5 boat minimum to make a class

[mark ham]

In the late 70's and early 80's, Florida ran state races and club races, Orlando, Jacksonville and Daytona alternated each month to who would have the club race, worked well, but we only had nitro back then, maybe the nitro and electric guys need to get together and try something like that just to get something going. I sold all my nitro stuff last year and bought a gas stock mono and hate it, I'm building a new 20 and 40 hydro for January nitro race, I would like to race more than 2 or 3 times a year, highpoint races who cares, let them have it. If the district race has nitro, nitro has to support, I entered all the district races in nitro from Melbourne south to Miami last year and never made any races except for 20 mono at Miami which i didn't attend due to running 1 boat. IMO, there are way too many gas classes and they keep making more, start combining gas classes and lighten the load on clubs, open mono, open cat, open offshore, whatever, I'll gladly put a modified gas in my stock mono because running that boat is boring as hell. WTH, are we going to add powder puff to all the gas classes, is that next, I'm a member of the Melbourne club and most members only run the home race, don't know why, but on any given Sunday instead of running mock races and improving driving skills like they should be, they are all over the lake seeing how fast they can run, useless in my opinion, but who am I to say. I hope nitro makes some kind of comeback so we can race more, if not I guess I'll go to the lake and have fun, hopefully with nitro guys.

 

[Grimracer]

I'm not saying I would WANT only 3 boats but in the end at the finishline you will never see more than 3 ! . Also I don't go to a race to run just one boat . We are (I) talking about survival of a species here , Nitro .

Tom.. no more diehard Nitro dude then me.. LOL.. if Nitro goes away then.. sad.. but so do I.. I have done FE and GAS.. just not for me... thats all.

Less classes = More boats in each class.. bottom line.. AND.. it would not be an ON LINE game to get into the race. Does this mean less drivers.. not really!

We have spread ourselves thinner then a supermodel with a pack of smokes!

Can I save my sport 20 for local and club racing and not for a district event.. sure.. I love to race it BUT.. would live though it.
Can I save my Sport Tunnel for local or specials occasions.. sure.. not as easy for me however.. but was and still am apposed to IMPBA B sport tunnel as a US1 Class.

Not sure what the future looks like.. but.. up here in WI.. I was able to attend one race this year.. Not enough for me.. but NOTHING IS FOR SALE!..LOL
Grim

 

[John Dooling]

Right now 3 or possibly four of the 5 D3 clubs are not offering ANY Nitro classes . NONE ! Nitro needs to combine with fast electric and let Gas have it's own race . I own 12 Nitro race boats and 6 gas race boats and would try to make some of the gas races in this district but not if they discriminate against Nitro .

I’m not sure if I understand what you’re saying Tom. Every time I sign up for a race on RCracingevents there are like 16(?) nitro classes available. They don’t fill up because nobody’s supporting them and that’s why they are currently not points classes if I understand correctly. Seems like everybody’s getting a little too angry a little too quickly and skipping the part where you can make a phone call and have a constructive conversation about what can be done to please as many people as possible. Everything is a work in progress. As other people have already said going to a five boat minimum and a175 boat limit was done in an effort to make a lot of people happy by being able to get in four rounds at a race consistently. Obviously what it took to solve that issue (we have been consistently getting in 4 rounds since these measures were taken) has created some problems for others. I don’t think anyone is targeting Nitro, FE for any particular individuals. There were gas classes that were done away with at the beginning of this year as well but I haven’t heard that brought up by anyone. Constructive conversation without people talking s**t or making personal attacks seems like it would be a much better path than the one we’re on. Obviously most of this is not directed toward you Tom, I just kind of rolled from one thought to the next.

 

[John Dooling]

In the late 70's and early 80's, Florida ran state races and club races, Orlando, Jacksonville and Daytona alternated each month to who would have the club race, worked well, but we only had nitro back then, maybe the nitro and electric guys need to get together and try something like that just to get something going. I sold all my nitro stuff last year and bought a gas stock mono and hate it, I'm building a new 20 and 40 hydro for January nitro race, I would like to race more than 2 or 3 times a year, highpoint races who cares, let them have it. If the district race has nitro, nitro has to support, I entered all the district races in nitro from Melbourne south to Miami last year and never made any races except for 20 mono at Miami which i didn't attend due to running 1 boat. IMO, there are way too many gas classes and they keep making more, start combining gas classes and lighten the load on clubs, open mono, open cat, open offshore, whatever, I'll gladly put a modified gas in my stock mono because running that boat is boring as hell. WTH, are we going to add powder puff to all the gas classes, is that next, I'm a member of the Melbourne club and most members only run the home race, don't know why, but on any given Sunday instead of running mock races and improving driving skills like they should be, they are all over the lake seeing how fast they can run, useless in my opinion, but who am I to say. I hope nitro makes some kind of comeback so we can race more, if not I guess I'll go to the lake and have fun, hopefully with nitro guys.

