336 Parker Enduro - What we did Right / Wrong / and next year!

[RiverDave]

Before I get started on the whole thing, I want to make sure that those that came out to help know that there is no possible way this race could happen without their help.

To my Rescue Boats
SummitKarl
RiverSon
Rich Tozer
MCJ Mike
Jeremy and his dad (78 Cole)
Charlyox Dan and Rosemary
RiverRunnin Bob
Paulie
and finally Kenny Lawrence

You guys showing up and volunteering made all the difference in the world this year for safety and Towing! Friday we got off to a little bit of a rocky start with the Race Comm's not working properly, but from what I could see everything worked pretty well on Saturday. I will be calling each and thanking personally, and asking how the event was for you, and what we can improve upon next year, but in the mean time, it really means a lot to us that you came out and volunteered your time and your equipment.

I also want to say thanks for Nord, Hammer, Marc and Dona for helping us setup, sell shirts all day, and tear down the RDP booth on both days. It is a ton of work all day long, and I'm not sure I can ever describe how much it means to me that you guys are always down to help, not only at this race but at other events as well.

To finish off with the main people that put in weeks and months worth of work, and thousands on top of thousands of dollars, Terry Tobey from WMI Rescue and his team that comes all the way out from San Diego. Kandi And Allen from Strokes Bar and Grill that put on THE MOST FIRST CLASS BANQUET that I have ever been to at any event on Friday night. Kelly Ireland, and her team for handling all of the timing and scoring for ALL OF THE TEAMS and making that entire part of the program run like a Swiss Watch. You guys handling all of these aspects as well as you do, is not only appreciated, but amazing to watch in action.

Which brings me to the people that have to deal with all the stress leading up too, during and especially after the event. Scott Schatz was put under a tremendous amount of pressure this year, with a lot of the moving parts not functioning as they should when we got started. To add to that, one of our staff (The Risk Manager Bob Williams) was killed in a motorcycle accident just days before the race. Not only was Bob a key player in the staff, he was a very good friend to Scott and all of the APBA guys, so it was a terrible combination of stress, and sadness all weekend long. Scott and his team did a great job of executing the phrase "The Show must go on" with smiles on the outside, while crying on the inside. I didn't know Bob that well, but it was clear what an important role he played, and how much he meant to everybody that was there.

The last and most important person to the success, and continued success of the 336 is my wife. She not only has to deal with me, but she has to deal with Scott. She wears so many hats leading up to and during the event I couldn't list them all, but I can say without her the entire program would come apart at the seams in a big hurry. No matter what the problem is, she has the solution on every front. I can't say how proud of her I am watching her deal with the entire staff, vendors, sponsors, etc..

RD

 

[Riverson]

Dave,

I enjoyed working the event. Race Comm on Friday is an expected hiccup, and it didn't cause any real problems. The Race Comm was fine on Saturday.

The Dinner at Strokes was great and 1st class event in itself!

The race was spectacular and I will be there at least as a spectator every year.

My only comment is the time delays in the starts seemed a little long, it wasn't any kind of deal killer, and you have to expect the little delays. I think if the delays could be minimal, that would help the flow of the event.

Again,
Both myself and my BIL really enjoyed the event and being able to help out. Plus we had the best seats on the river!


THANK YOU AND YOUR WIFE...Great event

 

[GETBOATS]

RD............all in all Great! After it all sinks in, we will offer some constructive ideas (NOT CRITISISM), And yes Strokes was awesome:thumbup:http://www.screamandfly.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=308685&d=1414382234 CAN'T WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR

 

[SummitKarl]

being I really wanted to see how others put on boating event, I watched carefully
Dave be assured of 2 things
1) Hiring Terry and his crew was a smart move (I want them for Desert Storm)
2) Strokes was awesome and hands down beat the living crap over any thing the Nautical has ever done for Desert Storm, you got a good friend in Candy

all the other stuff will be taken care of, just stop and write down a list now while it's still fresh in your head

and yes it's obvious Stacy is the king pin that holds together

you did a good job and are heading in the right direction

 

[420HOA]

No toed open in shoe pits ?
Thank you Dave for completely destroying the English language
Can't wait till next years Hoe Down :drunk

 

[RiverDave]

The rest is coming later tonight. Stacy is really sick and I have to take her to urgent care.

