Did You See Robbie Gordon ???
Our family are big Robbie Gordon fans, for many reason, did you see him hit the wall Saturday night at Fontana??? Without those NEW SAFER BARRIERS, Robbie could have been a statistic like Adam Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Et Al.
My point of this THREAD was to look at ways to make BOAT RACING safer....As long as there is a frigging prop turning on the motor, there will be danger...
I just don't see WHY and for what reason the SIDE DIMENSION taken out of the Rule Book on on outboard runabouts?? AND I see no reason to have a DAGGER hanging out the side being called a fin....
I'll bet over the last 40 years of racing, the average racing life (The time a person stays in the sport) has been double for runabout drivers....as runabout have aways had a better safety record.
I mean, making a "BREAK AWAY" nose piece for a runabout would be a "PIECE OF CAKE".....Some of those new runabout have a nose as pointed as a broom handle...Why don't we have a safety rule for nose pieces?
Walking ain't dangerous, unless it is on the freeway. The old marathons sometimes had 356 starters (Winnebagoland 1954)...No one was injured...skinned knees...D Runabouts were 14 feet long...Many AU's were 11 feet long...
My AU Record was 48.352, in 1957 (24' bottom).....A Runabouts are running what 55 now (36 inch bottoms)..., my boat had 12 sides to protect me, and they did protect me....new A Runabouts don't have side, you get hit in the body in an accident. What Brain Surgeon figured out these rules???
Dave Weaver:
8 spilling a 45 in 10 years, ain't bad, considering:
A. 45 SS is a Stock Class. SO, on a two day weekend, you run four five to seven lap heats in 45 SS
B. On any race weekend, SST 45 runs two, ten lap qualifiers and a 25 lap final (each day)..
C. The Formula Lights average 15 boats per race and they all run together on an approx. 35 second course for SST 45...
Chad got 57 laps in, at Bakersfield, this spring with one boat and one engine...Take that by ten races a year for ten years....Hell, I turned over 10 times in one year (1967...but I raced every class at every race)...And sometimes, the driver I was talking about ran more the 15 races trying for High Point. The person I said had been upside down 8 times, is the current 45 SS National Champion.
57 laps time ten races 570 laps, times ten years, 5700 laps and only 8 crashes?????
That's probably more laps than all the Stock Racers (West of the Mississippi) in kneel downers have run in the last ten years...Well, I might be off on that one!