Plenty of people from the Melbourne club support the rest of the district on a regular basis, not sure why you would say they don’t. Nobody is going to bring nitro back except the nitro guys. Last time it had any kind of push it was a bunch of gas guys giving the support.

 

[Tom Foley]

I’m not sure if I understand what you’re saying Tom. Every time I sign up for a race on RCracingevents there are like 16(?) nitro classes available. They don’t fill up because nobody’s supporting them and that’s why they are currently not points classes if I understand correctly. Seems like everybody’s getting a little too angry a little too quickly and skipping the part where you can make a phone call and have a constructive conversation about what can be done to please as many people as possible. Everything is a work in progress. As other people have already said going to a five boat minimum and a175 boat limit was done in an effort to make a lot of people happy by being able to get in four rounds at a race consistently. Obviously what it took to solve that issue (we have been consistently getting in 4 rounds since these measures were taken) has created some problems for others. I don’t think anyone is targeting Nitro, FE for any particular individuals. There were gas classes that were done away with at the beginning of this year as well but I haven’t heard that brought up by anyone. Constructive conversation without people talking s**t or making personal attacks seems like it would be a much better path than the one we’re on. Obviously most of this is not directed toward you Tom, I just kind of rolled from one thought to the next.

I was mistaken and tried to edit that comment and could not . I was looking at the race entries after they filled up . It was a mistake
My original question was about 5 entry vs 3 . I should have had better research done

 

[Greg Rowe]

John you have it right,we'll said.

 

[Tom Foley]

Plenty of people from the Melbourne club support the rest of the district on a regular basis, not sure why you would say they don’t. Nobody is going to bring nitro back except the nitro guys. Last time it had any kind of push it was a bunch of gas guys giving the support.

I cant tell you how many phone calls I have made . Where are the outboard guys ? I certainly do my best to run as many Nitro boats as possible to the point of my gas stuff sitting on the shelf . Anyway out of all the people on this site that race nitro very few have offered their opinion on the 3 vs 5 .

 

[FloridaScaleBoater]

My opinion is,
5, five, is excessive for a district race.
Not sure why district's have to write there own rules, we DO have rule books.
Attached is pics from both IMPBA & NAMBA rule book sections.
Just sayin.

 

[Tim Kish]

If you're going to have a maximum entry number or set number of heats which I'm sure everyone understands, then to be fair to all in this hobby you should limit the number of boats entered to a set date.
Then open it up from there
with a three boat minimum per class.
Seams rather simple, No?

 

[Tim Kish]

And I agree with Grim, the day Nitro racing is done then so am I

 

[Don Ferrette]

On the outside looking in but interested just the same. Is there a list of the classes for these D3 points races??

 

[Daniel's Racing]

Let me throw a wrench in the works.

Wanna see some more nitro action happening ?

Let up to X Nitro (or any class nitro engine) run in the gas classes.

When we have enough nitro boats running again we can split them back up again.

 

[Greg Rowe]

On the outside looking in but interested just the same. Is there a list of the classes for these D3 points races??

Yes

 

[Greg Rowe]

On the outside looking in but interested just the same. Is there a list of the classes for these D3 points

GX2 mono, Stock mono, GX2 cat, Open gas offshore, Single super boat, Superboat offshore, GX2 sport hydro, Open mono, P limited mono, Thunderboat, P mono/cat, Jersey skiff, GX2 rigger, P limited cat, stock cat, Q-mono

 

[Don Ferrette]

GX2 mono, Stock mono, GX2 cat, Open gas offshore, Single super boat, Superboat offshore, GX2 sport hydro, Open mono, P limited mono, Thunderboat, P mono/cat, Jersey skiff, GX2 rigger, P limited cat, stock cat, Q-mono

How were the classes chosen?? Regardless, so if I read this right -

11 gas specific classes
5 FE specific classes
1 "open" class

And you wonder why the nitro guys are pissed off.............

 

[Greg Rowe]

Don, Nitro racers in D3 don't support most of the D3 races so the classes where dropped.
The classes can and will be offered but it becomes a waste of time even with a 3 boat minimum.
I have more nitro boats than Gas, but I support all classes and racers.
For BMBI D3 high points race next month ,offered 30 classes and just had to dropped 10 classes due to lack of entries.
Mostly nitro and FE, I hate it ,but a 2 day race 5 boat minimum rule you can only run so many heats to make 4 rounds and deal with unpredictable weather.
But I will say this both Gas and Nitro have shown big support for this race, 20 classes and 170 boats ,and about an even split of Gas/Nitro..
My 2 cents, Gas,Nitro,FE it's all about supporting the hobby,clubs, new members,and most of all have fun creating life long memories.

