Stock Outboard boat race making waves

[blueskyracer]

That thing had terminal cancer...it was just bad luck that it died around race time. I mean...come on.....the people that did not like the races used that as an excuse. How pathetic.

The thing is they won..No more racing on one of the best lakes for records in the country

[daveracerdsh]

Seattle's Green Lake

you are correct mike. very sad

[mdaspit]

Hmm, amazing how we feel when misinformed people with a politically correct agenda, use misplaced emotional arguments and knowningly faulty facts to "regulate" what we can and can't do. People who want to regulate, because they believe they are the rightous ones. Huh Dave?

[jeff55v]

It's been a few years since I've raced at this lake. What I remember is that it is a nice little lake with a small pavilion, parking lot, and grassy area. It's located on the outskirts of town near an industrial park. I wouldn't be surprised if many area citizens don't even know the lake recreation area exists. It's great for fishing (no motors allowed), and that's all. By allowing the lake to be used for a boat racing show just once a year, you raise awareness of the lake and increase the lake's utilization by people who don't care for fishing. The way I see it, the town should be begging for racers to come there at least once a year.

[Art K]

Have sold many races over my years in racing, I can tell you when you get invovled in small town politics, you are going to generally lose. You have to remember you are the outsider. If you have a person that is really against the race he or she can usually sway enough opposition to kill the race amongst his buddies and allies.
Art K

[raceright]

race sites

The Liberals control most of the parks in the blue states so they will always come up with bull**** reasons if they have a mind too--money talks but not all the time--back in the 80's ya counld race in a perfect site in Queens N.Y. but there was about $8,000.00 in fees for different NYC departments never seen any paper work though -- today that would be over $40,000.00 guess what no race there.

As we do not have a stadium you could say greesing some political hack for a few grand is cheaper than owning Giants stadium or any other stadium. Been telling ya for some time raceing costs are going up just like your taxes last monthlololo get used to it.
This kind of stuff changes when the political leaders change so there is no rule for all sites ya just have to press the right button at the right time and it works.
Pat Wright

[propnuts]

Seriously?

We go from trying to secure a race site to it's the liberals fault? You guys need to just give it a rest sometimes. I would guess the guys on the council they are dealing with are probably non-partisan anyway.

The Liberals control most of the parks in the blue states so they will always come up with bull**** reasons if they have a mind too--money talks but not all the time--back in the 80's ya counld race in a perfect site in Queens N.Y. but there was about $8,000.00 in fees for different NYC departments never seen any paper work though -- today that would be over $40,000.00 guess what no race there.

As we do not have a stadium you could say greesing some political hack for a few grand is cheaper than owning Giants stadium or any other stadium. Been telling ya for some time raceing costs are going up just like your taxes last monthlololo get used to it.
This kind of stuff changes when the political leaders change so there is no rule for all sites ya just have to press the right button at the right time and it works.
Pat Wright

[26V]

Thanks

As the subject of the council members political veiws did not come up at the meeting, I'll leave that one alone.
There has been some good advice and sugestions posted here for that THANK YOU.
I realy like the idea of giving out slips stating the money being spent is because of the boat race. It gives local busnesses an indication of what they gain from a local boat race. If Rochelle happens I think we need to implement this!
Its not a bad idea for every race site.

[daveracerdsh]

Races

Well MD spit..I would have to say I do not much care for the little dig you gave me....I am neither liberal or conservative, and for those people out there to use this thread for thier own agenda is in my mind kinda not cool....I have no idea what the politics involved with losing greenlake were...and I have no idea what the political persuasion is of those that oppose racing....I would assume that some of them are "tree huggers" but I do no know that for sure. I do know that when a group such as APBA has a race on a lake or river in a community it brings in a lot of money. We need to use that fact. Dave

[Joe J]

Politics will always will over races. We lost Shadow Cliffs as a direct results of politics. In my personal opinion this started Region 11 down the path we are currently on.

Joe

[daveracerdsh]

Politics

Of course politics play a role in race sites...both getting them and losing them. But for people to paint a broad brush and say that "liberals" have caused all of the problems makes my blood boil. I know of some very conservative politicaly racers that will not lift a finger here in region 10 when issues come up...they are to afraid to make wave etc. So be it. From what i remember shadow cliffs was lost because of noise issues? Am I correct there? such a neat place to race.....

[Joe J]

Noise was the excuse used, but the rest of the story was that the person running for office promised the homeowners the races would get the boot if he or she won the local election

But back to the thread, in hindsight we should have seen it coming and used Tony's suggestion of dropping off notes to the local hotels and restaurants explaining why we were adding to the local economy.

[daveracerdsh]

Noise

It is not to late to go back and tell people...hey....here is what as a group we can bring money wise to the local economy. And, I know for a fact the region 11 people left Shadow Cliffs in better shape then the found it...just like we do in SOA. If noise was the excuse, tell them no open pipes. Period. If just boggles my mind that racers insist on running open megaphones at races when we KNOW it upsets the locals. Hey....if I had a home on a local lake where races were taking place and D mod hydro with open pipes was running it would upset me also. Would racers rather leave equipment in the garage with no place to race or run d mod hydro with quiet exhaust? I understand that there are some people that like the sound of the open exhaust...I get that.....but at what cost? I am not trying to stir up the hornets nest here, but if I was the head of the mod commission I would say..ok...this is the last year for open megaphones. Next year everybody runs quiet exhaust. Down pipes etc. Just like in Formula E. Just my 2 cents worth from a race director. Dave

[Geezeracer]

Let me sort out the leopard story...

During the weekend of an inboard show Woodland Park Zoo lost a couple Snow Leopard cubs. The initial story was lightly noted by local media, but the Green Lake Community Club spun it up with rumors that the cubs had been killed by an upset mother or had died of stress from the noise Both local papers and TV news picked that up ans expanded it into an accusation, Mayor Royer, who was antagonistic to races on Green Lake anyway, set things in motion for the eventual ban.

In turn, the Green Lake Community Club and another group rep[resenting Phinney Ridge moved to kick out the annual "Bite of Seattle" food-fest, to bring forth a cascade of NIMBY crusades around Seattle aimed at ousting neighborhood festivals...Most of the survivors were condemned to the hub of the no-parking universe known as the Seattle Center.

Anyway, at that time I owned a variety of large predators, mostly big cats, and worked for Cangary Ltd, a Disney subsidiary, as a cat and bear trainer. I thought the story was bogus and as a retired racer I was a little alarmed. I decided to check in with the zoo's vet, Jim Foster. Jim was had been our big cat vet before taking the job. He showed me the lab and autopsy records for the cubs...Both had died from an intestinal bacterial infection that didn't respond to antibiotics and the races played no part in it.

[Geezeracer]

I agree that politics can play a pretty ugly role, but more recently I think the burden's been cash related. For most of history public waters have been open more or less equally. Most losses stemmed from property development that generated angry "Lake owners", but in recent times politicians have come to see racers as handy cash cows.

At Cullaby CORA has to rent the entire park, but everybody still forks up daily parking fees. Eatonville and Lawrence have site costs that the county adds to with their own high fees and, in the case of Lawrence, there's a gunshot additional fee to pay overtime for a pair of police officers on the water to watch us race.

In a way it's understandable because times are tough financially and local government is caught up with costs to maintain services at a time when the most frequently heard political mantras are all about tax and government reductions. Just the same, I resent our getting hammered in comparison to other users.