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Ocean City Race Article

Powerboat Races Returning To Ocean City After Six Years

Shawn Soper
News Editor

08/10/2006 OCEAN CITY – Offshore powerboat racing will return to Ocean City next month as part of a summer-long series of races around the country, ending a six-year absence of the popular event in the resort, which enjoyed the spectacle for eight straight years before the plug was pulled in 2000.

Throughout much of the 1990s, big time offshore powerboat races were a staple on the fall schedule with a racing series returning to Ocean City on Columbus Day weekend in October for eight straight years. Funding issues and a waning commitment from the town caused the typically loud event to quietly go away in 2000, but a national powerboat racing group, the Offshore Performance Association (OPA), is bringing the event back to the resort on Sept. 9-10 as part of a series of races that includes stops in Michigan, Ohio, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Maryland, including another event scheduled in Cambridge.

Called the “Ocean City Maryland Offshore Challenge,” the OPA-sponsored event will feature around 40 V-hull and twin-hull hydroplanes roaring around a two-mile long, half-mile wide course laid out about 300 yards off the coast of the resort. In addition to the thousands of spectators watching the action from the shore, a fleet of spectator boats offshore in expected to contribute to the spectacle.

The 2006 Offshore Performance Association racing series began in Algonac, Mich. on June 3-4 and will arrive in Ocean City on Sept. 9-10. The series moves to Cambridge on Sept. 23-24 and concludes with the World Championships in Destin, Fla. on Nov. 5-12.

Unlike the previous powerboat racing series that included Ocean City in years past, the OPA series coming this fall requires no entry fees from race participants, which helps expand the field but also presents funding challenges, according to OPA President Ed Smith.

“We’re going with a different philosophy,” he said. “In the past, the racers have always paid big entry fees and have also paid for everything else including lodging and expenses. We’re trying to line up sponsors and contributors to help with some of those expenses, which we think will make the race series more conducive for the racing teams.”

Smith said the Ocean City community has responded, under the guidance of business leaders like Rob Asner and Bull on the Beach owner Phil Houck, who was instrumental in bringing powerboat racing to the resort in years past and has his own boat and racing team. Houck is a major contributor to the event, donating around $25,000 thus far, but he is looking for help from his colleagues in the business community.

“In past years, the powerboat races have been very successful, not only in raising a very generous amount for local businesses, but in rallying our community to support this important local event,” he said in a prepared statement this week. “We are fortunate to be working and living in a place as special as Ocean City.”

Houck said the event needs roughly another $10,000 to ensure its success and he is asking fellow business owners to step up, either with monetary contributions or in-kind donations such as free or reduced room rates.

Smith said his association is enthused about returning to Ocean City, but hopes the event has some staying power this time around.

“We’re really hoping for a five-year deal to come back to Ocean City,” he said. “It doesn’t do anybody any good to come back for one year because the competitors and the organizers like to plan in advance, and I’m sure the city would also like to be able to pencil this event in year after year.”

All material copyright 2006 The Maryland Coast Dispatch, Berlin, MD. Questions, comments, contact us at [email protected]