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I'll be making full elimination ladders for easy fill out and points tracking

Doing our part at the race to keep a good show rolling. Meaning -
Helping out for other races / heats.
Being on time and informed.

Feel free to make suggestions. ( respectfully

Jeff:

1) Yes, a standard template/form with elimination ladder would be very helpful out on the start boat. We sort of pencilled up some last year but I bet you could come up with a nice one based on your car experience. My take on it is several racers use TORC as "testing for Jasper", so in my opinion the ladder should exactly mirror what the ODBA does.

2) Ensure we can use Greg's 'toon as the start boat. Worked pretty good.

3) Get an inverter for the start boat. It is nearly impossible to hear Rob/Steph's finish line report over the radio due to the combined noise of the generator and 12" mids. LR is somewhat better. Even though John's generator is a nice Honda we're still basically sitting on it.

4) Get agreement with TORC that we can anchor the start boat either the night before or early AM and leave it there. It takes too much time to fiddle it into place and actually SET (not just drop) the new navy anchors. This was one of the biggest problems - we never really got them set correctly at either Gravenhurst or Dunville.

6) No more "LR step up to Pro Drag" - adds confusion.

7) Enforce the requirement to have radios in each boat with a spotter on shore. There were several occasions where we needed to talk to boats (big stick in water, re-run a race, talk to Ted, etc), and we had no effective way of communicating.

8) MUST have a drag-only driver's meeting, like we did the second day at Dunville.

9) Boats should have numbers and corresponding numbers on trailers. This is boat racing 101 and will really help the Kubota drivers efficiently get the right trailers. Coloured electrical tape applied the day of the race would be fine.

10) Continue to have 3 people on start boat.

These comments are meant to be constructive, not negative. Geiger can probably add more suggestions too.

I ran into Jay in TO in the fall and we talked about a lot of this stuff. I told him I'm willing to commit to helping on the start boat for both Ghurst and Dunville if you guys want. If there's a third race I might be able to do that one as well, depends on time and location. We are so lucky to have organized OB drags in Canada, I really want to help it grow, especially until I get off my ass and put a boat together.

Matt

apparently I can't count - missed 5

My mini tooner is now a dedicated start boat for the drag series. I bought a trailer for it last year and it'll be on the trailer ready to role between races.
I've got it set up with 2 batteries. We can hook up the inverter and take the genny as a backup for the first race and see how it goes. If the 2 batteries aren't enough we can add another.

1) Yes, a standard template/form with elimination ladder would be very helpful out on the start boat. We sort of pencilled up some last year but I bet you could come up with a nice one based on your car experience. My take on it is several racers use TORC as "testing for Jasper", so in my opinion the ladder should exactly mirror what the ODBA does.
The way we've approached the ladder for the first round only was to give equality and we will hopefully continue to do our best with that

2) Ensure we can use Greg's 'toon as the start boat. Worked pretty good.
Done and a huge thank you to Greg and Jackie for this

3) Get an inverter for the start boat. It is nearly impossible to hear Rob/Steph's finish line report over the radio due to the combined noise of the generator and 12" mids. LR is somewhat better. Even though John's generator is a nice Honda we're still basically sitting on it.
Same as above

4) Get agreement with TORC that we can anchor the start boat either the night before or early AM and leave it there. It takes too much time to fiddle it into place and actually SET (not just drop) the new navy anchors. This was one of the biggest problems - we never really got them set correctly at either Gravenhurst or Dunville.
I agree completely but the courses don't usually allow for a permanent set up of the start boat

6) No more "LR step up to Pro Drag" - adds confusion.
Racing up a class happens in every type of racing and I hope it continues .. we will just have to be sharp and organized

7) Enforce the requirement to have radios in each boat with a spotter on shore. There were several occasions where we needed to talk to boats (big stick in water, re-run a race, talk to Ted, etc), and we had no effective way of communicating.
Agreed 100%

8) MUST have a drag-only driver's meeting, like we did the second day at Dunville.
Agreed and it will continue

9) Boats should have numbers and corresponding numbers on trailers. This is boat racing 101 and will really help the Kubota drivers efficiently get the right trailers. Coloured electrical tape applied the day of the race would be fine.
For launching and loading I agree but the best way is to have at least one crew member per boat to assist with this but that isn't always the case as help is hard to find. So numbers it is as it will help greatly

10) Continue to have 3 people on start boat.
If we can get the help that's perfect and makes life easier


All of these are great options and ones we should go with. Your help is more than welcomed and looking forward to our first race
Thank you

On behalf of TORC and I'm sure every drag racer ..... a huge thank you to you and Jackie for this ( and all of the other help you have always provided

One thing I thought could make it more entertaining for the audience would be if you could somehow link the lights on the start boat up to another set of lights facing the audience or have a video camera pointing at the lights and showing it on a video screen on shore. Same thing for the clock starts for T's and stock outboards. If the audience could see the clock counting down, I'm sure they would have a much better understanding of what's going on and how the race works. Like everything else, I know it all takes money or people who have the equipment to lend but I thought I'd throw it out there

It would be quite easy to rig up a GREEN light on the existing start boat that would be tied in to the start tree. Good idea !

Jeff, Greg, sounds great guys, looking forward to this summer !
Kev, you're going to get tagged to help with drag again !

Matt

No problem. I'll try to keep the rope out of the prop this time