 

[RiverDave]

No toed open in shoe pits ?
Thank you Dave for completely destroying the English language
Can't wait till next years Hoe Down :drunk

That wasn't a drunk thing.. Lol. I just couldn't say it! I spent half the next day trying to say it and screwing it up.

 

[charlyox]

No doubt Stacy makes the boat sail. Thank you Stacy for all the things you do to make it happen. It was a pleasure being a part of the action by being a safety boat and helping boats get to shore safely. I only had to deal with a few Knucklehaeds who tried to launch during the race.
Strokes did an awesome job Friday night we even had lunch there on the way home Sunday and it was great. We got to meet a lot of RDP members and put faces to screen names.
It was sweet staying in the "keys", thanks RD AND Paul. Hammer didn't disappoint [emoji12] he did a great job taking pics at the awards ceremony and Nord was manning the shirt booth. And that's all I got to say about that. Charlylox out. [emoji12]

 

[boatnam2]

Being a patrol boat is a long days work, but if the reward is to stays at pauls place all weekend for doing it, count me in for next year.

I thought the strokes dinner friday night was really cool, not being able to drive a boat over makes it a little tough staying on the cali side and the reason i only made it around one night well that and too much booze

Seems like i'm not the only one that's hits mcdonalds on the way home.

 

[TCHB]

Thanks for putting it on the internet live.


The announcer should talk more about the participants and their equipment. The music was giving me a headache.

I hope Staci is getting better.

 

[tstone]

I think the list of things done right would be too long for me to type. Strokes was great, ate there Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The ONLY thing I would change is to run it on CST so that I'm not 2hours early to a meeting that starts 15 minutes late. Great job to all involved.

 

[RiverDave]

So now to what we did right, what we did wrong, and how I am going to try to improve it for next year.

Rules - They were released way to late again this year. They should be released by the beginning of the year. There's a few things in the rules that make zero sense to me, and I'd be interested in hearing the reasoning behind some of it. I have never gotten involved with that "side" of things before, but I would like to be more involved in it now.

Solutions - Get a couple of guys involved to make some changes to the rules that are common sense based (not agenda based), and get them approved by the APBA ASAP.. (Hopefully make it so the GN boats can come back as well)

Registration -

Right now it's a total pain in the ass. You have to fill out the form, mail a check. We have no idea who or how many are coming until the actual day of the event. To give you an idea of how all over the board that deal is, the day before the event I think we had 10 Entry Blanks filled out. A lot of people said they were coming, some who said they were didn't show, others showed that I had no idea were coming.

My thoughts on how it could be better - Online Registration / payable with a Credit Card. Open Registration early and offer a small discount for early registration. Offer normal registration for a few months ahead of the event. Major penalty (more $$) for late registration for the last 2 weeks before the event. People should receive in the mail ahead of time or at the event, a grab bag that has a schedule of events. Parking pass for one vehicle. The wristbands for their crew with the crew names on the bands (or badges) for those that have signed release waivers ahead of time. This allows for better planning of the pits, and other areas of the event by knowing ahead of time how many are coming.

The Pits / Spectators / Parking -

Even though we were vigilant on not letting spectators park in the pits, some cars still ended up in there. Then there is the no flip flops (open toed shoes) in the pits rule. This entire program is a disaster from the word go. There's no way to get from the Parking lot to the Cantina on that side of the Casino without walking down the road and through the pits. There's no way to return to the car without again walking through the pits. It creates an environment where race officials are yelling at spectators about flip flops, but we haven't given them any alternative routes to take. It's an impossible situation, and it leads to a lot of unnecessary announcements on the PA, and takes away from the whole "good times vibe."