 

[Don Ferrette]

Thanks Greg. I've been sitting back watching this (mostly to be sure it didn't get belligerent) but it got to the point I felt compelled to ask. I do wonder about the 5 boat rule though as that seems to just make it worse. The winding up with a possible 2 boat heat at end of day argument is a stretch, it happens even with 5 or 6, seen it more times than I can tell over the years. There have been a couple good suggestions made (like capping the number of classes entered by a racer) and there does seem to be a transparency issue. But try to make some spaces for the nitro guys even if it means things like a .67 and up hydro & mono class and something for the tunnel guys. Gotta be a bunch of them sitting on shelves as Florida was always known for being huge in o/b tunnel. Best of luck with it.

 

[Greg Rowe]

Thanks Greg. I've been sitting back watching this (mostly to be sure it didn't get belligerent) but it got to the point I felt compelled to ask. I do wonder about the 5 boat rule though as that seems to just make it worse. The winding up with a possible 2 boat heat at end of day argument is a stretch, it happens even with 5 or 6, seen it more times than I can tell over the years. There have been a couple good suggestions made (like capping the number of classes entered by a racer) and there does seem to be a transparency issue. But try to make some spaces for the nitro guys even if it means things like a .67 and up hydro & mono class and something for the tunnel guys. Gotta be a bunch of them sitting on shelves as Florida was always known for being huge in o/b tunnel. Best of luck with it.

Thanks

 

[Slotrc]

so, I'm not a pro Rc boat racer, I'm not even officially in a club yet! lol I do own a new boat (Gas Mono) and i have raced rc boats YEARS ago in Scottsdale Arizona with a Prather Mono with a 67 k&b for a little bit. I've raced RC Cars (1/12th scale and 1/8th scale on road), rc pylon planes, Karting, Drag Racing (small block s10 10:90 sportsman bracket car and even NASCAR West Series as crew and chassis tuner. My point here is that after all the years ive been involved in some form or another in racing, this same discussion seems to come up over and over in EVERY hobby... After witnessing rule changes of almost every kind over 45 years of racing to try and keep everyone happy, guess what? it doesnt.. lol

Here are a few of my thoughts on classes without getting deeper in the woods:

Classes take time to run... the bottom line is the more classes there are, the longer the race goes. that is the unarguable truth., downsizing minimum class entries so there is more classes just adds to the workload and overall run time. As a club you have to ask yourself is running more, smaller classes going to add to the enjoyment to the club as a whole? is it helping attract add new members?? i think those are the important points imo.

from my (new) perspective as a lifelong racer coming into a new/old hobby i spent a bit of time looking at class entry numbers and tried to choose a class that wasn't barely keeping its head above water. I knew this was going to take a bunch of cash and time and was not interested getting involved in a class where there wasn't enough folks to keep it going for a while. been there, done that.

Todd

 

[Tom Foley]

so, I'm not a pro Rc boat racer, I'm not even officially in a club yet! lol I do own a new boat (Gas Mono) and i have raced rc boats YEARS ago in Scottsdale Arizona with a Prather Mono with a 67 k&b for a little bit. I've raced RC Cars (1/12th scale and 1/8th scale on road), rc pylon planes, Karting, Drag Racing (small block s10 10:90 sportsman bracket car and even NASCAR West Series as crew and chassis tuner. My point here is that after all the years ive been involved in some form or another in racing, this same discussion seems to come up over and over in EVERY hobby... After witnessing rule changes of almost every kind over 45 years of racing to try and keep everyone happy, guess what? it doesnt.. lol

Here are a few of my thoughts on classes without getting deeper in the woods:

Classes take time to run... the bottom line is the more classes there are, the longer the race goes. that is the unarguable truth., downsizing minimum class entries so there is more classes just adds to the workload and overall run time. As a club you have to ask yourself is running more, smaller classes going to add to the enjoyment to the club as a whole? is it helping attract add new members?? i think those are the important points imo.

from my (new) perspective as a lifelong racer coming into a new/old hobby i spent a bit of time looking at class entry numbers and tried to choose a class that wasn't barely keeping its head above water. I knew this was going to take a bunch of cash and time and was not interested getting involved in a class where there wasn't enough folks to keep it going for a while. been there, done that.

Todd

And that's how the classes die . Some of the slower less crowded classes are a better grooming ground for beginner drivers of any age . No answers of how to get them built back up except youth . If the nitro classes are getting pushed out by gas then gas needs its own event . Big question is are there enough Nitro racers left to support a race in D 3 .