How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
#1
Registered
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: STL / LOTO
Posts: 215
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
Since most racers and fans seem to agree that for offshore racing to get legitimate
television coverage, there will have to be less classes with more boats per class.
Which classes should get TV coverage, would be simple to follow and will help grow the sport?
The NHRA has many classes but concentrate on four major professional classes for their TV coverage.
Usually later in the program they will show the final runs and winners of the less significant classes as fill in material.
The P class of boats could be this sportsman division in offshore and could be run on Saturday with
starts, finishes and highlights shown during the slow portions of the major races on Sunday.
It needs to be simple to attract new viewers. It seems to complicate things for the uninformed viewer if there
is more than one class of V-bottoms or more than one class of cats racing at the same time.
My wife pointed out to me while we were watching one of the live Destin webcasts that she usually has a hard time
knowing who is leading just a few laps in but there was one race was easy for her to follow. And she's seen many races.
It was outboard cats and SVL. Simple. First cat to come by is winning his class and the first V-bottom to come by is winning his class.
With those thoughts in mind, here's my 2 cents worth.
Run P classes on Saturday and if you have to add P-Turbine and/or P-Extreme Cat or V-bottom here.
This adds some superspeed excitement for the Saturday viewers and many of these racers will also have boats to race on Sunday also.
On Sunday, first race, OB cat with single engine V. Second race, Supercat and SuperVee.
If there become enough boats, Supercat and SuperVee may need their own race.
As far as engines go, I've said many times that I much prefer to hear racing engines and the higher RPM's over stock-type power,
but if Mercury has to have their cut run the 300's on the outboards, 525's or 600's in the single Vees, 850's in the Supercats and 1075's in the SuperVees.
What are your thoughts? What classes should run if there's only time for two races?
P.S. SCL guys, please don't all kill me at once, give your ideas, maybe SCL instead of SC...but I feel the Supercat class should be built to also accomodate the European teams, with our 66" maximum tunnel width.
television coverage, there will have to be less classes with more boats per class.
Which classes should get TV coverage, would be simple to follow and will help grow the sport?
The NHRA has many classes but concentrate on four major professional classes for their TV coverage.
Usually later in the program they will show the final runs and winners of the less significant classes as fill in material.
The P class of boats could be this sportsman division in offshore and could be run on Saturday with
starts, finishes and highlights shown during the slow portions of the major races on Sunday.
It needs to be simple to attract new viewers. It seems to complicate things for the uninformed viewer if there
is more than one class of V-bottoms or more than one class of cats racing at the same time.
My wife pointed out to me while we were watching one of the live Destin webcasts that she usually has a hard time
knowing who is leading just a few laps in but there was one race was easy for her to follow. And she's seen many races.
It was outboard cats and SVL. Simple. First cat to come by is winning his class and the first V-bottom to come by is winning his class.
With those thoughts in mind, here's my 2 cents worth.
Run P classes on Saturday and if you have to add P-Turbine and/or P-Extreme Cat or V-bottom here.
This adds some superspeed excitement for the Saturday viewers and many of these racers will also have boats to race on Sunday also.
On Sunday, first race, OB cat with single engine V. Second race, Supercat and SuperVee.
If there become enough boats, Supercat and SuperVee may need their own race.
As far as engines go, I've said many times that I much prefer to hear racing engines and the higher RPM's over stock-type power,
but if Mercury has to have their cut run the 300's on the outboards, 525's or 600's in the single Vees, 850's in the Supercats and 1075's in the SuperVees.
What are your thoughts? What classes should run if there's only time for two races?
P.S. SCL guys, please don't all kill me at once, give your ideas, maybe SCL instead of SC...but I feel the Supercat class should be built to also accomodate the European teams, with our 66" maximum tunnel width.
Last edited by 9 Lives; 12-26-2006 at 07:22 PM.
#3
Registered
Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
me thinks the average couch potato with remote in hand wants to live vicariously thru his tv.., he wants to see big boats making big noise getting big air with big wipeouts, throw in some babes in bikinis doing a couple interviews and *poof* you got ratings...think about the tv audience that watches nascar on sunday...come monday is buba talking about the pass on lap 132?? or is he talking about the crash comming off 3 that took out 6 cars, one flipped and another burst into flames.
#5
Racer
Racer
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: L.I. N.Y. Boca Fla.
