Parker 300

[FormulaZR]

What made you get in to racing?

It started by being the fastest in the tribe when the dinosaurs would chase them...

[gn7]

What made you get in to racing?

Never didn't race. Paul Fitzgerald who runs the SS 24 April boat and I grew up together. We race bicycles, then motorcycle, then ......
Never didn't race something from the time I could ride a bike. Conquer one form or get board and move to something else. I have always said, I was racing something before boats, and will race something after I am done with them. Too old for motorcycles. If Bills kid ever gets the bug, might build something for the drag strip that is suppose to go in near the Havasu Airport. When I am in a wheelchair, maybe RC boats or cars.
I can tell you this, of all the motorsports I have been involved with since a kid, boats is hands down the hardest to master, & MOST COSTLY of them all. When Fitzgerald saw me in Parker in 2001 after not seeing him for over 40 years, he told me, get ready to spent some stupid money. Rudy Ramos told me to get ready to flop your wallet. Both were dead ass on!
But I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. Its something I had to do, because it was something I hadn't done.

[HB Vic]

So what was your most memorable race? Which race was the hardest? And where did you come out in both of those?

[gn7]

So what was your most memorable race? Which race was the hardest? And where did you come out in both of those?

The enduro is the hardest by far, and we have never done well in it compared to other classes, but well enough within the GNs too lock up the championships and that's was the main goal in two of them. Being in the points lead going into the enduro forces you to run it differently than you would if in 2nd. Circle boat racing, and GNs in particular is a chess game and that took 3-4 seasons to figure out.
Winning Burely the last 3 years we have gone 2010, 11 and 12 is big for any team. That place is tuff, and its hands down one of the best places we race. Traveling 2400 miles round trip and spending a week doing it, and coming home with the trophy and points beats losing there anytime. Burley is like the hinge point of the season. You need to come out of Burley with the points lead, or its a uphill battle. Biggest disappointment is having never won Long Beach, but we are working on that. Only place we have never won,
Most memorable aside from one race at Burley, the same year, with very similar results was a race that Shooter video'd at Puddingstone in April. This was the race that we served notice that you better bring your A game to Burley in June. At Burley we lapped the entire field twice in 20 laps, in this vid he only laps them once in 10. This was the race where I knew I had the motor program worked out and the boat worked out, and now we could go racing, finally.

I owe Shooter a THANK YOU for getting this on video. Its not cheap for Jerry to do this kind of stuff, and there is virtually no return on his time, and money. If Jerry had not shot this video, this would only be a memory, as would all the races he has video'd. Nobody shoots a boat race like Jerry does. He is the best at what he does because he understands the races. The vid concentrates a lot on my boat, but that's because Jerry was using two cameras, one on the lead boat, one on all the others, but he never edited the two together, and this is the raw footage from the lead boat camera.
Jerry shot a similar video the following year, but Bill held back and stayed on the same lap because we no longer needed to test the boat or engine like we did in this vid. This was an severe acid test of the whole deal, boat, motor and Bill.

This race is a restart of the race the 29 boat flipped in.


This the is the 1st lap of the race prior to the one above.
The first 2 boat you see are gn7 and Robbie Devine(the current leader in SS PS and K for 2013) in GN47 and the boat that flips is Danny Bells GN 29 with Mike Johnson driving. You have no idea how close Mike came to drowning in this flip. His life jacket got hung up in the boat rigging and he was going down with the boat. Luckily he kept his head and freed the jacket. If you watch the 2nd vid you see Mike is lose of the boat, but then the boat scoops him back up, It happens all the time, more times than you can imagine. its weird!!!!, Second to the last frame he is still in the boat under water, then you see him in the last frames when the rescue arrives. But before rescue gets there, Mike is under water and they have no clue where he is.

[RVR SWPR]

Great posts Bob.

[ChumpChange]

The highs and lows of a thread. Great posts!

