Bayfair Ends – And Starts – A Season
San Diego’s Bayfair is right around the corner, coming up September 15 -17. As is often the case, points standings are close enough to where a season winner isn’t known yet. Although it would take some doing for Les Schwab Tires’ U-9, driven by Andrew Tate to beat out HomeStreet Bank’s U-1, driven by Jimmy Shane. Technically and mathematically, it is still possible, but…
As it always does, time will tell.
Traditionally, as the final race of the season, Bayfair will again mark the end of the 2017 season. But what that means is that many of us will immediately shift our focus to 2018!
Schedule Update
We’ve made a few updates to the Schedule page on UnlimitedHydroplaneRacing.com. Initially, it is to prep for 2018 and start to align our thinking.
What we’re currently showing are only the dates that have been confirmed. These “for sure” links take you to the race site websites currently displaying 2018 dates. We will of course fill in the remaining ones as they become known.
In the meantime, we need your help!
At the end of the 2013 season, we published our perspectives about how the sport of Unlimited Hydroplane Racing would integrate a new race site during a time of expansion talks. While significant expansion is not currently part of our vocabulary, we do have an opportunity to discuss a possible new race site: Phoenix.
There’s considerations in many areas. Transport time between cities, time to fix boat damage, the traditional timing of the overall events, and many more aspects are all real competing forces.
Damn Smart Fans
The sport of Unlimited Hydroplane Racing has Damn Smart Fans. It is now time to put you to work:
Let’s design the optimal 2018 Schedule.
First, we should start with what we know. From the Schedule Page:
- June 22 – 24, 2018 | Guntersville, AL
- July 27 – 29, 2018 | Tri-Cities, WA
Next, we should consider what has traditionally taken place in the past, or what we can guess based on current events:
- 4th of July weekend | Madison, IN
- Two weeks later due to travel time | Tri-Cities, WA
- Following weekend due to proximity | Seattle, WA
- Possibly late August | Detroit, MI
- Middle of September | San Diego, CA
OK, so far this was easy. Here’s your challenge:
Where does Phoenix fit into this Schedule?
Let’s be clear: Phoenix is still not confirmed. We have no evidence that it will happen. In July of 2016, H1 announced Phoenix was being “Added to the Circuit.” However, that was over a year and one (or two) chairmen ago.
The Arizona Copper Cup website shows an event February 22 – 25, 2018, but no mention of Unlimiteds. They only cite “Grand Prix hydroplane racing and several other exciting classes of power boat racing.”
We really need more than that, but back t0 our homework:
- How would you add Phoenix to the schedule?
- Where does it go?
- Why would you put it there?
Tell us. Comment here, or on our Facebook page or on Twitter.
Help design the perfect schedule!
UHR Dave