30 foot Skater wins The Lake Race at LOTO

[Lake rat Skater]

Does anyone have any details on the stock class rule / weight changes. Is it just boats with the new 300r or did they bump up the class minimum weight?

[Jim Speros]

All weight the same.

[Lake rat Skater]

So they made all boat add some weight this year? That makes sense with the skater because I remember Ryan B mentioning he could get it down to the class min weight in the past and if that was increased now it can prob match thr DW for weight

[Ryan Beckley]

All boats had to add 500# to there minimum weight.

[Chaz]

The "plethora of useless~bogus information continues"

All boats have a max tunnel width of 63.5"

28 - 30 gets a weight break.

"ALL" entries received a 500 pound trophy to carry around.

Contrary to what was said last week, not one single boat went back to the mfg. between when they were craned out of the water in Key West until they were dropped in at Cocoa Beach ... to have the 500 lbs added to the canopy for safety reasons. None !

I see the cheerleaders are jumping up and down shaking their pom-poms ..

So they add 500 lbs to everybody.
The 300xs has to drag along an extra cylinder (air compressor, parasitic drag)
1600 extra cc's for the four stroke. Times two = 3200cc . Do the he pork chops really need the size of an "extra engine" to be competitive ???
Do you guys see that as a level playing field .. or .. well you know ..

When Harley Davidson sponsored NHRA P/S Motorcycle , they were allowed 160 ci / 4 valve heads. The Suzuki's had to be 115 ci with a 2 valve Ward head. (Kawasaki replica)
The Harley's came with a 2 valve head and the Suzuki's came with a 4 .. role reversal ... 101

Who knew, when I "built" this picture ... it would be posted on every online motorcycle site as well as every paper ragazine .. Only mistake I made was not having it copyrighted. ...

I wont make the same mistake when I do one for the Porky ...

[Jim Speros]

Chaz, Are you a equipment owner for that Class?

[Lake rat Skater]

Chaz, Are you a equipment owner for that Class?

No he just has a lot of knowledge and love for the 2 strokes and likes to bash on the new 4 strokes every chance he gets.

[Chaz]

Chaz, Are you a equipment owner for that Class?

Last week you made multiple wrong statements. You claimed that you don't like to argue .. and you were going to "give" me the win. I said in return, I'm not arguing, just debating/discussing and let it go ...

Forums would be lonely places ... if no one posted.

You didn't "give" me anything. As you can see, your still wrong. We are all human and make mistakes ..

Am I an equipment owner fur the class ... ??? Are you .. ???

I'm not sure what you do for a living. I had a local sod farmer take me to lunch one day .. How much space do you put between the motor and shoulder bar. How far from the motor plate to the face of the rear end housing. What angle do you put the motor in at .. I answered, my wife wants me to get fertilizer for the lawn, what should I buy .. ???
Him and his dad sold the state million's of dollars in sod and trees for the turnpike, I-95 and god only knows what other road projects. They could give two ****'s about a single blade of grass ...

When I stay up till 2:00 am finishing 5 blocks .. so a few boats can race in a couple of weeks .. when I get sent a dozen shift shafts to shorten , trim cylinders to be rebuilt , unavailable swivel brackets to notch out, fill the crack, wrap the front so it wont happen again. Bore the tilt area and put 7075 aircraft aluminum bushings in a brand new one and then finish size them with a piloted ream I developed .. then yes you could say a little bit of me leaves with each project.

Lake sez :

No he just has a lot of knowledge and love for the 2 strokes and likes to bash on the new 4 strokes every chance he gets.

Thank you for the acknowledgment. Truth be known, I love 4-strokes too ..

I'm just not the kind of guy that is willing to walk into a dealership .. err .. I almost forgot, you can't really buy them from a mercury dealer .. you have to get them from a boat mfg. and pay $70,000.00 for two outboard motors ...
The guys that have no other choice .. seem to be "ego maniacs with a bit of an inferiority complex" .. when they change their name from Smith to Smyth .. they make it much to easy to get them rattled .. It's a lot like shootin fish in a barrel .. but it does make them tend to write pages worth of chaff avoiding the simple questions I ask or statements I make ..

[Jim Speros]

Thanks for your answer. I simple yes or no would have covered it.

Which boat? I'm curious.

No, I do not own a race boat. I was fortunate enough to be invited to race real nice equipment for many years.