Possible solutions to this. 1 pit parking pass per team that is sent out ahead of time in the packet. Renting several 6 passenger golf carts out of Havasu and shuttling spectators from the Parking lot to the Cantina and back again, so if someone is wearing flip flops they never actually have to step into the pits (they are driven). Also I'm going to talk to the Insurance company to see what their concerns are currently, and what they aren't really concerned about and see if we can get an exception to the rule on the flip flops. I.E. If a Spectator signs the waiver they can walk in certain areas of the pits, but not around the boats themselves.. if we have another 5' chaulk line or something (I can explain more on this later after the conversations with the insurance).

Race Director -

Where I messed up is I again let Scott wear too many hats. It is too much for one person to setup the pits, setup the race course, handle registration, handle qualifying, announce during qualifying, announce the banquet, setup saturday morning, announce all day, make key race judgement calls on the fly while announcing, tear down the pits, tear down the race course, have exit meetings with all the staff, and vendors, pay all of the staff, announce the awards. It's trying to cram 30 lbs into a 10 lb bag for 20 hours a day for three days straight. This is way to stressful for anyone person, and it affects his ability to be affective (and reasonable) in other areas.

Solutions - Have Summit Karl layout the pits in CAD, and have him lead a team to setup the pits on Thursday AM. They can setup banners / booths etc.. Thursday afternoon. Drive Golf Carts (shuttle) Friday / Saturday. Tear Down booths saturday afternoon, and tear down pits Sunday Morning. Hire more APBA Staff to help setup the course, and tear down the course. Hire an announcer to relieve some of that stress as well.

Safety Boats

We did better on Safety / Rescue (on Saturday) this year then we did last year. We had a lot more boats, the response times were very quick during the race, and most everyone I talked to felt the course was well patrolled, and "SAFE!."

What we did wrong. Race communications were not working properly on Friday. They need to be setup / tested/ and operational Friday Morning pre qualifying and race.

I wanted to take the entire Patrol boat staff out to dinner saturday night. I wasn't able to catch all of them at the end of the race, because we were staying at various places all over the river I couldn't get ahold of everyone. We ended up trying to BBQ on Saturday but ran out of time before the awards.

What I would like to do next year, is rent 2 houses in the keys. Have everyone with a patrol boat stay at the houses, and or meet up at the houses pre qualifying and pre race for a pre-emptive meeting. Have everyone meet at the houses after qualifying / after race for dinner and drinks etc..

We need a kind of team leader to be in charge of all the safety boats, and let everyone know where they should be at what to expect, and a guy to answer any and all questions. I'm guessing that person to be SummitKarl if he wants to do it.

Order of Events

We keep having the big party / banquet on Friday night. Then everyone has to get up early and race the next day. The awards in the convention rooms is "blah."

Solution - Move the Awards to the Main Bar at the Casino and use the stage.. If not possible then have the awards offsite, and throw the Banquet / Party as the awards party on Saturday Night.



Those are my initial notes of what I thought went well, went wrong, and some ideas on how we could make it better for next year. We definately need more staff, and more time, and more $$ to pull it all off. All of which I think is very do-able.

RD

 

[mjc]

I am sorry and disappointed that I could only do patrol on friday, I have never had my boat fail while out on the water before. During setup I could not believe that one of the pontoon boats setting up the course ran out of gas and had to be towed back.

 

[RiverDave]

Thanks for putting it on the internet live.


The announcer should talk more about the participants and their equipment. The music was giving me a headache.

I hope Staci is getting better.

I wasn't able to watch the live feed.. What music?

I am sorry and disappointed that I could only do patrol on friday, I have never had my boat fail while out on the water before. During setup I could not believe that one of the pontoon boats setting up the course ran out of gas and had to be towed back.

That's news to me!! And no that won't be happening again next year now that I know about it.


RD

 

[obnoxious001]

I wasn't able to watch the live feed.. What music?



RD

Surfrat had some music going, louder than the boat sometimes, a few views were complaining.

The live feed was verygood, but there was no "torpedo" button for the 500 boat. He even lined up in what I was guessing was the wrong spot, way down behind Randy.

