APBA Driving School in Dayton, Ohio, May 30-31

[HRTV]

At the boat show a few weeks ago, I met a pretty good mix of different folks. Many seemed only very casually interested in our sport. But, I'll never forget the group of teenagers who laughed out loud at my boat because the motor was steered with cables! (wrong group I guess)
I'm getting discouraged. I just can't seem to find anybody outside of our sport who is willing to work a little to go out and have fun with us. I can't even get one of my own brothers into it. I give up!

I have a nice C marathon boat for sale now.

Sorry, rant over.

Jeff,

Red Bull Racing has got the youth of America, Europe and Asia on lock down. Anyone who thinks they have a chance to pull these teenagers away from the lights and glory of the Red Bull Racing series spread out around the world is dreaming big time.

http://www.redbullusa.com/en/Landing...ingPage.action

[John Sherlock]

I'll never forget the group of teenagers who laughed out loud at my boat because the motor was steered with cables! (wrong group I guess)

I travel all over the country and the same comments come up over and over, yes make fun of the steering, do you race it, how fast, thats fast on the water, 50 mph gets the same response as 150, will they sink if not held up?

I race and have fun for the years I have left but after that I have NO clue about the sport going forward....

[HRTV]

I travel all over the country and the same comments come up over and over, yes make fun of the steering, do you race it, how fast, thats fast on the water, 50 mph gets the same response as 150, will they sink if not held up?

I race and have fun for the years I have left but after that I have NO clue about the sport going forward....

Hey John,

The answer is summed up best by long time racer Dr. Ken Muscatel click on the link below.

http://www.kndu.com/Global/story.asp?S=10478168

[Tim Small]

USTS Winona

In 2 weeks the USTS travels to Winona Minnesota. We are racing as part of the STEAMBOAT DAYS FESTIVAL in Winona. We are racing FRIDAY NIGHT as part of the festival. They also have concerts, parades, running races, attractions, and a host of other activities throughout the weekend. We also race Saturday as the main attraction. They advertise the USTS on TV and radio all week also. Many of the USTS races are combined with other events which will bring the people out not only for the races, but other events that people can enjoy. Now days you must combine the boat races with other events to make it successful. BUT, YOU MUST PUT ON A GOOD SHOW THAT IS SHORT AND EXCITING, or the sponsors arent interested.

[steve jones]

Dr. Ken has the right idea for Evansville, U-BOATS, BBQ, HOT RODS & COUNTRY ROCK MUSIC, the only complaint I see is that you will have to buy your beer in the festival. The river should be pretty good in late August, flatter and less "junk"floating down
As for the Champ Boats in June, They could be facing the same water conditions as they did in Algonac, with the right wind, the Ohio will roll and white cap.

Dan, I will post some results and maby some photos if you want.

Jeff, I had the same reaction as you,except it happened to me in 1985

John, Amen, I'm with you.

It seems like the only age group with discretionary or disposable income, are the mid-late 50's. I'm not surprised by the average age for the drivers school, I'm 58 and making a come back to stock outboard.

[HRTV]

Dr. Ken has the right idea for Evansville, U-BOATS, BBQ, HOT RODS & COUNTRY ROCK MUSIC, the only complaint I see is that you will have to buy your beer in the festival. The river should be pretty good in late August, flatter and less "junk"floating down
As for the Champ Boats in June, They could be facing the same water conditions as they did in Algonac, with the right wind, the Ohio will roll and white cap.

Dan, I will post some results and maby some photos if you want.

Jeff, I had the same reaction as you,except it happened to me in 1985

John, Amen, I'm with you.

It seems like the only age group with discretionary or disposable income, are the mid-late 50's. I'm not surprised by the average age for the drivers school, I'm 58 and making a come back to stock outboard.

Hey Steve,

Great reply thanks for sharing a few of your thoughts with us. Looks like you guys are right, clearly racing of any sort at this point in time in history is probably well out of reach for any young family with a kid or two and a mortgage. Good luck with your come back tour and be safe

[sponsonhead]

Don Allen is right!

Before we get too wrapped up in the fact that the first attempt at APBA's Driving School might not have hit the target demographic that some of may want (whether that be age, creed, color, shoe size, economic affluence, etc), let's first not overlook the fact that this is the first time APBA has done anything like this. Whether you think APBA hit the right mark with who showed up or not, the fact remains: THEY DID IT, and by all marks it seems to be a success.

