Gloc shootout review 2016
GLOC—SHOOTOUT REVIEW
Preface: This review is very challenging as this event is only in it’s second year but drastic changes need to be made. Nevertheless, I feel compelled to provide insight on various levels for those interested in the event. The focus will be primarily for the reader who is considering this event as a prospective “Shootout Participant.” The rationale is all “Shootout Participants” spend thousands of dollars and huge time commitments to attend these events with nothing other than setting personal speed records. The information I provide on what to expect and the overall experience of the venue is critical on whether this event is placed on someone’s schedule.
Intro:
I have participated in numerous Shootout events and run several classes including open novice, professional, and manufacturers. I was very interested in participating in Grand Lake of the Cherokee’s [hereinafter GLOC] because of the lake it is held on and adding it to my shootout resume. This resume includes participating in virtually all the existing Shootout events throughout the country. The main rationale for me was to make GLOC a pre-warm up for the Lake of the Ozark’s Shootout. In 2015 the inaugural GLOC Shootout, I telephoned the organizer of the event Ken Little. Wherein we discussed various substantive topics about his event so as to get a better idea of what was going on before I committed to attending. Mr. Little informed me the course length would only be three quarter of a mile versus the traditional one mile format. I informed him this was a mistake as virtually all “Shootout” formats were one mile in length. Mr. Little stated that he was adamant on this distance. This was not acceptable to me and I respectfully declined to attend the inaugural year of 2015. This brings us to 2016 and sure enough Mr. Little had changed his position and made the shootout a one mile course. Once I learned the course would now be one mile I made plans to attend the 2016 event. The dates set for this event were immediately following the July 4th holiday weekend. This created many obstacles and sacrifices for me as an attendee. It would mean I would miss out on family time with my family to transit to the event from San Diego California. I will discuss more on this subject further in the review.
Location:
GLOC is a common acronym for Grand Lake of the Cherokee’s even for residents and local boaters the lake is commonly referred to as GLOC. It is a body of water governed by the GRDA the Grand River Dam Authority. It has 1300 miles of shore line and is a very deep lake averaging a depth of around 35 feet. The City of Grove Oklahoma is the closest town to the lake with a population of approximately 7,000 people. The largest metropolitan city near GLOC is Tulsa, Oklahoma. All events and activities on the lake are governed by the GRDA which from my research is an arbitrary governing body. An important note about GRDA I discovered from my interviews with locals, the local director of this agency is extremely anti performance boating. It stemmed from the Brad Smith Memorial Poker Run and this official has arbitrarily taken the position that performance boating including poker runs are not wanted on GLOC during his tenure in office.
Grove Oklahoma is comprised of mainly retirees’ and this town offers no night life or food establishments worthy of mentioning. If you do intend on going to GLOC bring a group of friends, rent a big home on the water because that is where the party is going to be. Fire up your own bar be que stove and expect to cook, you will be better off. Seriously, I encountered no eating establishments that were worthy of mention. I was craving Oklahoma bar be que and never so much as seen a rib. The City of Grove offers nothing to do after 9:00P.M. it is “cemetery dead.” The lake also has very few if any establishments bar/restaurants to the on the water boater. I mean places where you can boat into and have great food and libations. I can go a step further and say they do not have anything you can drive to via car that is worthy unless you go to Tulsa or Oklahoma City which are hours away. Unlike Lake of the Ozarks, Lake Havasu or Clear Lake which has numerous restaurants, bars and night life. When compared to Grove/GLOC which is completely boring after 9:00P.M.
Event:
The GLOC Shootout was well organized from registration, documentation to course setups. Linda Little the Vice Chair of this event is a credit to this organization. Mrs. Little is the sweetest most hard working individuals I encountered at GLOC. Mrs. Little provided each shootout participant with a detailed brochure of the course and rules on GLOC (yes GRDA imposes rules even on racers). Registration was a snap as well as tech inspection all done very professionally. All the volunteers and staff at GLOC were outstanding as I could not find one issue with their performance.
