and grow like the rest of us had too!buying the fastest boat and having the biggest wallet does not make you fast,hard work and more hard work does!were would nascar be if everybody behind the third place car pulled of the track and publicly embarrased the top three finishers and the organizers.good TV is when the two out board cats landed on top of each other in the turn,broadcast some contreversy,some competitiveness.

3. promotions,TV coverage sucks,last night I watched the sarasota race,I watched a few boats and alot of commercials and didn't even see but one single competitive moment,and that was smitty and joey which were both racing in different classes,politics about APBA vrs SBI kept that from being a good damm show,what was there 70 boats,never saw but a quarter of them.why can't we get some footage to the guy that decided to run that gilligans isle crap on tv.

sorry,I can only think of three things,we already have some of the greatest people and attitudes and competitors in the world,we just need someone to channel it all together!