I could have sworn it said we went from 75 to 80. Which (although I could be wrong, and I dont want to speak for Barry or Mike) I doubt they could do with their current setup.
Enjoy your ass kicking

In my opinion speeds are fine where they are. I don't know about everyone else, but I don't have the time or money to go buy new props and start testing set-ups, hell i barely have time to make it to the races as it is. If you look at the boat count, Class 5 has 8+ boats at the races in MD and FL for the worlds. In my opinion, the location of race sites compared to where the racers live is the major contributing factor. For me, I don't have enough time off to travel to Michigan for a weekend race event or the money to have someone pull the boat there for me and I fly with my job, i just cant do it. Unfortunately, and I'm not opposed to criticism, i believe thats the way it is with a lot of the other guys as well. Now i love racing and all the people involved with it and as everyone knows i try to stay out of all the politics that go along with it, so I will continue to do all i can to make as many races a possible and have a blast doing it. Looking forward to seeing yall in AC!

Sums up how I feel too Mikey, see ya soon brotha

Ok here's the avg boat count for the 2012 National tour:

Class 1: 2.2 per race/ 3 total registered
Class 3: 2 per race/ 7 total registered
Class 4: 2.2 per race/ 6 total registered
Class 5: 4.4 per race/ 14 total registered
Class 6: 8.8 per race/ 13 total registered

Source: oparacing.org

Maybe we should let Smitty decide on things and forget what the racers have to say as the above is embarrassing(with the exception of Class 6). Smitty has to go into these race sites, sell OPA and the promoters always want to know "How many boats?" They want a show.... Back in the day the minimum was to have 5 boats in a class and lets use the economy as an excuse, bring that number down to 3, you still have 3 out of the 5 that avg less than 3.

These are the numbers that the check writers(whether its cities or sponsors) look at. Understandably, Mikey as an example, he has a traveling job, half of last year he was in Hawaii, we all work in some shape or form, but I ask again, what are we doing to attract more racers and more fans cause the numbers above, god bless Smitty for putting up with our(including me) horsechit.....

If you are going to use boat count as a measure of what the promoters are looking at, you must include the non bracket classes in your total.

Trent we ALL know why boat count was low at some races last year, specifically three of them in the middle of the season. Its exactly what Mikey said for a lot of teams, myself included. When 90% of the class 5 boats live in place A....and the race is in place B 1100 miles away...well....duh? Which is exactly why Ocean City, Solomons and Florida had great boat counts.
Id bet this year is better, especially with how awesome everyone said Tawas was.

As per your request:

Extreme: 1.2 average per race/ 5 total registered
Super Cat: 2.6 average per race/ 3 total registered
Super Vee: 1.8 average per race/ 2 total registered
SVL: 4.2 average per race/ 9 total registered
Stock: .4 average per race/ 2 total registered

This conversation is a moot point

Just any FYI. St Clair was also up there in boat count. The total boat count per site numbers have actually been damn near close over the past couple of years.

2013

• Ocean City - 31
• East Tawas - 24
• St Clair - 34
• Port Huron - 27
• Smith Point - cancelled
• Solomons - 34
• Jupiter - 50

2012

• Atlantic City - cancelled
• Sunny Isles - 23
• St Clair - 37
• Port Huron - 28
• Sayville - cancelled
• Solomons - 35
• Orange Beach - 27

2011

• Ocean City - 33
• Sunny Isles - 38
• Harrison Twp - 23
• St Clair - 48
• Patchogue - 38
• Atlantic City - 35 (no race)
• Solomons - 29
• Orange Beach - 32

What this post has turned into is a lot of truth .
First class 2 could be a good class if you take the boats that can run it now ie bull on the beach,zipp,tko,smittys, and louie sv now you have a good class rick and i wont be ready for class 2 till next year .
Is this bad for sv yes but since there is only 2 boats its good for the sport and the fans which like to watch load fast boats!

As far as making 6-5 together it could work but you will see the big boats do better in big water this has all been hashed over before.

Just remember the play on words is class 6 is the start up class but horse power runs wild in this class but class 6 is the bread and butter class and will continue to be that and it will get bigger and bigger.

And that term start up has been thrown around tomuch if look at the boats in class 6 most are pure perpose built race boats .

Just remember rule changes are something we dont need a little class movment might not be a bad thing.

Back to the purpose of this post could class 2 work i think so and i think it would be good for the sport and the teams and it could drag some boats out that have nowhere to go.