Constructive comment for the live feed,, and even spectators at the event may be a description of the handicaps for each class, and perhaps an online list of boats, numbers, and drivers.

I had a local emergency helping out a "friend in need" that kept me from being able to come up unfortunately.

 

[RiverDave]

Surfrat had some music going, louder than the boat sometimes, a few views were complaining.

The live feed was verygood, but there was no "torpedo" button for the 500 boat. He even lined up in what I was guessing was the wrong spot, way down behind Randy.

Constructive comment for the live feed,, and even spectators at the event may be a description of the handicaps for each class, and perhaps an online list of boats, numbers, and drivers.

I had a local emergency helping out a "friend in need" that kept me from being able to come up unfortunately.

Good suggestions..

RD

 

[SummitKarl]

I wasn't able to watch the live feed.. What music?



That's news to me!! And no that won't be happening again next year now that I know about it.


RD

it was one of my many trips up the river that day, coast guard aux boat ran out of gas during Friday set up I towed them over to the fuel dock across from the keys, then saw them about a hour later being towed by a pontoon back to the pits.

lets not discuss to many issues in public right now, it's best to digest a bit before exercise or you may spit up a bit.
A true racer will always tell you the race is won in the garage, same goes for a race event planner

I will say it again, Any boating event that completes without accident or injury is a SUCCESS!!! and that was accomplished with the help of many, this also is what you should be boasting to the insurance company about not.... toed open shoes

 

[BigSteve]

So now to what we did right, what we did wrong, and how I am going to try to improve it for next year.

Rules - They were released way to late again this year. They should be released by the beginning of the year. There's a few things in the rules that make zero sense to me, and I'd be interested in hearing the reasoning behind some of it. I have never gotten involved with that "side" of things before, but I would like to be more involved in it now.

Solutions - Get a couple of guys involved to make some changes to the rules that are common sense based (not agenda based), and get them approved by the APBA ASAP.. (Hopefully make it so the GN boats can come back as well)

Registration -

Right now it's a total pain in the ass. You have to fill out the form, mail a check. We have no idea who or how many are coming until the actual day of the event. To give you an idea of how all over the board that deal is, the day before the event I think we had 10 Entry Blanks filled out. A lot of people said they were coming, some who said they were didn't show, others showed that I had no idea were coming.

My thoughts on how it could be better - Online Registration / payable with a Credit Card. Open Registration early and offer a small discount for early registration. Offer normal registration for a few months ahead of the event. Major penalty (more $$) for late registration for the last 2 weeks before the event. People should receive in the mail ahead of time or at the event, a grab bag that has a schedule of events. Parking pass for one vehicle. The wristbands for their crew with the crew names on the bands (or badges) for those that have signed release waivers ahead of time. This allows for better planning of the pits, and other areas of the event by knowing ahead of time how many are coming.

The Pits / Spectators / Parking -

Even though we were vigilant on not letting spectators park in the pits, some cars still ended up in there. Then there is the no flip flops (open toed shoes) in the pits rule. This entire program is a disaster from the word go. There's no way to get from the Parking lot to the Cantina on that side of the Casino without walking down the road and through the pits. There's no way to return to the car without again walking through the pits. It creates an environment where race officials are yelling at spectators about flip flops, but we haven't given them any alternative routes to take. It's an impossible situation, and it leads to a lot of unnecessary announcements on the PA, and takes away from the whole "good times vibe."

Possible solutions to this. 1 pit parking pass per team that is sent out ahead of time in the packet. Renting several 6 passenger golf carts out of Havasu and shuttling spectators from the Parking lot to the Cantina and back again, so if someone is wearing flip flops they never actually have to step into the pits (they are driven). Also I'm going to talk to the Insurance company to see what their concerns are currently, and what they aren't really concerned about and see if we can get an exception to the rule on the flip flops. I.E. If a Spectator signs the waiver they can walk in certain areas of the pits, but not around the boats themselves.. if we have another 5' chaulk line or something (I can explain more on this later after the conversations with the insurance).