Beyond that, the question remains, how to make it better? How do you grab an audience that is going to help APBA and boat racing grow?

Don Allen's Avatar line is right: Hook 'em while they're young.

There's some great success stories in ways to promote encourage new rcers. MHRA's "Never Ever Racer" program, SOA's "New Folks in Boats" Day, and R11's "NorCal 400" come to mind. We've seen what both the HARM J Hydro program has done, as well as the success Robin Shane has with her program. And if you can start a new racer in J or AXS, then they have room to grow in the sport, they likely have siblings who may get into it (SOA now has two of the Hyde Triplets on the water and we're working on the third), and it's not uncommon for the dad or even the mom to buy a boat based on their involvement of the kid's racing. In my opinion, that's where the real growth comes from.

For a couple of years now, I've been thinking that a great way to promote the sport would be for a holding a "Boat Racing Camp". This would be geared toward J/AXS drivers. Find an unused camp on a lake somewhere (could be tough to do in the middle of summer, so maybe late spring/early fall), keep it short (a weekend in length), where kids can either bring their own boats, or a number of loaner boats could be available for kids without equipment. The emphasis on the water would be time in the boats, practicing starts, bringing in existing racers to talk to the kids....and then all the typical summer camp things: Campfires, Smores, swimming (disguised as "lifejacket testing"), and all the other camp stuff that kids are used to.

I think it would be not only a great way to help introduce new people to the sport, but help kids get familiar with their rigs if they have them, gain confidence as drivers, and still have fun being kids. If the concept can take hold, you could even have a limited number of scholarship slots that could be made available for at-risk or disadvantaged kids.

It would take a boatload of work, and the concept has some formidable challenges to it, such as finding a facility to have it at and a body of water you could control for starters....and probably a whole lot of things I haven't even thought of. And this is not meant to replace the APBA Driving School, we still need that! But I think the concept of something geared toward attracting the younger drivers that can compete with soccer, baseball, football, hockey, whatever camp as a kid's summertime activity is they type of platform we need to be putting ourselves on. There's too may things for kids to get themselves occupied with as leisure activities, and we are in competition with all of them. Perhaps we should meet them at their level.

Flame away,

R-19

[csh12M]

MHRA Racer School

Michigan Hydroplane Racer School is being held Friday June 19 from 1-4 at Constantine, MI.

So far we have five registered as follows.

10 boy
12 girl
14 boy
16 boy
16 boy

We are "word of mouth" by the club targeting families and "father son/daughter interests.

CSH12M

[BP125V]

thanks

thank you Dean and Pat for pointing out what people are doing to make this work. Marine Racing Club has a CSH along with all of the safety gear that we are making available so a person off the street can go for a ride if interested. We have a guy back into racing after 24 years away and his son just started in JH at Burlington. we have a father and daughter who live in our area that we are working on right now.

can't agree more with Pat, this is the first time this has been done by the APBA and they SOLD OUT! and now we are going to cry that the demographics were'nt right?!?!?!? what if that older person got started? i'm sure they have kids or maybe even grandkids that they could expose to the sport and get them started.

Hey Jeff - did you point out to the teenagers that F1 tunnel boats are steered by cables? Funny - when we go testing we always get people stopping by and they are always interested and positive. It is always "cool, you go how fast with that little engine? no way!"


Bill

[bill van steenwyk]

Second Paragraph Of Bp125v's Post

If anyone is interested in the continuation of this sport that most of the visitors/posters on this site seem to be very passionate about, I urge you to read the second paragraph of this post again and again. I never have heard it said better. You "throw somebody out of the mix" at the peril of marginalizing this sport ever more than it is at present.

Someone else just brought out the fact that the older folks are a lot more likely to have some disposable income these days, and they have family members they can influence and bring into the sport. Unless Madoff got theirs too!!!

I can testify that even if your body is not fit to get in a boat anymore, that does not diminish your affection for the sport. Especially for someone who maybe wanted to race when they were younger and for family or financial reasons was not able to. EVERYONE needs to be encouraged to be involved in Boat Racing in whatever manner they are able. To not do so is very shortsighted. It is not much of a "race" by yourself.

