The Silly Season

[ryanbrew57s]

I am always telling people that if I don't do something to grow my class no one will, as we all know there are not always enough 25 runabouts at every single race and sometimes I have asked a C driver to put a restrictor in to make a class. But if I don't talk positive of my class and offer somebody a ride in a rig then how would I grow my class? this year I was the only person in the state of Ohio that ran 25SSR and I am happy to say that next year there will be three of us. One is a new racer that started this year and fell in love with my 25 rig and the other is a marathon driver that hasn't raced very much short course and wants to learn to race with a clock start. Both will be running Mercurys by the way.... If you don't promote your class who will? If you tell me BSH is the best ride in stock outboard (which I hear several times every year) then why don't you prove it to me? Great post Mike!

[csh-2z]

Good write up, Mike. I couldn't agree more. We all want to see the sport grow. There will be many opinions and different perspectives coming from all over the map. We must keep an open mind and respect each other regardless of our differences.

Happy Thanksgiving to all,
John

[pav225]

Once again, the “Silly Season” of racing is upon us. Let’s all try to remember that many of us are good friends, we love the sport, and we would like to see it grow…even if we propose different ideas to improve it. I think Chairman Brewster summed it up nicely at the Stock Nationals Finals banquet, when he said based on what he is seeing/hearing at the races, we are doing pretty well (those weren't the exact words, but I think it captured his thoughts). I tend to agree. No one thinks it’s perfect and that we can’t improve, but we seem to be better off than a few years ago. We have more stability in classes, people seem to be having more fun again, and we are seeing some very positive things happening in STOCK (driver’s schools, 300ssH class, new faces/folks helping out at races, etc). With that said, we should all commit to spend more time on growing the positives to help the sport instead of trying to bust each other’s chops.

Let’s figure out our Goals and Guiding Principles and work towards that. Is it to “get more people in boats”, “put on a better show”, “make it more affordable”? Let those Goals and Principles help guide us and keep us from feeling the need to change course year after year.

Let’s also be realistic about major changes. We have been discussing class reductions for years, without any real progress. Proposals have ticked people off, the uncertainty over future classes has driven some folks away and has caused people to hold off on buying equipment. I am not saying we wouldn’t benefit from consolidating classes, but stability can be good for the sport. Perhaps, as many have suggested, we need to let things stay as they are at the National level and address class reductions at the local level. If we do consider class consolidation, we should take a very logical approach and review the classes with lowest participation. Either develop a plan to help them grow independently, combine them with other classes with low participation, or drop them over time. Consistent with the logical approach, I would suggest that we don’t make any changes to our largest classes. This is not “protecting a trailer box” its good common sense to not cut the classes that are working the best with the false hope of growing ones that have been stagnant or declining over the years.

I would also propose that we spend more time working together to grow a class that seems to have the right ingredients for growing but for some reason it isn’t. Before anyone gets upset, this is in no way a jab at anyone’s class, or equipment, or an attempt to call anyone out in some roundabout way. I am simply picking a class to use as an example and think of ideas for growth. I am also trying to accommodate the idea that many people don’t want to work on their equipment constantly or spend a lot of time testing. For this example, I will use BSH. Anyone who has raced BSH says it is the best ride in racing. You can also buy a new motor, so it makes a good class to focus on growing. Without ticking off the current drivers too much, how do we help grow the BSH class?

• Does it migrate to a sealed class like the 300ssH? We’ve seen good growth in 300ssH, can we leverage this same idea to grow the BSH class?
• Do we go one step further and make it a 1 boat make, sealed motor, same prop class? This would be similar to the old IROC series for race cars? Fabbro, RJ, or Trolian could be contracted to make all the boats out of the same mold. Sidewinder would provide the motors and perform the rebuilds. Dewald or Brinkman could make identical props.
• Swap props at every race like 300ssH?
• Could you go even further and require the swap of motors after each race?
• Similar to the start of the 300ssH class, could we ask for funding from other sources and have a few rigs ready to race?
• Should we raffle off a rig? The winner would start racing it, and use the proceeds to help purchase the next rig. I am sure a lot of people would help out by buying tickets…even though we all know Gary Pond will win it.
• Other ways to help the class grow??

Put a time limit on this plan and have everyone focus on its success. If the formula works, fantastic! If it doesn’t work, realize that we all worked together (even if unsuccessfully) to grow it, and then consider dropping the class. Put our collective energy into growing a class and see how successful we can be.


Let’s try to keep this Silly Season focused on the positive parts of the sport and developing ideas to help classes grow.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Mike