Greetings to the Personal Watercraft Racing Community.  This is the second update to inform all of you everything that is going on in preparation for the 2021 Jettrim WGP-1 World Finals.  IJSBA is headquartered in a small coastal farm town in the San Francisco Bay Area.  The signs of World Finals getting closer are the same every year: it is dark when we wake up and the amount of daylight gets shorter every day; the farms are full of corn stalks, pumpkins and hay bales; the salmon fishing boats are anchored off the shoreline with glowing mooring lights providing a delightful compliment to the first signs of twilight; and, the mail, the calls, and emails increase exponentially.  The stress and anxiety of preparing for an event all start to ramp up and this happens in a contrasting backdrop of warm colors, fall comfort flavors, and the feeling of anticipation of seeing all of our friends and associates in the Arizona desert ramps up with equal intensity.  Things worth doing often aren’t easy to do.  IJSBA staff will get it done.  Please share the following news with your friends and colleagues in the PWC Racing family.

 

Those Who Make It Happen

  Last update we started with a shout out to Jettrim and the Thai organized WGP-1 World Series for taking the title sponsorship positions making providing the necessary provisions and resources to get a 40th World Finals off of the ground.  This week we need to give proper acknowledgement to another group of entities which are responsible for our event happening.

  1. Go Lake Havasu. Go Lake Havasu, formerly known as the Lake Havasu City Convention & Visitors Bureau, was founded in the early 1980s.  Go Lake Havasu is committed to working proactively with its partners to attract and engage visitors in order to enhance the area's economy, and thus, its quality of life.  In order to best describe them, we poached the description from their own website.  Here is what the PWC community needs to know about this organization: GO Lake Havasu has a limited fund of monies collected by Lake Havasu City and is allowed to spend those funds on events they believe are good for the economic well being of the city as well as contributory to the city’s own culture.  Lake Havasu City invests in the racing community by continuing to provide support funding for this event.  They believe in the value of PWC Racing and of World Finals and want to do their part to make sure we can continue to do what we love to do where we love to do it.  Go Lake Havasu is loyal to us and we owe them reciprocation.  Be respectful while you travel through town by obeying traffic rules and other regulations.  Share pictures and positive thoughts about Lake Havasu City on your social media while you are there.  Try to support local merchants as much as possible.

 

  1. Big O Tires. Big O Tires is one of those merchants Go Lake Havasu is hoping to support by bringing commerce to Lake Havasu City.  Big O Tires wants your business and wants you to come and race on Lake Havasu because they love their home town and believe we are a good fit for the lifestyle that has evolved there.  Big O Tires of Lake Havasu City so much believes in the pairing of our community and the local community that they are the primary sponsor behind bringing the Blowsion Under The Bridge Freestyle show to reality.  The Under The Bridge Show takes place Saturday Night and is the largest interaction of the World Finals with the local community.  Big O makes it possible for this free event to take place.  A lot of props are due to Big O, not just for supporting you but for providing a valuable service to the many competitors who come each year and, occasionally need tires.  Traditionally, when you need a tire in the desert you are at the mercy of others as they are as rare in the desert as an ice cube.  Inflated prices are already to be expected because the amount of non-revolving inventory a merchant has to carry in a remote location is higher than in more traveled areas.  Big O Tires of Lake Havasu City provides reliable and professional tire installation services at market prices to ensure that if you have a tire related problem in Lake Havasu City then you will remember it a problem easily solved as opposed to a horrible gouging experience.  We are truly grateful for their presence and generosity.

 

  1. The Event and The Numbers. Last year, we went into “limp mode” at World Finals to navigate through the pandemic.  The event was restricted and most internationals were unable to attend due to the devastating impacts of COVID-19.  The decision to hold the event under restrictive conditions was primarily twofold.  First, we thought it was important to preserve the continuity of the World Finals as other sports were continuing to hold their own flagship events.  Second, we were planning on this year being the 40th consecutive World Finals and did not want any question that we had an uninterrupted 40 years.  The plan was for the 40th Anniversary event to be the most grand celebration reflected of the milestone our sport had achieved.  Fast forward to 2021 and we are not as out of the woods on this whole pandemic situation as we had hoped.

