Hey Mike,
The Extreme boat ran the Vortec HP3 which is also allowed to run in Factory 1 Last year you could lease one...and heard you can this year threw Innovation.

Gino

Gino ,First off , hows the back ? need Lisa for another massage ? what cubic inch is the HP3 , ? it seemed to be a great motor ! thanks mike

The HP3 is 496 cid. Specs here
http://www.gm.com/automotive/gmpower...3_brochure.pdf

Allen
Where are you planning to race?

Having attended both meetings where many of the factory teams met, first with Mercury Racing in Ft Lauderdale, then with APBA/Innovation in St. Pete, I can see why APBA decided to simply keep the rules as they are.
At the last meeting in St. Pete, it seemed that everyone was willing to change to whatever motor was decided for the future of the class and the good of the class.
Almost immediately afterwords, some of those same teams started backtracking on their commitment to the class unless their choice of engine was selected.
Let's face it, APBA is having some problems. Some of the biggest problems APBA is dealing with is teams who scream that they want a voice in their class, yet cannot make up their own mind, let alone make up their collective minds as a class. I've had some great discussions with a few of the Factory 1 teams, and feel that with open minded communication we have made some great strides in compromise concerning the engine choices. Yet, there are still a few who just don't want to see the big picture.
Now, with all this in mind, please consider this...
The competition director has said that if everyone can make a unanimous decision, he'd go with it. Then he sees all this back & forth indecision/personal agenda stuff going on. Now, in the last few weeks add; a family member in critical care due to trauma, one of his closest friends in the hospital in ICU with medical problems, trying to work behind the scenes of APBA trying to control some of the damage done by a group of self serving racers who wanted it their way... or else. THEN he sees a handful of the Factory 1 racers who demand instant decisions, then make noises about going elswhere to race anyway. And we wonder why they said "screw it" and just kept things the same for another year.
Actually, When I look at it, we probably look almost as bad as those select selfserving superteam guys.

Happy Holidays Mike.

It's nice to hear from you!

Gordo,

Allow me to correct some mis-impressions.

The first meeting to discuss engines with APBA was at Innovation in Sarasota in August. The second meeting was in Ft. Lauderdale in September where we met with Mercury Racing. The third meeting was in St. Petersburg in October where Mike basically told us how it would be.

I think we were resigned to the 496 engine at that point. But time marches on. As we got into November and there was no follow-up announcement about engines, those of us who want to get our boats set up right started to get impatient. We had agreed to one engine. The engine was to be the 496. The engine now will not be available until late February. The HP500EFI is the most realistic fall back position for 2004. Real simple.

What are we supposed to do? We do want to help build a professional motorsport. By help do we mean sit on the sidelines, be quiet and let bad decisions be made on our behalf?

We have tried to get involved, communicate with the teams and with the sanctioning body. Our goal is what is best for everyone, not just one. We are by our nature proactive, accomplished, involved, and competitive people. We have a lot to offer.

Recognize that and work with it not against it.

Allen Campbell

Gordo,
Very well said.....If the teams can't make the disition the LLC has to and we all agree to race under their rules and I mean all and bring th 12-14 F1 boats back for 2004 to show the class is not dead.....and then work all together for something for 2005.....but agree alot of teams just want the rules up front in stone and they will race....and LLC has spoken and its time to get the boats ready for 2004 and race....