12 too many?

[14J]

Too Many?

This isn't pleasure boating, fishing, or antiquing. This is BOAT RACING!

[Tomtall]

16 boat finals

Frank Zorkan shared this picture with me at the Grass Lake nationals. He made it a point to show me how in "The Old Days" they ran 16 boat starts. How would like to be turn judge in turn one for those races?

[Wagneracing06]

I understand the safety behind the thought, BUT!!!!

If you attend a local race that is running both Stock and Modified classes. And you get lucky enough to have a large turn out of racers in numerous classes. Where are you going to find the time to get all heats of racing into the day's program that you are running. Extra heats take extra time. Talk to your race directors, referees, scorers, and inspectors about the difficulty of getting through a full day of racing. It's tough. Factor in weather condition, accidents, jumped starts, engine failures, etc... Less heats of racing is one of the ways to fit it all in. We combine classes and score separately
While I'm on the subject, Have you thanked your race committee volunteers lately?

Rick Wagner Sr.

[Dave M]

12

I would vote to keep it at 12. Any less and the spectators think it is boring. Kind of goes hand in hand with promoting a race to sponsors. If we could run 25 or more in each heat this sport would be mainstream media.

[Kev43V]

There is absolutely nothing as exciting in boat racing as seeing 3 or 4 boats side by side for most of a heat.
IMHO if you WANT to race strung out on the course just back off the throttle
Or start a new race program that does time trials instead of side by side racing. I am sure your insurance costs would be substantialy lower than what we pay for now.

[Bob Rusnak]

Boat Racing it is, It just does not mean anything winning with a 3-4 or even 6 boat final. Just a lot easier to accumulate points with less boats. Keep it at 12. Actually, if there is not a full field of 12 at a Nationals, there should be no National Champion awarded for that class. Just my oponion......Bob

[Team B&H]

the more there is, the harder you have to work !!!!!!!! No matter how many there are, you still have to beat the same people!!!!! 12 is great, when its possible............more boats out there also makes you a better driver...........racing the same 3-4 people all the time is BORING!

very good post daren, I agree

bill

[B1PRORACER]

Don't forget... the local race committee CAN reduce the number of boats that they will run in a heat if the think the conditions require less. The 12 boat heat is a maximum! From a spectator point of view- full fields are more exciting!
Peter Crowley

[B Walker]

We do not have spectators, groupies, or a show of any sort to package, market, and sell.

Stock Outboard is a participation sport. We race for ourselves.

In my perfect world if the number of classes were reduced, and the size of the fields were reduced, race time on the water would increase without extending an allready too long race day.

More heats per day means a more experienced racer. A more experienced racer means better and tighter racing.

And thats what it is all about!

BW

[DiGia54D]

Region 1,2 and 3 get a lot of spectators at there races. Can you imagine how long the Nationals would have been in 87 Wakefield when 40 CSH, 40 20ssh's and at that time 60-70 ASR/ASH, With 12 boats per heat it was 2 days just for elims in the A classes. Cut the amount of boats per heat and the STOCK nationals would be 2 weeks long. If someone races only 5-6 boats all year long and then makes it to the finals at the nationals. Whole differant world going into a turn with 11 other drivers fighting for that championship.

[blueskyracer]

All year long we have raced against the same 4-5 boats. This weekend should be a whole new experiance racing in a crowd of 10-12 CSH at Eatonville. Look out Mama

It will definately be exciting again

[Dave M]

Disagree

We do not have spectators, groupies, or a show of any sort to package, market, and sell.

Stock Outboard is a participation sport. We race for ourselves.

BW

Brad,

You are simply not getting spectators at the races you are attending. There are a lot more than most think here in the midwest.

I think we missed a window of oppurtunity with the recession. We never charge spectators to get into a race, or at least we shouldn't at this point. We advertise a free weekend of boat races in all the local media outlets and I think people would have come out in droves. Especially in MI where there is no employment and no money. People crave cheap entertainment. Here they can spend 4 - 5 hours watching some racing and they can come right up to the racers and talk. Marketing my friend.

Sorry to hijack the thread. This stuff is usually only a winter project on HR.

[HRTV]

Here in region 4 Inboard drivers have never raced for just them selves, crowds are usually huge and they love it! as Dave pointed out the races are free of charge and that spells huge crowds in this economy.

Inboards rock baby! the clip below was shot a few weeks ago at Kent Island Maryland just 30 mins from my home, the fans love Inboards! by the way yes I was there

<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wBA_Fw04zSw&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x99 9999"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wBA_Fw04zSw&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x99 9999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>

[B Walker]

Oh really?

I have raced Stock and Modified for 30+ years, attended races coast to coast and can only think of a few legacy race courses I have missed out on. I cannot ever recall what I would call a decent crowd, especially when you remove friends and family from the list of spectators.

But maybe my expectations on spectator attendence are too high.

I have talked to professional sports marketing promoters and they have said if you cant get 10K paying spectators, you cant make an event even start to pay for itself.

When I attend a race with 10K spectators at a free event, I will consider that we have a show that can be packaged, marketed and sold. Until then I am quite firm in my belief that we race for ourselves and that our leadership should be making decisions that make the sport easier on the racers, not for the spectators.

Highest priority for leadership of Stock Outboard to consider are increasing the participants total race weekend experience by getting people on the water more often, reducing the overall cost to the racer, and creating a level playing field of competition.

I believe the majority of current SORC members shares these values.

BW

[B Walker]

Dan, don't make me dig up some photos of Miami Marine Stadium from back in the day! I have attended races at Kent Island many times and the only show thats better is Sea Fair in Seattle

That said:

http://www.superboat.com/

Offshore does the best job of marketing and promoting this sport currently. I have been to a dozen offshore events and been fortunate enough to meet and talk with the marketing professionals that make their program happen.

It takes a 3 person team of full time marketing and sales people to make the Super Boat International 10 race schedule plus another part time paid employee per individual event.

Interestingly, after all the bills are paid, they make no money.