To Eddie The Chairman...

[Ron Hill]

Eddie,

I'll call you Eddie, because your dad is Mr. Hearn. Once you start reading this, you are going to say, "Ron must have woke up on the wrong side of the floor." The truth is, I didn't drink anything last night. I went to the races.

Swim races. Relay Finals. Some great races. Some fine you men competing.
Broc had a personal best in the fifty free style and 100 free style. He didn't swim butterfly...as he doesn't see the transfer to water polo...but he's a closet butterflyer...

What I'm hinting at, is some smimmers are faster than others. So, what did the "MANAGERS" of High School Sports come up with in their "PLAN"? Six man relays. If you only have a race. The fastest wins. When teams are established (relays), everyone on that team is important. Everyone tries their best for the "TEAM". Besides, each person's time is flashed on the score board after you swim. So, everyone know your time.

If we established course sizes and lay outs...(Dee Berghauer was setting courses with a GPS 15 years ago, so it is possible...) with an establed course size...3/8 mile, 1/2 mile. 1 1/4...drivers could at least have a PERSONAL BEST TIME...

Broc's team finished third...but he had two Personal Bests, which caused his Coach and himslef to be quite pleased.

Has anyone, but A.D.D. Ron who doesn't know that a BOX exsists, so he can't think outside of a box....every considered TEAM or relay racing??? Father and Son Team Racing was very popular of TV's Speedboat Rodeo..

I'm not sure, even though there were 300 entries at the Winternationals, boat racing will survive using the same old "PLAN".

My real point of this post is to question, you, Eddie the Chairman, to see if I could get a copy of the 23 ACCIDENT REPORTS from Ocohee?? The word I heard from Ocohee was that Joan Brewster ran out of accident report forms because there were so many accidents.

My brother has been in BUSINESS MANAGEMENT for more than 50 years. He always asks me. "Who runs my businesses?" As I've aged and learned, the answer as become clear to me...at many times, no one managed my businesses...and that is why they weren't very successful.

Pretend you wanted to make money off these 300 entries? Would you want 23 accidents? Pretend these 300 entries were your kids. These 300 are "FAMILY". We have a DUTY to protect our "FAMILY".

A "FAMILY" has talks. A "FAMILY" argues and yells at times...But a "FAMILY" is "FAMILY."

I saw the worst accident in "C" Runabout, 2 weeks ago...total luck that no one was hurt. But neither driver ever signaled they were OK. I thought, maybe they were both dead.

I TALKED TO ERNIE DAWE, YESTERDAY, he told me there was a bad wreck in the first turn of D Mod Hydro...again, lucky no one was hurt...then, Brian Palmquist blew over (Very) hard......Lucky again, that he was'nt hurt, as the ONE patrol boat was in use...

Suggestions: Manage the Stock Division

1. Lower all transom heights one inch, for all STOCK OUTBOARD CLASSES. NOW! Not nexxt season. NOW!
2. Require all runabout to have a bottom fin. Out law "Daggers" sicking down from the side of flat bottoms. NOW, no next season.
3. Require "Break Away" noses and pickle forks.

All three can be passed for SAFETY REASONS.

You know, when my old student and close friend, Ted Whalen was killed in a tunnel boat, Freddy Hauenstein passed a rule for capsules in OPC....I can't begin to count the number of people that capsules have saved in OPC...

Mark my words, Eddie, people quit boat racing because of injuries or fear of injuries...not because of politics or money.....trust me, with 23 accident reports, no www.hydroracer.net (http://www.hydroracer.net/) of www.boatracingfacts.com (http://www.boatracingfacts.com/) will grow boat racing.

We have a sport to save.....300 entires is WONDERFUL...but 23 accident reports SUCK BIG TIME!!!

Again, Manage THE STOCK DIVISION, lower transom heights give drivers better control. Bottom fins are much less likely to "POP" and allow the boat to slide...(Which make them get air bourne in turns)..

ACT NOW!

Sincerely,

Ron Hill

[Ron Hill]

Let's see, you ran a Stock Nationals where people qualified on one course, but raced on a shorter course??? How is this legal??? But, that isn't my real question, my REAL question, is that if the rules required boats to go slower, with lower transon height, boat would evolve to run through rougher water...Hydros would have deeper sponsors to get them to air out, if they were slowed down)...

If runabout had bottom fins, when one flipped, the other boat who runs over that driver's boat, would not launch off like a ski jump..the bottom fin would stop the boat from launching...Never heard of a Nationals being decided on a one heat....when there was a "BLOW OUT" date the next day...

I have yet to talk to anyone who went to Dayton that liked the course. How are National Championship courses designed? Why aren't course designed and then set up with a GPS??? Say 15 courses we designed...a "BISTOL, a Daytona"...Any local club could set their course like thes courses. Then, when a Nationals came, you could say we will runa Fontana course or if bad weather we'll run Bristol, Baby!!!! Then, people could have props for different courses...

Had I been running Dayton and the finals had a shorter course than the finals...that would have been my final race.

