HPBCANADA.COM

People wonder why a class that started off so well died in less than 5 years. When CBF decided to have a starter OPC class in 1991, SPORT C was decided on because it was a major growth class in APBA. For the first season in 1992 the class followed the APBA Sport C rules. The class got sponsors and a lot of new drivers. Rankin Marine stepped up and got the molds for a Sport C hull and sponsored 3 boats. The prize money was larger than most of the other classes and covered every racer's expenses. The 1992 top boat was Troy's mariner followed by the Tohatsu. The following year the top boat was Speedmaster's yamaha, followed by the Tohatsu. Mercury was the major supporter in CBF and their motor was now not competitive in the class. They put in a rule change to suit their motor. The rule change was 40 cubic inch 40 hp and no motor older than a 1992. They offered a special price for the new Mercury or Mariner. For some this required them to purchase their third motor in 3 years. The rule was not expanded to 43 cubic inch to allow all the other makes. So you were limited to running 30 cubic yamaha or Tohatsu or the 40 cubic Mercury. We were the only one not to go with the new motor. We wanted to run in the USA and the Mercury was illegal in APBA Sport C. Troy won Sport C the first year with the new Mercury motor. The problem was the second best boat was the Tohatsu. Tory was much faster than the other Mercurys. The 1995 [the video is on this site] season had 2 VERY fast boats. Troy's and Will's. They controlled the races and split the wins. Most of the other racers quit the class because they were not competitve. So the class died in CBF. Sport C is still in the APBA. Too bad we don't it here. We had many new TUNNEL racers that had to start and learn to drive in SST 60. They destroyed their equipment, ran out of money and quit. Sport C is perfect for the new TUNNEL racer.

There is nothing stopping this class in Canada, or any OPC class for that matter, other than time in the day. Heck if you wanted to circle race aluminum boats or bass boats, I'm sure CBF will find a way.

There are suitable sites that want racing... it just takes someone to organize it. The half dozen people who do 90% of the work in TORC can't do it all. People need to step up and help out.

There are enough numbers now that a T750/T850/Drag/ThunderCat or whatever mix could afford to host it's own event. Not it's own series, that's a ton of work... but say one event. Not quiet enough boats... do 3 days in 2. Or more laps. Waterford doesn't suit Drags... effort could be put in to another event... Deseronto for example that is IDEAL for Drags, T, and ThunderCat, and has requested to have races more than once. Or Tweed, also requesting races back several times.