2020 IMPBA Nitro Nats

[nickhartdegen]

What hotel is better ?

For the money, the BW is best...its nice, good rate, friendly staff, and familiar with us lunatic racers. It also has "down n out" facing rooms to keep an eye on ya rig.

 

[JESSE LEE]

Voodoo Model Boat Club would like to thank CUSTOM LEGEND OUTRIGGERS for their support in sponsoring the F Hydro Single Engine class.

 

[julianconde]

Voodoo Model Boat Club would like to thank SPEEDMASTER BOATS for their support in sponsoring the B Mono and D Mono classes.

Payment sent for class sponsorship. PM inbound as well

 

[JESSE LEE]

Payment received for the (2) class sponsors from SPEEDMASTER BOATS for the B & D Mono classes. Once again Thank You for your sponsorship!

 

[julianconde]

Payment received for the (2) class sponsors from SPEEDMASTER BOATS for the B & D Mono classes. Once again Thank You for your sponsorship!

not a problem.

 

[BobLondress]

Got my house booked and ready to go.
This is a great site for this race. Hopefully some of the local gassers will get “ nitromethaned “

 

[JESSE LEE]

Guys when we offered to host this IMBPA Nitro National event there was great feedback from the nitro community. There was also great feedback stating that folks would surely attend the event. As of today the event has been open for entries since Jan. 4th and we have only 23 drivers and 79 boats. As with any National event, of which Voodoo has hosted five of these type National events, there is a lot of planning, purchasing, vendors and event personnel scheduling that goes into an event of this magnitude. We are going to have to see these entries go up soon or we may have to cancel the event which we really don't want to have to do. We are going to have to see a minimum of 150 boats by Feb. 15th for us to proceed with the event. We are also going to have to see more sponsorship confirmations which we assured would not be a problem for this event. If the event does not meet the minimum boat count required by Feb. 15th we will start issuing refunds to all current entrants and sponsors. Let’s get those entries in and move forward with this prestigious IMPBA Nitro Nationals!!!

 

[Grimracer]

Its a bit far for me.. BUT.. sounds like a GREAT SPOT.. and I suspect the racing will be TOP NOTCH!

Hope the race fills! Get em in!

Grim

 

[JESSE LEE]

Regretfully it is appearing that the 2020 IMBPA Nitro Nationals will not get the 150 minimum boats required to make this National event happen by February 15th. So with that said after the February 15th deadline we going to change this event title to our annual Mike Cantavespri Memorial Shootout and open the entries up to nitro, gas and electric. We are willing to keep the existing nitro class entries as they are and refund $30 of the existing $40 entry fee. We are grateful for the support of the nitro community who did enter the original event, and encourage them to still come and enjoy this outstanding event. Anyone who was previously entered into the Nitro Nationals and want to cancel will be fully refunded. Any existing sponsorships will be refunded as well. Entry fee for the new Mike Cantavespri Memorial Shootout will be $25 for the first boat entered and $15 for each additional boat entered. The dates of April 2nd – 4th 2020 will remain as planned and the event will remain as an IMPBA sanctioned event. The new event will open for entry on February 16th with all existing Nitro entries being moved to this new event unless they are later cancelled. Complete race details will be posted on racemastersevents.com upon the new event going live on February 16th 2020 as well as on other public boating forums.

 

[FloridaScaleBoater]

Jesse and the Voodoo club,
I hate to see that this is going to happen, rest assured, if there was any way for me to have made this event I would have.
I was able to attend the NAMBA Nat's when your club hosted them and had a ball! I had SOOO much fun at the race and visiting New Orleans that my wife said the next time I went, she would have to be on my hip.
Unfortunately, she works at a CPA office and the race dates are slap in the middle of there HOT season and no way for her to get time off.

 

[Grimracer]

Would be awesome to have a CIVIL discussion as to why this race did not fill. Maybe we can learn from it.

I have NO doubt the club or facility is NOT the reason.. EVERYTHING i see and hear is this IS a fantastic site and the club top notch! You can easily see by reading above they did and were hard workers prepping the event.



Does anybody have any constructive input to provide.