[FUJIMO]

...homer greene sr., homer greene jr., aric greene? good peeps. hope he recovered alright from the bahamas diving...

[Chaz]

Thanks for your answer. I simple yes or no would have covered it.

Which boat? I'm curious.

No, I do not own a race boat. I was fortunate enough to be invited to race real nice equipment for many years.

Yes .. you have been wrong on multiple occasions.

Which boat .. ??? How many S/SS boats need 5 motors, a dozen shift shafts, box full of trim cylinders at a time .. some boats I knew were getting my parts .. others had no idea where they came from. No need to stamp the parts for attention.. and the checks are always good.
If you don't know ... then you either just fell of the turnup truck .. or had your head in the sand for quite some time ..

BTW .. Do you think that the mothership covered the 300r cowl that split open in Cocoa Beach .. or do ya think they told him to follow your suggestion .. and just put a bicycle inner tube around it ... just curious ..

Ahhh yes, Joey shoes. Guy came in my shop all excited about going to Hawleys school. I just got my S/Comp liscense .. and am ready to drive.
I started going over the price of a base roller, engine/trans/converter packages. He stopped me .. no you don't understand .. I have a license. I responded : yep, you also have a nice pair of Italian leather shoes. Now all you need to do is buy a ******* car .. and you can be a racer too ..

[Jim Speros]

I don't see a boat number or name in our answer. All I see is another long winded run around.

I can't take credit for the inner tube idea. That's what many stock boat did back in the late eighties. Seemed to work well, never lost a cowl.

[Chaz]

I don't see a boat number or name in our answer. All I see is another long winded run around.

I can't take credit for the inner tube idea. That's what many stock boat did back in the late eighties. Seemed to work well, never lost a cowl.

Well Jimmie, I asked the same of you. Actually I poised many questions your way ... no actual response. No boat, no name, no number ... just more non facts.

Perhaps you'll get to the point that you understand that I built parts that are/were on many of the 300xs powered boats. (yes I had my favorites, but that's none of your business)

After I stated they all added 500 pounds. You (lied) said they added that weight
to the canopy for safety reasons. (makes great sense to go from 15" motors to 20's and then add 500 pounds to the highest point in the boat).

Then you later stated .. no boats added any weight. Ryan also stated all entrys had to add 500 lbs to their minimum weight. Jimmie, hard for me to take you serious when you can't own up to your (lies) misrepresentations.
(Do I need to type less for you to keep up, maybe use smaller words)

For the rest of the world ... no response as to why they added 500 lbs to the class while allowing 4.6L motors at the same time. I have an idea .. I just want to see who will pull down their rose colored glasses long enough to tell the truth ...

[Ryan Beckley]

So this is going the total wrong direction...... but here goes.......

Last year at St Pete the owners that came to the meeting, all but one at that race, unanimously voted to allow the 300R into the class , starting this year. Mother Mercury definitely pushed as well. The class did so as 300xs parts are getting harder and harder to find.

After all of the crashes in the class in the last several years the APBA / UIM are trying to lessen the accidents and make the boats safer. With input from multiple builders and such the came up with #250 in glass and safety work is needed to most boats. Then add the reported weight increase of the 300R at another #250 per pair and that's where they came up with the #500 for everyone. I am still confused as to why the 300xs boats had to add the same additional weight, but that's another story.

As for Jim Bob, his track record, speaks for itself, I DO know him personally and he helped with my boat for along time. He was part of the Fountain Factory race team, Pier 57 and Art Lilly's right hand guy for many years.

I've spoken to Chaz on the phone a time or two, obviously super knowledgeable, I know he's built parts for many people in the class and a top notch machinist and fabricator.

We are all very passionate about what and why we do what we do.

This thread is about a boat that I owned for a very long time, it's great to see those two younger guys put it into the winners circle, they spent a **** ton of money re powering the boat, I could have never afforded to do that. I am happy for them and SKATER!

[CUDA]

Yes with the old 3.2 Optimax motors mods had to be made because they allowed 15 inch midsections, Mercury never made 15 in mids for that motor so one had to buy 2.5 offshore stuff and have a adapter plate modify to fit or buy aftermarket mids, costing $6,000. + and up, now it's just too simple you buy a 20" motor as any other consumer and bolt up, so someone like Chaz just lost business, poor guy, that's the bottom line.
Stock is Stock no more almost stock.