[HRTV]

thank you Dean and Pat for pointing out what people are doing to make this work. Marine Racing Club has a CSH along with all of the safety gear that we are making available so a person off the street can go for a ride if interested. We have a guy back into racing after 24 years away and his son just started in JH at Burlington. we have a father and daughter who live in our area that we are working on right now.

can't agree more with Pat, this is the first time this has been done by the APBA and they SOLD OUT! and now we are going to cry that the demographics were'nt right?!?!?!? what if that older person got started? i'm sure they have kids or maybe even grandkids that they could expose to the sport and get them started.

Hey Jeff - did you point out to the teenagers that F1 tunnel boats are steered by cables? Funny - when we go testing we always get people stopping by and they are always interested and positive. It is always "cool, you go how fast with that little engine? no way!"


Bill

Not crying at all Bill its a fact that that majority of active drivers in the APBA are white males just a fact not crying. There is no harm in discussing this if the conversation is kept on a mature and professional level. I would love to hear what the APBA has planned to attract more minority members.

[chicagopaul]

Encourage minorities?

Hey Dan,

Over the last 5 years that I have been in the sport, the audience in our areas are mainly non-minority because of location I guess. We have a good percentage of female racers but no African Americans. I have been approached by 3 African Americans over the years and have not been able to get past "their" fear factor. I have called and offered rides to them as I do all folks that show an interest, but I feel that I can't convince them that our group has no prejudice. I don't bring it up, they do. I do tell them that we are a cast of characters and we play hard. If somone gets out of line we self police ourseleves. We have some goofs just like any other group of racers. But, they are goofs to everyone, they are not selective ya know?

Not sure what else to do to prove I am sincere. Ideas are welcome.

ChicagoPaul

[HRTV]

Hey Dan,

Over the last 5 years that I have been in the sport, the audience in our areas are mainly non-minority because of location I guess. We have a good percentage of female racers but no African Americans. I have been approached by 3 African Americans over the years and have not been able to get past "their" fear factor. I have called and offered rides to them as I do all folks that show an interest, but I feel that I can't convince them that our group has no prejudice. I don't bring it up, they do. I do tell them that we are a cast of characters and we play hard. If somone gets out of line we self police ourseleves. We have some goofs just like any other group of racers. But, they are goofs to everyone, they are not selective ya know?

Not sure what else to do to prove I am sincere. Ideas are welcome.

ChicagoPaul

Hey Paul,

Thanks for the feedback, I honestly feel that this a very important topic that should be raised at the next convention, the world is a very diverse place

[mercguy]

Hey Dan,

Over the last 5 years that I have been in the sport, the audience in our areas are mainly non-minority because of location I guess. We have a good percentage of female racers but no African Americans. I have been approached by 3 African Americans over the years and have not been able to get past "their" fear factor. I have called and offered rides to them as I do all folks that show an interest, but I feel that I can't convince them that our group has no prejudice. I don't bring it up, they do. I do tell them that we are a cast of characters and we play hard. If somone gets out of line we self police ourseleves. We have some goofs just like any other group of racers. But, they are goofs to everyone, they are not selective ya know?

Not sure what else to do to prove I am sincere. Ideas are welcome.

ChicagoPaul

"get past "their" fear factor"


I think Dan is still SKEERED!!!!!!!!!

[bill van steenwyk]

what is the reason for minority non-participation

Before you can find or implement a solution, you have to figure out what the problem is. Many folks much smarter and motivated than this boat racing group have tried and not had much success. All you have to do is look at NASCAR and the effort and money they have put into their program, and it does not seem to have born much fruit. Why has that not worked??

It seems to me that there is at least one form of motor sport very well represented by African-American and Hispanic parts of the population, and that is Drag Racing. What are they doing that boat racing and other types of motor sports is not? Also Motocross and F-1 Auto racing are two more that have people of color running up front and winning championships, although the participation falls off drastically except at the top. It may be too simple a solution or answer to the problem, but since auto and bike racing is represented, did the racing interest in these type motorsports come from owning a street car and bike first and then a natural progression to racing?
If that is the case it is not hard to figure out why minority participation in the sport is almost nil. Eileen and I have been going to the lakes in the Midwest for the last 15 years and minority ownership of those type boats is something we NEVER see, except for the occasional fisherman. That is not true at the late winter Boat Show in St. Louis, but as far as seeing the participation on the water in the boating season, it is not there.

Is it too simple to expect before you want to race something, you need to have some exposure to driving it in a more casual setting?

And lastly (and no criticism intended Dan) but if a minority owned website about and for boat racers can't generate some interest in that population segment, what is the chance it will happen on its own?