Race Director -

Where I messed up is I again let Scott wear too many hats. It is too much for one person to setup the pits, setup the race course, handle registration, handle qualifying, announce during qualifying, announce the banquet, setup saturday morning, announce all day, make key race judgement calls on the fly while announcing, tear down the pits, tear down the race course, have exit meetings with all the staff, and vendors, pay all of the staff, announce the awards. It's trying to cram 30 lbs into a 10 lb bag for 20 hours a day for three days straight. This is way to stressful for anyone person, and it affects his ability to be affective (and reasonable) in other areas.

Solutions - Have Summit Karl layout the pits in CAD, and have him lead a team to setup the pits on Thursday AM. They can setup banners / booths etc.. Thursday afternoon. Drive Golf Carts (shuttle) Friday / Saturday. Tear Down booths saturday afternoon, and tear down pits Sunday Morning. Hire more APBA Staff to help setup the course, and tear down the course. Hire an announcer to relieve some of that stress as well.

Safety Boats

We did better on Safety / Rescue (on Saturday) this year then we did last year. We had a lot more boats, the response times were very quick during the race, and most everyone I talked to felt the course was well patrolled, and "SAFE!."

What we did wrong. Race communications were not working properly on Friday. They need to be setup / tested/ and operational Friday Morning pre qualifying and race.

I wanted to take the entire Patrol boat staff out to dinner saturday night. I wasn't able to catch all of them at the end of the race, because we were staying at various places all over the river I couldn't get ahold of everyone. We ended up trying to BBQ on Saturday but ran out of time before the awards.

What I would like to do next year, is rent 2 houses in the keys. Have everyone with a patrol boat stay at the houses, and or meet up at the houses pre qualifying and pre race for a pre-emptive meeting. Have everyone meet at the houses after qualifying / after race for dinner and drinks etc..

We need a kind of team leader to be in charge of all the safety boats, and let everyone know where they should be at what to expect, and a guy to answer any and all questions. I'm guessing that person to be SummitKarl if he wants to do it.

Order of Events

We keep having the big party / banquet on Friday night. Then everyone has to get up early and race the next day. The awards in the convention rooms is "blah."

Solution - Move the Awards to the Main Bar at the Casino and use the stage.. If not possible then have the awards offsite, and throw the Banquet / Party as the awards party on Saturday Night.



Those are my initial notes of what I thought went well, went wrong, and some ideas on how we could make it better for next year. We definately need more staff, and more time, and more $$ to pull it all off. All of which I think is very do-able.

RD

The RDP gang did a great job ! :bowdown:

It's a very big undertaking putting on the race and you put on a great package :champagne:

I like the 12 mile course much better and more technical drive

The days were full of action and the evenings were spent with great friends at Strokes and the Awards
A big thanks to Strokes and Ron Hill for picking up the bar tab for hundreds of beers :drink

The Safety crews did a great job and nobody got hurt I thank the Lord for that !

Yes, 20-20 hindsight always comes into play, can we do it even better. Sure :thumbup:

I would be happy to get involved in writing and promoting of the 2015 Rules for early release in Jan 2015
and continue to grow classes

The 11 min class A was a great idea with a course avg of 65 mph. But you need to prove you can run the time on friday.

The Best part of the weekend was seeing GN-7 Bob at the event :skull

 

[RiverDave]

Won't be long till 3 day event - Friday-Qualify - Saturday Race - Sunday Race.Well Done.:thumbup:

Who did you talk too? . I would like to add something onto the Enduro that could stretch at least a portion of it another day.

 

[GN22]

Suggestion for next year. Start qualifying earlier. Anyone who has ever raced at Parker knows the sun in the drivers face is brutal at that time of day and you cannot hardly even see the water , all you see is a the sun reflecting off of it. Also , start the race at 10 am so that the race is over before the sun becomes an issue. Also, i am all for the stock Hydros racing and i know the people that race them, but if you guys are running behind , then you need to let them race after the main events. Friday became way too long of a day especially if a boat breaks and the teams are trying to fix them. By starting qualifying earlier it would give teams a little more time to fix and get back out on the water .