[Wendi]

Very cool information and posts thanks GN7

[HB Vic]

I completely get the purse deal. Haven't been to a ton of races, but its evident by the sponsors, not to take anything away from them, but I've yet to see big network TV coverage or General Motors sponsoring a race these days. And I'm with you as far as a few hundred buck purse, not much you can do with that except buy some beer and pizza. Even a grand wouldn't make a noticeable difference on a engine refresh. Maybe a new set of tires for the trailer and a barrel of 110. So the motivator can't be cash, it has to be the kill. The hardware. The bragging rights. I think everyone here can appreciate and understand that. I would certainly like to see some hardware on my mantle, be a heck of a lot nicer than a couple pictures of my dog and some candles. So getting back to this points thing. Obviously points is a big part of any multi-circuit, multi-venue race, I don't think it matters if you're racing road bikes, dirt bikes, or Nascar. Without a points system you may as well just run one race a year. For us who do not understand, can you summarize the sticking points on why this particular race isn't being run on the points system? I think we all have a flavor of personalities involved, so no need really to visit that again I ask because I'm interested for future events, as I think many here are. What can be done to overcome this hurdle so more racers will be attracted and want to participate?

[gn7]

I completely get the purse deal. Haven't been to a ton of races, but its evident by the sponsors, not to take anything away from them, but I've yet to see big network TV coverage or General Motors sponsoring a race these days. And I'm with you as far as a few hundred buck purse, not much you can do with that except buy some beer and pizza. Even a grand wouldn't make a noticeable difference on a engine refresh. Maybe a new set of tires for the trailer and a barrel of 110. So the motivator can't be cash, it has to be the kill. The hardware. The bragging rights. I think everyone here can appreciate and understand that. I would certainly like to see some hardware on my mantle, be a heck of a lot nicer than a couple pictures of my dog and some candles. So getting back to this points thing. Obviously points is a big part of any multi-circuit, multi-venue race, I don't think it matters if you're racing road bikes, dirt bikes, or Nascar. Without a points system you may as well just run one race a year. For us who do not understand, can you summarize the sticking points on why this particular race isn't being run on the points system? I think we all have a flavor of personalities involved, so no need really to visit that again I ask because I'm interested for future events, as I think many here are. What can be done to overcome this hurdle so more racers will be attracted and want to participate?

Don't get me wrong. we all like money. whether its $1 or 10,000.00. That said I will tell you what the owner of the boat that won the first 300 enduro told Scott Schatz at the meeting we had with him. He told him that he won a check, and he couldn't remember how much it was for, or what he spent it on, but he knows where the flag and the trophy he won is. The flag is in the wall, and the trophy on his desk of his office, and he sees them everyday at work.
I understand why RD thinks money would have boats stampeding to the race. He's never raced and he doesn't get it. He is a businessman, blood in his veins runs green, a racer's smells like gasoline and methanol. They are different people. We also understand prize money and how it works. 6000 or 10,000 sound like a lot of money, until you divide it up, and then it becomes pretty small compared to the expense. At a normal weekend APBA race that costs about 2000 to run, so 1000 is a sizable chunk, but in a race that costs 5000-6000 plus the wear and tear on the boat, its not all that. Add in that the boat has to be ready to turn around and be at the season opener in 4 weeks, and it really begins to strain the wallet. So you need something more. Try to remember, most of the people running this do not race all year. This is their ONLY chance, so they jump on the chance. this race is a big deal to them. They get to run their river boat up and down the river, making a shit load of noise, not worrying about some wave runner or wake boat, not worrying about getting busted, showing off to the buddies, LAM, racing the boat next to them. Its all great fun. The APBA guys race all year, and they are tired, and worn out. Its the end of the season, boats trashed, and the season is starting over in November again. Its a GREAT season capper, but its not something that they are interested in running for shits and giggles. Specially if it looks like the format has them at some disadvantage to winning the over all, and I think there is.
The stumbling block is the speed limits imposed on the classes. You cannot penalize a boat running for championship points for going too fast. There is no provision for it in the rule book. When you do that, its no longer a race. Racing is who gets there first, not who keeps a schedule and arrives on time.

[HB Vic]

I don't want to end this thread with a final question. But I think a lot of people, myself included, want to know what is the solution? Is there a solution? I agree as far as speed limits in a race, what's the point? Isn't that why there are classes? What is the solution?