The Shootout course was one of my favorites due to style and format. The course was titled “Fastrac” [alleged to be a trademark name] which provides a racer with two shots at making a run on the course for speed. For those not familiar with “Shootout’s” the normal course is a one way shot at hitting your best speed. Fastrac allows the racer to run one direction [set a speed number] and then immediately turn and hit the course again under the exact same conditions for a return number. It is similar to a kilo run and a great idea. The format keeps the spectators watching to see if the racer can immediately improve on the prior run without waiting to go back to the original starting line.
Once the racer exits the course they proceed back to the marina into their marked slips. The distance from the marina to the course is very close. The slips provided were beautiful and top of the line in terms of condition and being completely covered. The parking into the facility was rigidly controlled as each party was required to have a pass to enter. The marina was considered to be a hot pit when the Shootout was taking place and only participants with wrist bands were allowed in. I like this concept as it eliminates a traffic trying to get to your slip and area.
The accuracy of the radar was a bit off by approximately 2 miles per hour. This is not unusual for many years at other shootout venues radar speeds were off by as much as four miles per hour. I can recall the frustration of many racers who worked hard to improve their speeds only to see them reduced by inaccurate radar results. This is an easy item to improve upon and as I informed the organizers you want the best numbers possible for an event. We managed to run only one run and had trim pump issues. The gremlins had struck again but we did hit 104 miles per hour with no trim on one motor.
Note: No real Mercury [or otherwise] service centers were available at GLOC. If your looking for any type of service help for your engines think again it does not exist at this location, even though we hauled several thousands in parts. You simply cannot anticipate all the obstacles or what may fail. A good local marine service center is critical to any good event or at a minimum a service tech attending for the participants.
The participation of registered boats for this event was less than stellar. The total number of boats that actually registered and participated was 26. This was especially disheartening when I come to find out only one local performance boater was registered. I informed Ken Little it was an absolute disgrace that he could not get at least 20 additional local boats to participate in the Shootout. During our time on the water we spoke to several people with big power performance boats and they informed me they did not like Ken Little and were boycotting the event. When asked what they didn’t like about the event, I was told Ken Little did not care or want local support for his event. I also spoke to the Mayor of Grove Oklahoma, Marty Follis and he indicated the organization and the City were not unified toward a common goal. I could sense a tremendous amount of conflict between GLOC organization and overall lack of support to this event by locals and the local performance boating community.
Event Schedule:
THURSDAY:
On Thursday, July 07, 2016, the Street party was taking place at 2:00 to 10:00 P.M. at the Grand Lake Casino Parking Lot. This was more like a parking lot party than a street party. We had the good fortune of meeting a great family who parked next to us. We learned the Riggs family actually lived in Grove but were not actual participants in the Shootout speed event. Jeremy Riggs and his family were true ambassadors to this event in terms of hospitality and inclusion. The parking lot party really kicked off when Mr. Riggs had massive amounts of pizza delivered to our area along with playing music the party was starting. Mr. Riggs brought out his gorgeous silver, white and red 41 foot Cigarette center console with matching tow hauler. Mr. Riggs and his family were great hosts and really made the parking lot party a fun time with food, fun and music.
I saw very few locals walking around the street party and it was mostly comprised of racers and their crews/friends. Our friend Jean Louis Veillon brought his 38 Top Gun Cigarette and should have been a part of this parking lot display. However, the organizers were charging anyone wishing to display their boats at the event. A huge mistake when you only have 26 boats in the field and now charge for people simply adding a beautiful boat a person hauled hundreds of miles. Mr. Veillon hauled his boat all the way from Gonzalez Louisiana just to assist myself and Lora Caparell with boat duties. The organizers need to work on their inclusion skills. People like Mr. Veillon may become participants the following year. If only you just rolled out the welcome mat for everyone.
