The good ole days.

[tthibodaux]

Question. Back in the 80's did The race promotors pay more money or was it just that much less expensive to go race than it is today. The reason I ask is because there was 25 plus boats at most races and alot more races. What I mean is instead of club racing guys like John Sherlock, Ken Stevenson, Buck, Billy, Mike, Dad ect. race everywhere from Miami to the Bahamas, Little Rock and lots of other places on a regular basis. These days it's hard to get 15 SST 120 boats at a local race much less 30 boats from all over the world to the Bahamas. Also I watch US F1 on TV and not only is there 12 boats but 5 of them are step up 120's and only about 2 of them could really win. It's just NOT good racing.

[DKL]

I know what you mean, I can't figure it out either.

We both live close to a area that is strong in most other types of racing ,heck their even having the Indy car type grand prix in Houston the weekend of our first sport Race in April . Before I found this site I did not even know there was boat racing anymore around here. It all comes down to this.
No one can develope an interest if they don't know about the sport=====promotion&marketing

Promotion and marketing takes money these days to advertise in the various forms of media===need big sponsors for money

Promote well and fans & racers show up====some fans will want to be involved and race themselves=== buy equipment and bigger classes

It's a ugly circle,I am sure our promoters are doing all they can,what is needed is the racers and equipment manf. for these boats and classes helping and getting the word out anyway possible,ie putting flyers in every marine dealership and auto parts stores, walmart ect. heck anywhere ,getting local radio involved,news papers ,tv interested,partner up with more festivals on the water ,Port Neches race for example.They put some really stupid stuff on the news these days ,surely the tv guys can talk about boat racing

After all that, get your act together and put on a darn good race that everyone will enjoy



DKL

[tthibodaux]

I agree with that for sure but it still doesn't really answer the question. How or why did so many guys have the time and money to make races all over the country? I remember when I was a kid, we left home when school let out for summer and most of the time didn't come home until school started again. My dad would fly home on sunday to go to work and my mom and I pulled the boat from one race to the next and picked dad up from the local airport the next Friday night.

Racing was a huge deal. The classes were full of boats and there were more of them. Back then a race weekend was all day racing not a noon till 5 pm show. Also the classes included Mod VP, JP,SJ, Sport E, EP, SST140, and Champ. Every class every weekend full of boats.


Could the capsule have killed all these classes? I know it did a bunch of them.

[tthibodaux]

Ok I stole this pic (sorry) but it better makes my point. Mod VP at St Louis in the 80's.

[Mark Poole]

Many things contribute to this I think. The biggest being the cost of going racing these days, from the equipment to the travel costs. The capsule boat (and the certifications along with them) certainly turned off a lot of seasoned old school racers. Most of the classes that you mentioned, Mod-VP, EP, SJ, were production classes that had a huge following because of straightforward rules and plenty of stock engines to be had. You can thank the EPA for the extinction of those good old simple stock engines. Another factor is the price of fuel, for the boat as well as the truck to pull it with. Also, how many people have health insurance that is null and void if you race boats these days?

Manufacturer competition is gone from boat racing. That was the great thing about Mod-VP. It was not just an engine battle it was a production boat brand battle. I raced EP when I was a young lad. I would race Champ if I had bookoo money.....but I don't. In the mid 80's I was doing scale model Mod-VP R&D with the intention of building a 20 ft. version. Well, Mod-VP died and so did my hopes of turning my RC race boat into a real one. Kinda funny. The only place you will see Mod-VP racing is at our RC races in this part of the country.

I still don't see why we can't make production racing classes using 4 stroke motors.

[Tomtall]

I still don't see why we can't make production racing classes using 4 stroke motors.

Here, Here!!!!

This is the way the future of this sport needs to head. However, the majority say they are not ready or willing to go this route. So in the meantime the sport suffers now and in the future.

[Mark Poole]

It's a mentality thing. Consider the speed records of those classes. I think the last SJ kilo record was over 100 mph and the E (tunnel) record was not far behind that. Nobody wants to SLOW DOWN! What's wrong with having super competitive stock classes running 50 to 60 mph? When I quit racing 3 cylinder V bottoms (N.O.A. rules) the boats were running over 80 mph. That's too fast in a 13 ft. boat with no cell. It is an uphill battle to get the majority out of the speed record mentality an into competitive mentality.

Close competitive racing is the ONLY thing keeping NASCAR alive now.

[fish]

I really enjoy taking to my dad about his days racing in U class in the late 60's and early 70's. One thing that has come up several times is that a truck would arrive at his shop and a new mercury would get off loaded. He would blow up a motor and a new one would show up. Twister, t2, c6...etc, He was never billed, and no one ever said anything, but I guess as long as he was winning, he had some "support" from the factory.

I don't think mercury is nearly as altruistic these days, and the motors are pretty expensive. I could get a boat and could keep it in race shape, but I could never afford the motors it would take to be competitive.

Just my $.02 from the peanut gallery.

[tthibodaux]

Fish, I know what your talking about. I can remember the Merc support truck at all the races. I'm not sure how the deal worked but it was like a rentel program or something for power heads and gear cases.

Not sure you guys are going to sell me on the 4 stroke thing. I hate the SOUND of those dang water lawnmowers. AND THEY DON'T SMOKE.

[Tomtall]

Not sure you guys are going to sell me on the 4 stroke thing. I hate the SOUND of those dang water lawnmowers. AND THEY DON'T SMOKE.

That's funny. I rememer the same thing being said when the Allisons and Rolls Royces were replaced by the Turbin in the Unlimited class.