Why has region 4 lost its appeal with Stock Mod & Pro drivers

[PopPop]

PWC people race a product that the public can go to a dealer and buy. So the manufactures sponsors.....period.... period ...periodddddd and PWC owners relate when they see it on the telly.

[HRTV]

Dan
Here we go i suppose you could say i came from old school and as Bill Huson has stated and as Dan the man knows as well unity in our sport is a must.One of the things for years was striving to keep Region 4 together espscially at the region meetings.Stock Mod Pro OPC and Inboard our elders made sure we were unique and stayed together,there were problems with a couple of the inboarders poking at the outboarders and things got out of hand and the next thing you know it seems all that is left is inboard participation on the region level. However my hat is off to all those involved from Jerry Glass to Terry Browning to The Shanes and yes to ALL the outboarders From Ponds to Augustines for having a batch of races in unity i think it is terrific.
Dan you and I both know how many racers became friends from unity.
Promoting the sport is just one of the factors making people aware of ALL classes Stock Mod Pro etc. yes i suppose you could say i sorta jumped ship to inboard but my heart Always is with the outboarders.
In 1984 we had a new promotional member who wanted to get things going again in the region and actually made me do the leg work to get Sharptown off the ground,this gentleman wanted to find race sites and i found a couple to get a couple races in Region 4 and the mans name is Bill Huson with Pop Augustines guidance and phone directory Bill probably made more phone calls than imaginable and his lovely wife Linda became a work of art on the judges stand or should i say scorers stand.The other race we got off the ground was actually in region 3 and was a region 4 race.
Bill i hope you are reading this boy we outdid ourselves on this one a sewage plant to our left and grain silos to our right which gave us more itches than poison ivy we added a whole new meaning to racing the riverfest in slower lower Seaford Delaware.
The one thing i can say is we all love boat racing and have a huge network of friendships that last a lifetime in boat racing i never have met a stranger.
To all if i can help with getting any new race sites or doing the leg work for the club i do not have a problem with that.
Sincerly
Tim Lee

Tim,

You probably know me better then anyone else here at HR and you know better then anyone that I will do what ever it takes to help keep this sport alive. My fondest memories of racing come from hanging out with guys during the 80's down on the shore, man the stories we could tell... You, me, Charlie, Earl and Bill AKA the wild bunch LOL I will never forget what Earl's little girl used to call my yellow boat, gee I guess they are all adults now man I'm getting old guess I better go start my own bucket list

[abbypond]

Ouch, Abby.

Mark, I was not trying to be harsh, or discredit the time and effort that is put forth by some of our region members. I know that there are persons in our region that are very dedicated to our sport, and work very hard. Let me further explain what I meant.

As many have stated before, the economy and declining membership have greatly affected our sport. There are lots of races in surrounding regions, and it would be very expensive to attend all the races that are offered. Therefore, people have to pick and choose the races they attend. When determining which races to attend, people ask.. How far do I have to drive? How much are entry fees? Are there any special events? Will there be spaghetti dinner ? Another underlying question is- How established is the race site? I find that there is a better turn out for the races that people have been attending for the past 30 years. I think this is one reason that races like Camden had such a good turn out.

Region 4 has lost a few great race sites; however, we are attempting to establish new sites, and collaborate with a few Inboard races. We need support from our own region members in order to establish these races. (an example would be Portsmouth, which isn't very far for most region 4 member to travel- it would have been cool to have few more stock outboard classes) If we can't get support from our own region members, how are we supposed to pull racers from other regions?

[Don Muncie]

This really is a wonderful topic, however after reading it and talking with several friends from different regions, I get the jist that it's not only limited to this region in question, but tp pretty much all regions. After giving this some thought and setting off the smoke alarm, I might make some suggestions.

I was raised on river racing. Lakes do have their place for record courses, but man, there's nothing like a river to showcase real driving tallent. (Region ten guys know this for the Newberg race) Put a current in the course and new plans must emerge to race the course successfully.

Cost also is becoming more of an issue too. I see some good stuff mentioned. One thing that did cross my mind is, why the capsules? I realize this was a safety thing and understand their value, the capsule definately saves lives! The question I have is why can't we take the next size hull class up from the one in question and make it the standard? Like the 500cc being the new 350cc and so on? I know there are record implications, but why couldn't the existing record be "salted away" for new records of the class(es) in question?

On the modified classes, I see only a given few engines being allowed in the "C" mod class when there are some really good, competitive engines available very economically that could give the "rice burners" some serious heat. Mercury made a very unique 30ci engine in 1963 and 64. This little jewel is so misunderstood, but with the right prop, the right pipe this thing will give all a 55H would ever want out of the hole and with a 16" trailering edge on the prop just might set some records. Food for thought?

These are just random thoughts, just wanted to waste some time, and get off my back for a bit (growing old sucks! )