Grim

 

[JESSE LEE]

Rick thanks for the kind words of your experience at our 2010 Namba Nat's. I remember meeting you at that event. Remember how BRUTALLY HOT it was all that week in June in New Orleans? I understand your situation with not being able to attend with your wife's work commitment at that time of year.

 

[FloridaScaleBoater]

Rick thanks for the kind words of your experience at our 2010 Namba Nat's. I remember meeting you at that event. Remember how BRUTALLY HOT it was all that week in June in New Orleans? I understand your situation with not being able to attend with your wife's work commitment at that time of year.

Yes Sir, it was HOT
As for Grims post (#33) It is all about the time of year, schools are still in session in Florida
Jerry Crowther and I were discussing this race while at the Winter Nitro Championships and Jerry brought the school schedule up.

 

[JESSE LEE]

Would be awesome to have a CIVIL discussion as to why this race did not fill. Maybe we can learn from it.

I have NO doubt the club or facility is NOT the reason.. EVERYTHING i see and hear is this IS a fantastic site and the club top notch! You can easily see by reading above they did and were hard workers prepping the event.



Does anybody have any constructive input to provide.

Grim

Mike thanks for your supportive words for the Voodoo Club and our facility. There are still 3 days left before we pull the plug on the event. It is certainly a shame to see this prestigious event in which we offered to host at our great facility in lieu of it going unhosted for 2020 not getting the interest it was assured of us it would. This is now the second time (2013 & 2020) we have made this offer to host the IMPBA Nitro Nationals and had to cancel due to lack of entry participation. Not sure what else we could have done to get folks to travel to New Orleans to attend a great Nitro National event. It certainly would be interesting to hear any constructive input of why this race did not get interest of the populated Nitro community.

 

[BobLondress]

Well, count me in regardless. I always have a great time with you guys. I have been to the Mike C. race before, maybe I can get my Cracker ready.
I have already rented a house and planned on coming no matter what happened, figured I would just play boats with the crew that weekend.

 

[BobLondress]

And I don’t have a clue why it didn’t fill out. Time of year maybe.

 

[JESSE LEE]

Well, count me in regardless. I always have a great time with you guys. I have been to the Mike C. race before, maybe I can get my Cracker ready.
I have already rented a house and planned on coming no matter what happened, figured I would just play boats with the crew that weekend.

Well that's awesome Bob. We always look forward to having you at Voodoo!

 

[Mike Betke]

Thanks to the VooDoo club for attempting to put this on. I am sure you would have done a first class job on the event. Hopefully some day we will be able to get the nitro guys to make it down your way. From everything I have heard, your events are top notch.

As for why it did not fill, the feedback that I got from most boaters was the timing. Too early in the year, too close to Spring break, family plans, you name it. I told Nick when he gave me the dates that it would be a struggle for me to be there because of the timing. Job and other life activities take the priority this year.

Location is also an issue. The nitro nats seems to thrive when held from Huntsville up into the Midwest. Namba does real well with nitro attendance in Florida as well. That is where an abundance of the nitro racers seem to be, so the races do real well there.

 

[Grimracer]

As for me.. this was, timing, distance, and event outline. Our water does not open until mid April some years. The distance is such that I could not make the drive in one day.. (I would have to dedicate 4 days for travel).

Then the big one (for me) time on the water.. "The Nats shootout format"

Let me qualify that..
I travel 4 days and bring 3 boats for a 4 day race.. if i do poor in one class the best I can do is 14 heats.. at 2 min per... thats 28 min of water time.. (with a US1 format i pic up an extra 17 min of potential water time.. not double but heading that way!)

My two cents.. you can toss that if you like.. (Its my opinion and apparently that of two others as well)...



With the calls and messages and posts here this is what I have collected.

To close to other major race events (1)
School in session (3)
To early for northern boaters (3)
Location in regards to the nitro hot bed (4)
Long Driving distance (3)
To early in the year (5) (this kind of falls under number 2 and 3)
NATS format (3)

This is what I have thus far


Grim

 

[JimZaremski]

as for me it's cost and time. If I fly down it's easily $800-900 to attend, if I drive then I have to set aside 5 work days for travel. and last year out of the 15 vacation days I supposedly get I was able to take 4. And I've already had to cancel one trip this year.