Posts: 2,126
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
Big cats and big vee's? We pull into the races with 2 canopied supervee's and the 1st thing people ask us is where is Poppa Dukes? Crowd pleasers come in all shapes and size's, the personalities of the racers also help big. 1 more time, we aren't nascar, dirtbikes ,dragsters or motorcycles, what works for them isn't neccesarilly going to work for boat racing. Whatching BJ and Randy talking crap racin F-1 was the greatest, they were showman and promoters (and damn good racers). Offshore needs charactors that people can relate to and want to see and root for. If it gets to technical or only 2 classes the number of racers will fall off faster then my hair. And back to the question, put all of them on TV!! Short blast of all the boats showing there sponsors would help more then 2 supervees running a mile apart with the announcers struggling to find something to say. Watching the Big Cats race Supercat was cool. Watching the Dukes versus Tyler and the Grumpy Old Man was priceless. Watching the Chip's slugging it out with the cats in P-1, breathtaking. I could go on we've all had some real memorable races, point is limiting classes and TV exposure is the begining of the end.
We probably should get some TV exposure before we start restricting.
We probably should get some TV exposure before we start restricting.
#6
Registered
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: racing capitol of the world
Posts: 3,392
Likes: 0
Received 6 Likes
on
3 Posts
Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
That Is Where Racing And Competition Comes Into Play. All These Classes And No Competition. Fewer Classes, More Competition And More Excitement. More Excitement For The Dollar. We Need To Join Classes For The Better. Not And More Confusion
#7
Registered
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 439
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
Originally Posted by louietherigger
Big cats and big vee's? We pull into the races with 2 canopied supervee's and the 1st thing people ask us is where is Poppa Dukes? Crowd pleasers come in all shapes and size's, the personalities of the racers also help big. 1 more time, we aren't nascar, dirtbikes ,dragsters or motorcycles, what works for them isn't neccesarilly going to work for boat racing. Whatching BJ and Randy talking crap racin F-1 was the greatest, they were showman and promoters (and damn good racers). Offshore needs charactors that people can relate to and want to see and root for. If it gets to technical or only 2 classes the number of racers will fall off faster then my hair. And back to the question, put all of them on TV!! Short blast of all the boats showing there sponsors would help more then 2 supervees running a mile apart with the announcers struggling to find something to say. Watching the Big Cats race Supercat was cool. Watching the Dukes versus Tyler and the Grumpy Old Man was priceless. Watching the Chip's slugging it out with the cats in P-1, breathtaking. I could go on we've all had some real memorable races, point is limiting classes and TV exposure is the begining of the end.
We probably should get some TV exposure before we start restricting.
We probably should get some TV exposure before we start restricting.
Gregg Reichman
#8
Registered
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 439
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
Mr. Ugly Hat:
I think that close racing makes a difference, and maybe F-1 was providing that, but I can tell you, for absolute sure, people are not looking at that equipment in the Dry or Wet Pits, the interest is in the more or most exotic hardware.
Park a Ferrari next to a Yogo in your Grocery Store parking lot and see what garners attention.
I miss you Man
Reichman
I think that close racing makes a difference, and maybe F-1 was providing that, but I can tell you, for absolute sure, people are not looking at that equipment in the Dry or Wet Pits, the interest is in the more or most exotic hardware.
Park a Ferrari next to a Yogo in your Grocery Store parking lot and see what garners attention.
I miss you Man
Reichman
#9
Registered User
VIP Member
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Brick NJ
Posts: 3,264
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
My 2 Cents. Nothing exotic about a nascar cup car. Basically, a shiny tin can. The charachters made the sport. Women all over the country now follow Nascar. Casey Kane, Dale Jr. etc. Most women can't even tell you what car they race. It's all in the marketing. Wrangler Jeans dosn't sponsor Jr, because he has a fat a@@. Work on that smile Louie, hearts are breaking all over the world. Smitty
#10
Racer
Racer
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: L.I. N.Y. Boca Fla.
Posts: 2,126
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: How many offshore classes should be on TV ?
My 2 Cents. Nothing exotic about a nascar cup car. Basically, a shiny tin can. The charachters made the sport. Women all over the country now follow Nascar. Casey Kane, Dale Jr. etc. Most women can't even tell you what car they race. It's all in the marketing. Wrangler Jeans dosn't sponsor Jr, because he has a fat a@@. Work on that smile Louie, hearts are breaking all over the world. Smitty
I'm tryin, Wrangler jeans told my to take a hike too. I'm gonna work on the pythons over the winter, there starting to shrink. Matter of fact I'll do some curls tonite during supper.lol.
Happy New Year,
Louie