 

[Sharp Shooter]

You pulled off a safe race so that's the biggest "right". :thumbup:

The Stokes dinner was worth the drive alone. :thumbup:

The sound system in the pits was really good. :thumbup:

NRKA sponsorship was a good thing even though Scott announced it as NKRA. :thumbup::thumbsdown

Live stream was a good idea. :thumbup:

Now for the -IMO- bad.

Low boat count- The race probably could've been promoted better utilizing ALL social media available as well as video promo's and flyers.

Last second rules release can't be good, but you already know that.

I would have everyone sign waivers at the entrances.

I can't say the hour late start was good. I was lucky to have someone texting me from the pits with updates that I could pass along to the Pirates Den spectators.

---------

I do think the shorter course is more fun to spectate, but I think the drivers like the bigger course.

 

[STV_Keith]

Dave, once again the race was a success! Between you, Scott and the rest of the team, you ALL did a great job. I agree with everything you said above, but will comment on a few points.

Online Registration / payable with a Credit Card. Open Registration early and offer a small discount for early registration. Offer normal registration for a few months ahead of the event. Major penalty (more $$) for late registration for the last 2 weeks before the event. People should receive in the mail ahead of time or at the event, a grab bag that has a schedule of events. Parking pass for one vehicle. The wristbands for their crew with the crew names on the bands (or badges) for those that have signed release waivers ahead of time. This allows for better planning of the pits, and other areas of the event by knowing ahead of time how many are coming.

Yup, early registration with a price break or a penalty for later registration is common. This promotes people to register early, which means more info for you guys planning the thing. In the past, another incentive was that the pit spot selection was to be based upon registration date. You register first you get first pick of your pit spot. You register 3rd, you get 3rd pick, etc. Pit spots were generous this year, and that was very helpful! They were chalked out when we arrived. It would probably be pretty easy to lay it all out ahead of time, and have the chalk guy write the boat number in the spot.

At one point in the drivers meeting, someone asked Scott a question and he said "didn't you read the sanction?" He's right, but a handout with the general schedule should be given out at registration IMO. This would stop some questions and give us all an idea of what is going on.

The Pits / Spectators / Parking -

Even though we were vigilant on not letting spectators park in the pits, some cars still ended up in there.

This is a tough one too. Our crew ends up driving from 3 states with 5 vehicles and meeting at Parker. Each has their own cooler/chairs/EZ UP etc, and quite a few are 60+ years old (yeah, we're a "seasoned" team) . They can't huff that stuff down the hill from the topside parking. They drive in, park in our pit, unload and one person takes the vehicle back out. We tried our best at this, but it still means that at some times, we had 2 extra vehicles in our pit for a few minutes...but this is always well before the event (early morning and late afternoon). Your shuttle idea would be great, as long as it's announced and runs continuously.

What we did wrong. Race communications were not working properly on Friday. They need to be setup / tested/ and operational Friday Morning pre qualifying and race.

I can give you a little info here. The gear you had this year was almost identical to last year, but the antenna was smaller and didn't have a tripod to mount on. Not sure who picked it up, and what they know about radio gear, but Terry Toby knew what was wrong when he saw it come down after the race. I had my suspicions too, but by the time you test Friday morning, it's too late to get different gear from a rental company most likely. Right answer - get EXACTLY what you got last year and don't let them deviate on the parts list.

SCORING - Scott is able to announce the running order on the PA in the pits throughout the day. I'd suggest some kind of leader board, like the towers used in NASCAR as an example, where people can look up and see the running order, their position, etc throughout the race.

Suggestion for next year. Start qualifying earlier. Anyone who has ever raced at Parker knows the sun in the drivers face is brutal at that time of day and you cannot hardly even see the water , all you see is a the sun reflecting off of it. Also , start the race at 10 am so that the race is over before the sun becomes an issue. Also, i am all for the stock Hydros racing and i know the people that race them, but if you guys are running behind , then you need to let them race after the main events. Friday became way too long of a day especially if a boat breaks and the teams are trying to fix them. By starting qualifying earlier it would give teams a little more time to fix and get back out on the water .