FRIDAY:
The dock party or slip walk and viewing was very nice and organized. Each individual racer had his slip clearly marked and numbered very professional. The traffic at the docks was good but could have been better. Parking costs to come into the area was twenty dollars [$20.00] a bad idea when you want locals and the surrounding community to come and see all the hardware and what you’re all about as an event. The slips were very top notch and security was provided to ensure all the boats were safe overnight. We finished up at the dock party at about 9:35 P.M. and looked for a restaurant to go eat. We were told nope all the restaurants or places on the lake would be closed by 10:00P.M. if they had not already done so by 9:00P.M. So we went back to our rental home and cooked dinner listened to music. Yes! ... it is that kinda place if your looking for a party atmosphere Grove is not gonna fit the bill.
SATURDAY:
The biggest draw for the event was the inclusion of American Ethanol Team from Lake of the Ozarks. They had brought their team out from LOTO to run GLOC. The spectator fleet was decent size and the organization of the runs was excellent. Then again with 26 boats it had better be versus a 100 plus boat field. The start was smooth and well orchestrated via a set starting order. American Ethanol laid done some monster 200 mile per hour runs and demonstrated why they are the biggest draw at the event.
The racers in the slips were very nice and ultra professional and everyone had a sense of camaraderie and friendship. The field being what it was the rotation was very quick and those wishing to conduct additional runs had the course as often as needed.
SUNDAY:
The Sunday spectator crowd was not what it was on Saturday and the event wound down early as the awards ceremony was done at 3:30P.M. as opposed to 5:00P.M. We had mechanical issues so we opted to accept Mr. Rigg’s invitation to tour the lake on his boat. We jumped at the chance to have a local give us a tour of the lake. We went by boat to a local stop called the Quarterdeck Café. It is on the water and we arrived at 12:00 for lunch. Unfortunately, we could not order a mimosa, white wine, bloody mary or champagne. No alcohol served until 1:00P.M. on Sunday’s. I was like “Wow” that is another demerit for area. The food was good for a café and the company was excellent along with the boating a great day on the lake. We also visited fellow performance boater Chris Helt who also lives on the lake during the weekends. We discussed the sale of his Skater and newest boat purchase. Overall we determined the party on GLOC is usually at someone’s home versus other boating venues with facilities to match.
A. Post Wrap Interview with Ken Little.
On Sunday we finished our tour with Mr. Riggs and ended up at Mr. Ken Little’s home to pick up our award and discuss the event. Ken Little is the President of GLOC Shootout organization and makes all decisions for the organization.
I expressed many of my concerns about the event and items which could be improved upon to have more boats turn out for the event. First and foremost I advised Mr. Little that he needs to
have at a minimum of 20 local boats. Second, he needed to have the Mayor and city council onboard for the event and not to alienate the locals. Mr. Little’s position is “it is my way or the highway” this will not work when unity and inclusion are missing. I also indicated that the dates set for GLOC 2017 were immediately following the fourth of July and not a good idea. I stated it would be better to select a weekend later in July preferably July 27, 28, 29, 2017. This would not conflict with holidays or any other boating events and lead to a pre tune up for the biggest Shootout in the country Lake of the Ozarks Shootout. Mr. Little’s responded by saying the lake at GLOC “shuts down after the fourth of July and people begin marinizing their boats for winter after the fourth of July.” I was seriously dumbfounded by this response and as was Mr. Veillon when I looked at him as if I heard something wrong.
In addition, I indicated GLOC needed more participation from boat manufacturers and marine related vendors to display at the event such as Mercury Racing, IMCO and Hering. Mr. Little responded that he did not care whether Mercury came or not that he was interested in only the “hardcore” shootout participants. I told him this was a gigantic mistake if you really want your event to grow. I said if I were an organizer of a boating event such as GLOC. I would do what it takes to have the largest marine company at my event. I would also have a poker run at the event in order to draw a larger crowd other than the Shootout participants. Mr. Little’s response is the poker run crowd is “powder puff” and very demanding. To which I replied that may be your interpretation but they are a powerful group that spends more money at anyone single event than all other event boaters combined. The poker runners also may decide they would like to run the Shootout in a controlled safe environment while attending a poker run. This is the case with the Desert Storm Poker Run wherein the participants are asked to save their desire for speed runs for the Shootout portion of the event.