No one read my first post, so no one will probably read this...

ADD: Tanmy Dawe runs 20 Hydro...sae goes to Dayton, different water than California and burns a motor up....With 1 inch lower transom height rules, her motor would never burn up....

Gary Lewis just bought a NEW OMC A motor for $2,000 and the motor doesn't have a foot.... A $3,500 dollar A in stock racing??? You can buy a new 15 four stoke for less than that....race it for five years and sell it to a fisherman...Stock Racing??????? Why not rename is SPECIALTY OUTBOARD RACING or HAND BUILT OUTBOARD RACING????

[Ron Hill]

That A Runabout driver who was injured in Dayton...AJ something...If the runabouts would have had noses like tunnel boats have, breakaways, would he still have been hurt? I wasn't there, but looking at the noses of Stock Runabouts, anymore, give me the "WILLIES"... I still remember Dave Bryan getting hit with a Hill CU in 1966, ruptured his spleen. And my boats weren't half as pointed as today's...Today's boats would have killed Dave...

[TN Kid]

his name is AJ Jennings...just for your info....great site...I really enjoy it...

[pops67g]

I certainly can't disagree with Ron Hill wanting to see boat racing be a safer sport than it currently is. However, in some ways the things we do in the name of safety have maybe been counterproductive. The safety equipment that we are required to wear probably makes drivers feel less vulnerable and therefore more prone to take chances. Hence, more crashes. As NASCAR has improved the safety of the cars, the racing has become literal crashfests.

New drivers have become another liability on the race course. In the past couple of years I have personally experienced conflicts on the water with guys that seem like they just don't get it. One example; the guy who deliberately jumped the gun because he was "tired of running in the back" and then ran such an erratic line around the course that he nearly ran me up on the bank when I was trying to get around him. I know of another guy that crashes nearly every weekend and has for several years. It seems that no one has attempted to get him off the water, at least for a while, to correct his shortcomings. Who is going to tackle safety and succeed?

[Ron Hill]

We need OFFICIALS that will make calls...We need driving schools...be it on line of what....but the I have watched some of the darnedest driving this year....and I think NASCAR TYPE thinking may spark it....

Fred Hallett said, you go down the straightaways straight, hold you line in the corners...or I'll DQ you...

One problem to me is their doesn't seem to be an overlap rule anymore!!!!

I'm going to become a REFEREE for 2006....I won't work the class or classes my son races, but I'll work any other time or races....

I almost think a driving infraction DQ should be discussed openly...because when you see a driver do the same thing many times...or even once, maybe others should understand what was done wrong and why the DQ...

In series racing, for example, once you've passed the commitment bouy, you still can't change lanes unless you have an overlap.....
Seems to me, Nationals MEETING could be a training place for drviers and officials...rather than RULE MEETINGS...Actual training sessions...

Hell, I might learn something too!!!

[Tim Weber]

Ron,

The best idea I think is lowering us down in the water more. Now in CSR we must be 3/4" below thw bottom. I would be for making it 1" below the bottom. Why not more? In my opinion it would be real difficult to make a rule more than 1" because everyone would have to re-prop. Even with an additional 1/4" some wheels just will not turn up and they my become dust collectors.

Another thing that would help safety is a tuck under rule. THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN THOUGH! Many,many guys in runabouts are running boats with gobs of lift. To control the boats, they tuck under as much as 3/8". Well, the idea is tuck it, get the gear case out of the water, jack the motor up, and go fast. To compound the lifting effect most guys are running high, high rake clevers. I know you used to run a similar set up with tuck in your DSR days but you ran low rake props and a narrow bottom of 28". Now most boats are 32" to 34" with no vee and in some cases boats have rockers built into them. I have seen too many crazy boats that if they are not out front, forget it!

APBA changed the A hydro tuck last year and I think it helped. So, what do you do if you have a current lifting object runabout that is uncontrollable? Do what Ron did and run low rake props.

I gave Mercguy ( Darren ) and Ernie Dawe a thumbs up for his new CSR I saw at Dayton. It's a fairly neutral boat, went through the slop well, and was fast enough for a 3rd overall. Was Darren the fastest? No, but he finished the race up right and he could drive the stink out of it. That's what I,m talking about.

Tim

[pops67g]

As far as having to change propellers because of a rule change goes, big deal! Usually all that needs to be done to make the old prop work is just cut down the diameter a bit and the rpm goes back to where it was. This is a lot cheaper than a new one. Also, how have guys like DeWald stayed in business all these years? I think the answer is that an awful lot of racers don't hesitate to keep ordering new propellers in the constant search for that extra mile an hour. Over the years I have only had 2 props fail (lose a blade etc.) so it's not like the builders are making throwaway stuff for us.

On my DSH I do the set-up backwards. I run the motor at a depth where the boat handles best in "race water" and then I adjust the propeller diameter until I get the speed where it needs to be to be competitive. The boat is very comfortable to drive and has never been close to putting me on my head.