Why not let all the P5 boats run at half price to build the fleet so its not a money issue for anyone. Make it a trophy class. Maybe it will encourage some of the twin big block and big HP singles to move up. Any takers?
MD
My hat is off to Relentless for voluntarily moving up to P1 in a class that is bad ass. We need more guys like this.

Good idea Randy, but wouldnt this be a better offseason move for next year to promote over the winter? Trent

Randy.. I agree, not for my benefit. but there are alot of teams that are really trying to get it together to race and the big entry fees are making it tough for them. I would just like to see them get done and ready before its too late.

I think Bruce has a good idea, lower the fees which will attract more people and probably will end up with very little difference in actual $$ collected for the OPA. Probably end up with more!!

I respectfully disagree with the idea to make P5 a trophy class. Would you do the same with P1 and P2 which weren't well represented in Brick? The larger boats with twin big blocks shouldn't have to be encouraged to move up. Any boat capable of 70+ mph belongs in P4 and most of those boats can get 70+. Before you all say it's mainly for fun, remember when boats capable of 70+ mph run in P5 they almost always have a hugh advantage, especially if they're 28+ feet. If it's just for fun let them run in P4 and take their lumps. I have said it before, when you hear a crew say they "held it at 69mph" they are capable of higher speeds. Too much sandbagging still goes on. Some racers still think it's how fast they go in a race and not how fast they are capable of.
What i'm trying to say is level the playing field and the boats will turn out. After all the entry fees are a small part of the cost of racing and the only fixed cost I can think of. When you consider the cost of the boat, maintenance, travel, meals, lodging, etc. the entry fees are not that significant.
I would suggest in order to make things fair remove GPS units and or speedometers from the boats. That way if radar or sealed GPS units were used and the course was measured accurately speeds could be determined correctly and the possibility of sandbagging would be greatly reduced. If your boat is in the proper class you would never need to know how fast you were going and would never break out.

Ray

Good points Ray! Thats why I liked the idea of the race teams all voting on what class the other boats should be in. Has anyone ever been told they have to move up? I don't think so and why? Are they afraid that team will quit? Put it this way, if 20-30 teams vote your boat should run P4 then you have nothing to say and race where you belong or go poker run instead and lead the pack there.
MD

Randy and Ray,
Your 100% right; boats should be placed in the proper class by a tech comittee to prevent sanbagging and make each class as competitive as possible.

Mike,
I think some of the above posts are referring to the OPA racing series.
I do agree with the initial post of keeping the entry fees affordable, or to race for trophys.
I agree that if boats was in the "right" class there would not be issues or controversies. I think APBA inspectors police this well.
All the racers I've spoken with are for the elimination/covering of GPS speedos to prevent "sandbagging".

Bob G.

If you win twice in any of the P classes then you get bumped up to the next fastest class. Win twice in P5 and you get moved to P4, etc.

We are running the P class along the same rules as everyone else, just to keep the confusion to a minimum. We dont as of yet have the GPS system but will soon. We raced in Marathon with the GPS on board, it works perfectly. The issue with boats moving up, you are assuming we will be racing in flat water. In the last race no one even came close to breaking out. There are a few boats that are marginal, lets get the rest of the boats on the water and we will go from there. Out of all the boats that ran the last race, there were no complaints. Ed