 

  In 2020 we achieved just over 50% of the turnout the 2019 World Finals.  More than 200 competitors signed up for the 2020 World Finals with a remarkable 192 competitors actually earning points through 334 entries.  Most competitors signed up on site.  Today, in 2021, with two weeks of preregistration left, we already have more preregistrations than the total amount of 2020.  This provides for a strong indication there will be a much better turnout.  Unfortunately, even a stronger turnout will not take us out of restrictive measures.  There are serious obstacles to most Europeans who want to reach the event.  Most vendors are facing supply issues that prohibit them from having meaningful sales.  Fuel, labor, and event resource costs are impacting the event to a one year inflation never before experienced.  This will require, again, that we go into World Finals expecting a restricted and conservative event.  This means a temporary freeze on payout, no indoor awards ceremony, reduced seating capacity, and a tightly controlled schedule to allow for daily award ceremonies on the beach at the venue.

 

What it doesn’t mean is any less quality of racing.  Each category will be between two and four motos.  Vintage classes as well as SC classes will remain two motos as scheduled.  Discretionary classes will be reduced to two long motos.  Pro classes will be four motos.  Most classes will be three equally scored motos.  We are going to get the schedule frontloaded and plan to be done racing by 2:00PM on Sunday.  Awards should take place each day for all finished classes.  There is not currently a mask requirement planned for the event but that could change if there are state or county mandates providing otherwise.  There will be one grandstand staged.  There will be both public beach seating and VIP reserved beach seating.  In addition, some vendors will offer beachside seating for their guests.  The idea is to space out spectators and minimize common surfaces that could become contaminated.  Racing will be great and we will have a World Finals sized track supervised by the very best staff in the sport.  The vendor turnout is already more than doubled from 2020.  Vendors will be spaced out to maximize as much open air environment as possible.  We will be giving very special trophies to commemorate the 40th anniversary.  We will be returning the Blowsion Big O Tires Freestyle Saturday Night Show to the water under the London Bridge.  Things may not be all the way back to a normal World Finals but we will get as close as possible.

 

  1. Registration and Class Reduction. Registration is still open.  Registration will still continue through September 28, two weeks from today.  As soon as midnight hits on the 28th, registration will be closed until October 2 when only on-site registration is available and at increased prices.  October 2 and October 3 will have registration at River Rat Kawasaki Yamaha: 1680 Acoma Blvd West, Lake Havasu City, AZ 86403.  During the week, registration will be available at the upper area by the entrance to Crazy Horse Campground and resort.

 

Today, Vintage 650/750 was removed from the competition schedule.  The following classes need registrations to increase over the next week or risk cancelation:  Amateur Rec Lites, Amateur 1100 Open, Women’s Runabout, Women’s Runabout 1100, Amateur Ski 2 Stroke GP, Amateur Veterans Ski Stock, Amateur Veterans Ski GP.

 

  1. VP Fuels. VP Fuels will be onsite selling their regular menu of top products which PWC regularly use in racing.  Avoid supply issues by preordering when their sales instructions become available next week.  VP Fuels are the official fuel of IJSBA World Finals and have always successfully met the changing needs of the sport.

 

  1. IJSBA has three partners for lodging at the 2021 Jettrim WGP-1 World Finals.  Our base partner, the Quality Inn of Lake Havasu City provides base lodging very close to the venue site and includes free hot breakfast with every stay.  The Island Inn is our convenience lodging with their establishment located right outside of the entrance to the race site venue.  Luxury accommodations are available at the London Bridge Resort.  Each of these lodging partners offers special rates to World Finals attendees.  Please see the IJSBA World Finals lodging tab for more information. 
  2. Immigration Assistance.  IJSBA has spent 10 days processing as many immigration requests as possible and this has put us severely behind schedule.  IJSBA will write an invitation letter upon request but we cannot write any further NIE requests for European Schengen Countries until the last submission is adjudicated.

 

 

This concludes the second pre-World Finals update.  If you have any questions about this update or the 2021 Jettrim WGP-1 World Finals, please email info@ijsba.com.