I agree as well. I know the sanction started at noon on Friday, but I was one of the first boats out on course and the glare was blinding on the Southbound leg.

 

[Toolman]

Good suggestions..

RD

Music was bit much, but I enjoyed the feed. Hope your wife is ok. Wow Dave, you got a lot on your plate lately. For putting on a show like that, I give you a A+.

 

[BooF]

I agree with Gn22 about the qualifying. The sun Sucked! There has to be more testing and qualifying time! 2 hours is not enough! Needs to be an all day deal. In offshore we have an entire day to test and get our boat setup right for the conditions.

Also my team and I were pretty disappointed with the awards banquette.. Granted I know we didn't cross the finish line running but we still would like some recognition for paying the entry fees and running the laps we did to get second place. But to be treated like we weren't even apart of the race was like a slap in the face. And really no reason to even attend to the awards. For my very first time being apart of this event it seemed like you guys were behind the eight ball all weekend. Correct me if I'm wrong but nothing started on time.

I'd also like to see what our lap times were as well as laps completed. That's good info to have to better prepare for next year... kinda like where we stack up to the competition.

I've givin it a few days to let the dust settle and those were my biggest complaints. Other than that I had a great time racing the enduro and cant wait to race again.
The ole girl will be better prepared and faster next year.

Cory Ferguson GN119c

 

[pixrthis]

We had a great time and will be back. We cut our Friday night short to be ready for Saturday morning so we're thinking if you start the awards earlier, maybe at Strokes and have the party Saturday instead of Friday. Just a thought.

Sean
A61

 

[charlyox]

Won't be long till 3 day event - Friday-Qualify - Saturday Race - Sunday Race.Well Done.:thumbup:

That is a good idea except if we shut the river down for three days you are going to have a riot on your hands from the non-racing boaters.

 

[530RL]

Who did you talk too? . I would like to add something onto the Enduro that could stretch at least a portion of it another day.

That is a good idea except if we shut the river down for three days you are going to have a riot on your hands from the non-racing boaters.

Add a vintage boat racing day.

You would only have to shut the river down a short distance on the CRIT Reservation. Most of the vintage car guys have started collecting vintage boats and there are not a lot of vintage boat events where they can race right now.

Casino would certainly like it and these guys want quality, not cash prizes, which could subsidize the enduro.

 

[GETBOATS]

Great time and some really good ideas here, How about breaking down classes into say two groups, call it Sportsman class which would include division A where they have a window to drive within min. 11 minutes min and max of 12 minutes, that way other races would have some idea of what is ahead, too slow and they are out. Could be more than just one class. The sportsman class would NOT be in for the overall, but race within their division for a title. A-61 did a great job out there and I for one never felt uncomfortable sharing the river with him, need more just like them! Call the other grouping "Pro" and that would include B, C, D, E, F, AND G. They "would" be in for the overall using some similar handicapping system we use now. These Pro entries put everything one the line and test man and machine and should be rewarded for the accomplishment.

A couple of scenarios were suggested at the drivers meeting with regard to these slower boats (Div A)
1: stay inside.

2: stay outside.

it became apparent to me that staying inside or outside means where you might place yourself in a corner, I think this requires to much movement around the river. and to stay on the buoy line, which is where officials decided to keep them, then you are really asking them to drive all over the river.

3: one of the drivers thought it was best to "stay where You are" "hold your line" If you have to place them somewhere, I would vote the middle. The faster boat can make the decision where to go around.

Again great job River Dave and Scott

 

[STV_Keith]

...it seemed like you guys were behind the eight ball all weekend. Correct me if I'm wrong but nothing started on time.
Cory Ferguson GN119c

I'm not the expert here, but I know one of the main APBA guys was killed in a motorcycle accident Monday before the event. He was an integral part of the event (risk manager) and Scott had to take on all of his responsibilities I heard. That dude had a lot on his plate.