Problem Solving 101

[Joe J]

If you want to reward regions with more boats with more points, then in effect you are penalizing regions with less boats.

If this were to happen, the entire west coast would probably dissappaer from APBA.

As for GPS records, Ron, you need to do some research into how accurate they are. They are not perfect.

Joe

[CSR4C]

Points

Boinis points for larger entry numbers will work ONLY with a point system where the winner it the one with the most points, reguardless of number of races attended.
There should never be a reason to not attend a race. The present 15/12 race high point system for stock/mod discourages race attendece.
I won CSR high points in 1995. Did not attend Lodi, a short rough course as it might wreck my point adverage. Besides I had my 15 races in by mid July. If it was for the driver at the end of the year with the most points, you bet, I would have been at Lodi.
Darrell

[jon66w]

Old views vs. new realities

I think there is still a basic problem of defining what stock outboarding want's to be that hasn't been resolved since I was racing and selling races with John Puestow for Badger State in the mid 70's. John and I asked whether we wanted to race or entertain? If we just wanted to race, we didn't need sponsors or prize money. Just find a remote river or lake someplace and secure local permit, have entry fees high enough to cover expenses and insurance, run as many classes as the drivers wanted to, have testing and racing as long as local rules would permit, have our own party(ies),award points won and report to headquarters, and not care if any spectator's showed up.
However, if we wanted spectators and sponsors and prize money, we had to sell our sport to them by offering entertainment and value for the money asked. That would mean limited number of classes so races would last a reasonable length of time with no delays between heats so "Henry could get his engine started", (we could learn from go karts on this), Shorten courses and put them closer to shore so spectators could actually see the action. We had advantage on this in Wisconsin with our tight river courses such as Neosha, Menasha, Orihula, Winneconne, Thiensville, and the tightest of all, Waukesha which is a good 9 iron shot at it's widest point. The spectators actually got wet while standing on the banks. At the risk of annoying all you flat turners out on your big circle courses, there wasn't a more exiting piece of action then having about 10 bouncing DSR's coming into a corner at about 65 mph, and rolling up on their chine leaving spray all over and holes in the water to get around a single pin to go back the other way in less than 50 to 100 foot radius! John and I had a book made up of photos of exciting, close action racing shots, usually taken at tight turns, to sell our races to tentative sponsors like Beloit, Burlington, and Milwaukee Lake front. Yes, we did race on Lake Michigan for the Summerfest sponsorsand big, by our standards, money.
This brings up another observation, boats must be built strong enough to run in adverse conditions as sponsor expects you to perform on a given day to earn their fee. As far as esculating expense, When I started in 1953, my parents were both teachers but luckily my dad tought industrial arts. In these early days, there were few boat builders, I can only remember Rinker, Sid Craft, DiSilva altho they were mainly alky,and Speedliner and Raveau, mainly marathon boats, oh yes also Switzer. The idea was to buy a STOCK motor, and father and son to build a boat from plans like Hal Kelly's, or a kit like I did from Champion for about $150,and "do it yourself. This was to be sort of like Soap box derby where incidently Carl Stippich with Keith and Carol got their start. I worked at grocery store to pay half of expenses and with my 40 Ford,trailer made from a 37 Ford axle, my trusty sleeping bag and cooler in the backseat, traveled the state of Wis.and never had more fun. I think my BU with 20 H power got up to about 49mph. Every one helped each other, Nate Walters, no relation, of local Merc dealer, helped me tune engine, time ect.but I never tore it down to "blue print" in 4 years running. Carl used to pound on my two props, a OJ and a Kaminic, on his trailer ball to give me a little extra.
Then came the Hot Rod. Carl fought a losing battle with APBA to ban the Champion as a "Hand made" motor with hand work covered by Alrock etching.This was front page news in the Milw. Journal sports page for about a year and Carl correctly pointed out that the Hot rod was not a production motor nor looked like one, and that it's approval would divert stock from it's original vision. (Also our "innocence".That lasted about 4 years then Kiekhaefer, Strang, Rose, etal, came out with the conversion kit in the spring of 59. The first 3 were for factory racers,Waldman and Herring. Deny Berghauer and I received 4 and 5. I borrowed a Broas Craft(Sid Craft Bathtub Copy) from Dick Engler,stuck on the converted 20 H with 1/1 gears and same prop,picked up 4 mph and won in straight heats at Neosha beating Charlie Erdman with a Sid Hornet who was faster in a straight line but his carb "burbed" in the corners dropping him off his chine. My most prized photo is of the 3 20 H's, me, Charlie, and Wild Bill Krause coming across the starting line with all the Hot Rods behind us. Carl, Charlie and Edgar were all at this race and Charlie, who took the picture, mailed it to me as first race in nation of converted 20 H beating the Hot Rods. Within 3 weeks, Jack Scmitzer, Ron Hedlund, Stover Hire, and the other hot Hot Rod pilots had 20-H's with gears as the props would resemble what they had been ruinning on Champs, poured a lot of money into testing and props and soon were winning again. This was start of end for me as I graduated from college and had a family so had to get a real job in 1961.
When I got "bug" again in 1970,I joined up with Erv Julien for "Adios Racing Team" (AMF), he bought Wil Pergandes Championship DSH rig and I bought John Brusk's motor and A stippich hull and we went forth. It was different however, tearing down engine every 2 to 3 weeks, tons of preops and testing ect. ect. to stay competative which we were. We were still racing a lot but it was getting harder to sell profitable races. Ron mentioned how we now were having to sell againest alot of other entertainment options,and we were also racing 15-20 year old motors in a era when alot more people were into boating. We were no longer the fastest boats on the water while we were beating ourselves up on a knees in small boats at 70 mph, Bubba in his U shirt and a PBR and his fat wife could pass us in a 17' metal flake bass boat with a 200 HP current motor on it and wave at us as they go by. I perceive that's worst today.
Another expense is in our current society, everyone sues each other for smallest issue and trial lawers jump in raising the price on every thing from docter fees and drugs to sponsoring events where people could get hurt. I assume that the biggest part of the current membership fees and sponsors expenses are to pay liability insurance. To get around to the final point of where we came from and where we are in this rather long winded tale,if we can't give a sponsor value and excitement for his $$ so he can attract spectators who have many choices on where to spend their leasure time, we're back to racing for our own pleasure and to take a boat ride.

[HiLiteFilm]

Jon, congratulations!

Thanks Jon for the best post ever on this thread. You have captured the essence of the issues like no one else has. this is precisely what the problem issue statement is all about "do we race or entertain"? On the optimists side of the issue, however, does it have to be an either/or proposition. Outboard racing and entertainment ... must they be diametrically opposed. Can't we have it both ways?

PS: Please post the pictures!

[sam]

Ron, I remember seeing some APBA insurance info a few years back. The cost of the insurance to the provider (the claims) wasn't actually boat racing, it was the event .... the bulk of the dollars the provider paid out went to spectators (and racers) who did dumb stuff like stub their toe or slip on pebbles at the race site. The site owners have to be protected in order to allow us to be there and to race and shortening the race day won't reduce the bulk of the claims so the cost will remain the same.

[jon66w]

John Puestow is semi retired and lives in Hartland WI. and sturbornly refuses to get internet access. He still races ocasionally in conjunction with Sam Hemp's boats, some which are really wild at the limits of the rules. He is into sports promotion, mainly Nascar and also has a weekly radio sports program, mainly centered on racing of all kinds. You can reach him at 262-367-3909