Mr. Little went on further to tell me the director of the GRDA Grand River Dam Authority has told him that as long as he [GRDA Director] was in charge no poker run would ever be granted permission to have an event on the lake. I stated this arbitrary action is illegal, discriminatory and if a permit applicant provides the necessary documentation and insurance the GRDA is required to grant the permit to have the event albeit with reasonable conditions. Mr. Little stated that a poker run would not happen end of story. Shaun Little, Co Vice Chair of GLOC agreed that a poker run should be included and agreed with my analysis that GRDA must act reasonably. Linda Little also believes things need to change for the event to grow. However, my view of the dynamics is that Mr. Ken Little is not going to change or heed anyone’s insight no matter how useful it may be.
Title Sponsor of GLOC- Grand Lake Casino.
During the street party I did speak with the representative of the title sponsor of the event Grand Lake Casino. The tribal representative Assistant General Manager Dusty Logan. I asked Mr. Logan what the Casino had in terms of expectations from the event organizer. As the title sponsor he indicated that he was hoping for a bigger turn out both on a local level and from other areas. I asked him what conditions did he impose for sponsorship and he stated none but now wished he had put certain conditions into place. I suggested to Mr. Logan a requirement of minimum local performance boater participation and perhaps native American boater involvement should be conditions for the shootout. I find a huge disparity in what title sponsors have in terms of expectations at events. Mr. Logan was appreciative of the comments and extremely receptive to my suggestions. The reason I include this about title sponsors is for the impact they can have on an event. A title sponsor alone can institute changes to an event even if the organizers do not take the initiative. As we all know without title sponsors, you cannot fund an event and with the purse comes covenants, conditions, and requirements. The title sponsor Grand Lake Casino provided not only cash payment, it provided the parking area for the street party and the marina where all the Shootout boats were staged from including the building and parking area for the event. As a title sponsor the Grand Lake Casino by and through their representative can unilaterally implement ideas contained herein as well as a host of input from local boaters and community leaders. I strongly urge this sponsor to take a more proactive role if it has a desire to sponsor the 2017 GLOC event.
Overall, the conflicts in the community need to be addressed and resolved between the organizers of GLOC and the City of Grove. Mr. Ken Little’s approach of “my way or the highway” will only bring down all the hard work of the volunteers and people who put so much effort into growing this event. Linda Little on the other hand in my opinion is the best person for the job. Mrs. Little is inclusive understands the need to include everyone and the idea of it is better to have people at the party than sitting at home. If this event has a willingness to grow and bring in a double the boats from this year . . . things need to happen now. In addition, if the community in Grove is in conflict with the GLOC committee, it can always form their own Shootout and Poker Run event and solicit sponsorship support in order to make it happen. If the community remains silent and complacent then it cannot complain when GLOC is the only show in town and on the lake.
If you’re a performance boater and contemplating this event I hope you heed my review. GLOC can be a great pre LOTO tune up event. I would seriously consider returning to the event if the dates were held at the end of July and the field was bigger. Why? Well this would allow me at least a month to repair the boat if needed once GLOC is done. I would then put the boat in storage for the up and coming LOTO Shootout [which is only 3.5 hours away]. I could envision GLOC as the first of a proverbial Shootout Double Header. As a venue and location it needs a lot of help in terms of lake activities such as bars, restaurants and things to do at night. Add to that it has no marine service facilities to speak of for even the most basic parts and services a boater might need. If your just gonna come in on Friday night do the Shootout and leave. I understand completely get in and get out boat runs good and leave. If your like me and looking for the total package you won’t like what you get when you unwrap this event. Even more so when you travel 3,000 plus miles with a boat in tow.
About the Author: He resides in San Diego California as a performance boater for years. He is passionate about boating and travels to many boating destinations including poker runs and Shootout’s annually. He is an independent writer and has published numerous reviews and articles. The goal for this author is to provide information to other performance boaters about specific events and areas from a participant perspective versus general commentary. No fee or compensation has been paid, taken or requested by this author for these opinions. Questions and comments can be directed to him at kap328@cox.net.
