I think we registered, if we havent let me know...were here to help my man

Johnny

Louie,

Since I opened up this can of worms, I'll respond. I apologize that you blew up and I'll make it up to you when we see each other in SIB.

Simply put, this thread started off with a simple question, "Do you guys want purse money or tow money?" Ok great, people come on here and pull out their poms poms and say what they want then for some unknown reason my phone lights up and racers are asking me what the numbers are. I'm a stupid plain old racer, I am not a member of the OPA staff. I come on here and say ok you want us to make a choice, what are the specifics? Then the initial response I get answers to 25% of it and I am told to "take it from there". In return based off of that number and looking at the class count from 2010, I busted out my calculator and came up with the numbers shown in my previous post. In essence, I had to "ASSUME". It cracked me up when all these guys were saying tow money, tow money... What if by chance the purse was a million dollars and the tow money amount was $10.00? Guess they would have been screwed....

Concerning what I have done to improve powerboat racing.. I will let my actions over the last 10 years in this sport and 5 years as a team owner do the talking for me and let you and my fellow racers decide. Its really not my place.

As far as really really courting a sponsor. Thats easy, I am a sponsor based team, no sponsor- no race. Right now we're scrambling as I still have use of my OPA boat, but have no backing due to the "YouTube" video from the 2010 awards depicting how the tv broadcast would be, then the complete opposite happening, he wont spend another dime for us to attend races.

I met with you in St Clair briefly to see if my traveling side show would be beneficial to your site, you said yes, I brought and went where you wanted me and our team had a ball. Every single site wanted the display except for SIB wanted $1000 to bring it in. Ok no problem, we'll leave it at home for that site. I deeply apologize that I couldnt make your banquet this year with me having to get two boats ready to race now, but two(2) of my team members were able to make it, so I hope that kinda makes up for my absence.

Moral, If you want the racers input give us the specifics to work with, by no means should you ever let us as racers "ASSUME" anything. Tell us how it is in black and white and if it works for our teams, then we show up, if not we stay at home... simple When I received dollar one in sponsor monies, Uncle Sam came a chasing, therefor it became a business. I need complete information in order to make the best decisions for my team(business), just as I am pretty sure that Smitty doesnt make a decision on smoke and mirrors with his marina and you dont with your rigging/crane business.

As I have said to Smitty everytime we have talked, "if you need anything from our team, dont hesitate to let us know" The same goes for you Louie!!! Smitty did return my call yesterday and he eleaviated any and all grey areas concerning this matter. One of these days we'll all realize that these public forums are great for announcements, but never for discussions. But when an announcement is made, be specific!!!!

Trent
321-508-3077

LOL I started some ****! Scotty You and the Geico Team have always been there to help, both in bringing us the top offshore team in the world and tremendous financial support. My question is why should you be the only ones? Did we drain the spunk out of John Haggin by constantly putting the bite on him? I hope not I miss him already. I'm not pissed at anyone and I would ask no one feels pointed out or at fault. The economy is taking a big bite out of us all and I would vote for gas money for all teams and trophies for the winners. This keeps the financial playing field even for all teams and helps all the teams rather then a few. It solves the money dilemma of the huge gap in numbers between say class 5 and class 1 or 2. My opinion.
As far as Teague Custom Marine? Bob Teague does more and gives more then most will ever realize. All of our teams help with parts and or manpower when another team needs it, we've seen it in the past.
Optima Batteries is a new sponsor and it was made clear that an early registration was required to secure the batterie(s) that the teams are required to run in your boat for free, now most teams have to buy them, WTF? Smitty, Ron, Augie and the crew worked hard to make this "Sponsorship" deal work to help bring us TV and what happened? I mean should Smitty fly around and install them in our boats while Ron fills out our paperwork? lol
Let's get the season going and as race teams lets look to kick this up a notch by helping the people who volunteer their time and efforts by at least registering in advance.
Thanks Louie

PS Trent thank you for bringing the Hydro it was an awesome addition to the boats on Friday night and you have always been there to help in anyway you can ( even lent me your compressor in Orange Beach to fix my bike flat lol.) You and everyone else has the right to accurate information, problem is sometimes the sites are still raising money a week before the race to cover the purses and if it comes up light Smitty catches hell. If a site is struggling do we cancel the race? If we did we wouldn't have to many sites. Sorry if I seemed defensive, as a racer I know first hand how much this stuff can cost I just wanted to get across the idea that we are all in the same boat. Louie

OK, group hug

So do you like 80% to tow money and 20% to purse?

Or how would you pay it out?

Ron,

Upon my conversation with Smitty yesterday, he said that it would be up to the classes upon our arrival as to how we want to do it. Lets let this go and when we get down there it'll fall into place. However if you and Smitty sit down and decide on something, you whip up your good ole press release and give us the "specifics" and as I said above, the racers will then decide. You guys are in charge and no not all the racers will ever be happy so do what is in the best interest of OPA. If we dont have OPA we dont have a place to race.....

Dont we have A class rep for each class? Cant this be decided by each class and then the Rep for that class make the call to OPA regarding what that class decides?

And again i think most if not all smaller teams will vost for the TOW DOE

Prize money or tow money,Sunny Isles is a great event, and defintately worth the trip.We are also very fortunate to only have to pay annual registration fees and not additional fees for each and every race.Despite difficult economic times,there are many positives for OPA .OPA has a staff of VOLUNTEERS that give up thier time and money so that we can race!Each race producer also has a staff of VOLUNTEERS that do the same.Remember to take time to thank these people at each and every race.OPA has a great schedule planned for us that offers varying water conditions to help level the playing field.There are also a number of new teams planning on racing the OPA circut this year.Lets do whatever we can to help make thier racing experience as enjoyable as posibble so that they keep coming back.It is also great to see sponsors like Teague and Optima supporting the OPA.Lets make sure that we all do whatever we can to help them maximize exposure and increase sales.

We all need to work together to continue to improve OPA.I know that I am willing to help in any way that I can.

Cheers!! lol

Well said!!