A Gn Idea

[Ron Hill]

Rudy Raymos loves GN Racing as much as I love MOD VP. The difference I also love most boat racing. Rudy loves GN as if it were the ONLY CLASS.

But, he asked ME what I thought about getting new members.....I said, "I don't know".....

But, being ADULT A.D.D. that I am, I thought about GN for about ten minutes and came up with an IDEA.....

SOMEBODY WHO CARES ABOUT THE CLASS news to build a NEW BOAT WITH A CRATE SMALL BLOCK . The boat will need a capsule. The boat will have to be user friendly....and they'll need to run a SERIES TYPE RACES (2 qualifiers, ONE MAIN)....

As I see GN now, they are EXPENSIVE and Dangerous....

[MAXIMUS]

I disagree... I think the way the gn's are running right now is pretty decent! They have put power restrictions on them and as a result I believe they have slowed way down to a more comfortable speed. I think we saw on the gps last year down the back straight at long beach 89 mph & that was running somewhat with the pack! I like the idea of blown motors running with natural aspirated tunnel rams or injected. It makes a more colorful field. Also as long as there are blowers the spectators will get some excitement! A small block production motor & capsule would be the end of the interest level for all involved...

[rossdbos]

Ben,
Thank you and I agree with you! Ron, there are literally hundreds of GN type boats being used as pleasure boats, go figure! Ron hit one nail on the head, Manufacturing, GN's don't have any new boats being purpose built for racing. I'm afraid the pool of active GN racers is shrinking and even though the speeds have come down the safety aspect is always lurking in the background. Next, If we could get some of these guys on the various message boards who "talk the talk" to actually "walk the walk" on the race course GN's would grow. Unfortunately most people I've found love to think they are racers (hot rodding at the river, etc.) but few actually step up to the plate.
I hope to have a good showing at Long Beach as it is there APBA National Championship!
See you at Long Beach!
Ross Wallach, President GNRA

[racer98]

Ron,
Have you seen the price of the factory crate motors? By the time you add the cost to marinize one they would be as expensive as the current race motors and only make half the HP and likely be less durable. Generally when you spec a motor you rely on a single source (sealed engines) to supply them and keep everyone honest. This generally means if you break anything (even bend a pushrod) and the motor goes back to the supplier to be repaired or you buy a new motor. There currently are GN's sitting idle because the owners refuse to spend less than $100 to bring the engine to spec within the current rules, imagine telling everyone to trash all their equip. and start over (we already partially went down this road, it's not pretty).
The Inboards appear to relish in the individuality that the rules allow, choose your own hull, engine and setup combination and prove that it works (The American Way??).
Perhaps instead of a complete overhaul of the class we should look at taking the class back to it's roots: Enduro Racing! Judging by all the excitement surrounding the BRF 300, maybe there is a "Phoenix in the ashes" awaiting it's resurrection? I've always believed that TIME was the great equalizer between the "haves" and the "have nots".

[Jengle37]

John and Ross,
I agree with most of what you say with one exception. To take Gn back to it's roots you would need to do away with the superchargers. I think doing that would bring many boats back into the racing. When I was a part of GN racing, the rules were:
1. 500 cubic inches or less
2. Naturally aspirated
3. Gasoline
4. Cast iron block
That's it, that's the list. Changing it to 502 would include many of the new crate motors from GM and Mopar. With these restrictions, there isn't the huge expense of the stroker motors and the superchargers. This brings the price range back into line for many more racers, and allows for longer races like the BRF 300 or any other enduro. Also, regardless of the cubic inch difference, racing n/a and supercharged in the same race isn't a fair contest. The supercharged engine is always going to have more horsepower. You need a more level playing field and having both isn't level. I'm one of the few that is of the opinion that the supercharger and the SHORT race is what made the GN just another circle boat.

[rossdbos]

John & John:
Both have great points. Now let's face some important pertinent facts:
Originally GN was Inboard ENDURANCE but over a period of many many years they were shortened to 1 - 15 minute marathon per day, I'm sorry to say but this is by no means "ENDURANCE". When we changed the format to go to laps rather than time it was done in an effort to save motors and make it more understandable for the FAN, T.V. viewer, sponsors,etc. (rather than playing a who's who game.) Also, the 20 lap main is just about the same amount of time as the 15 minute marathon so we really lost nothing. The two ten lap qualifiers on Saturday were done in an effort to keep a majority of boats on the water for Sunday which until Burley had been going quite well. So when you look at the current picture all we did was make it more competitive and tried to keep attrition to a minimum while being fan/sponsor friendly.
Now let's look to the future. If we change the motor rule and race format we will increase the costs by fuel, motor wear & tear and unfortunately as the promoter there aren't enough boats currently in the class nationwide to have an "Endurance" type race even for 1 hour! How many boats do you think might last that long- I'll give you a hint, not many if any! So while the class is waiting for John B., Pat H. and Bart C. enclosed cockpit boats to enter the water the rest of the field will continue on. We need to make racing more affordable (relative term) , as safe as possible for the new racers, and as accessible and understandable to the paying sponsor and fan otherwise we have no "product" to sell. John B. continually brings up Prize money and the answer is simple- what does the class give a promoter? Right now it is "hit and miss" at best to get a 10 boat field, which for a series is very small. The class is great and I support it 100% but the class also lacks desire to help itself. It's easy to "want" but until the class as a group goes out and actively recruits new members, makes itself easy to join and race with and finds way to obtain sponsors it will trudge on at a snails pace. I will elaborate on this in our GNRA meeting this Sunday.
Last, I think before you expect to go back to the "old ways" and "heyday" of GN Racing look at what brought you to today- sky rocketing fuel costs, motor costs, lack of any new boats, etc. If there were 50 in the nation it would be different but realisitically there are only 12-14 "wet" boats nationwide and 2 are back East and 1 in Texas (most of those never races with us anyway!).
GN racing could be and should huge especially given the amount of V bottom boats in Cal & Arizona, etc. but we need to find a way that make sense for the future long term growth and stability of the class.
See you on Sunday.
Ross Wallach, President GNRA