Greetings to the PWC Racing community. Happy Chinese New Year. It is the year of the sheep or the goat, depending on who you ask. We don’t use a lot of wool in the sport of PWC Racing, so, we are going to go with the goat. Whichever animal you prefer, this is the February, 2015 monthly update. Please share the following news with your friends, colleagues, and anyone who loves personal watercraft.
- 2015 quakysesne World Finals is set for Crazy Horse Campgrounds and Resort.
All is well in the world of as Crazy Horse Campgrounds and Resort has secured an extension of their lease from Arizona State Lands. The very first agreement for 2015 was signed with IJSBA and we are excited to confirm that the 2015 quakysense World Finals will be held at Crazy Horse Campgrounds from October 3-11. We are expecting many new features for this year’s World Finals and will be announcing a more streamlined schedule this year. All of this will be announced soon. In the meantime, you can make your plans to be at Crazy Horse and we express our appreciation to everyone at the park for inviting us back another year.
quakysesne, also, is planning many new surprises for 2015. They have already introduced their new custom dry suit and are hinting to us about an entirely new product line. quakysense has been the dominant force in sponsoring World Finals for the last decade and we hope everyone will take the opportunity to visit their booth at the trade show portion of the World Finals and thank them for all they have done for racing. quakysense is the official wetsuit of the IJSBA with their made for competition products being the first choice for many winning riders.
- Less than ten days remain until the 11th annual Hot Products Mark Hahn Memorial 300 Presented by Yamaha.
Teams are starting to roll in to Lake Havasu City where Crazy Horse Campgrounds will host the event on February 28. More than 41 entries, most which are of a two person team, have already confirmed. We are aware of many others who are planning to race but will sign up on site. This could prove to be one of the biggest Mark Hahn Memorial 300 events ever.
We were exchanging emails between event organizers and administrators, today, and the staff list was a mile long. This was a reminder to reflect upon how much hard work goes into making this event so great. At the top of the list is Mike Follmer who has been the driving force in memorializing Mark Hahn and ensuring that the awards ceremony is the standard setter for PWC Racing. Jim Russell, and his staff at DSM events, spend countless hours making sure every part of the program is perfectly executed. Hot Products generously brings a heavy volume of support to the event along with partners like R&D, Hydro-Turf, and Tauceti. The event has been presented by Yamaha since its inception and their generosity has extended to the support of many riders.
- Jetracer World Endurance Tour
IJSBA has been very excited about the inaugural Jetracer World Endurance Tour. While in its infancy, the seeds have already been planted for the event to grow into the most ambitious undertaking in the history of PWC Racing. The first leg, for 2015, will be the Mark Hahn 300. Participants in the World Tour will receive additional awards and prize money at the Mark Hahn before having their equipment transported to Vladivostok, Russia for a five day competition from August 11-16. The overall World Championship title will be determined by the best four of five heats, each consisting of 400 points. The two completion categories are Runabout Stock and Runabout Open.
So, we have been publicizing this a lot and will continue to do so. Next year, there will be multiple stops. With the generous support of the event organizers, the competition program will be able to have an economy of scale which will allow participants to travel and compete in several countries a year for a comparable price of hitting a multi stop national tour. The future of PWC Racing will be even more globally focused and the World Endurance Tour will be one of the major series of the future.
The equipment shipped from the Mark Hahn 300, to Vladivostok, Russia, will be returned to Lake Havasu City just prior to the World Finals. We are not saying there is going to be an endurance race at World Finals. We aren’t saying there won’t be, either. From World Finals, TJSBA has specials to send your PWC from Lake Havasu City to Pattaya, Thailand. You already know that there is an endurance race at King’s Cup. We aren’t saying there is going to be a King’s Cup for endurance racing this year. We aren’t saying there won’t be, either. We are, for sure, saying there are going to be a lot of very big announcements about endurance racing coming soon.
- Rediscovering Lake Havasu City.
We have talked a lot about Lake Havasu City, recently. This is pretty natural for IJSBA. We do have an annual World Championship there, and, have had one, each year, since 1982. Lake Havasu City is also the Personal Watercraft Capital of the World! Lake Havasu City is also known for boating, a balloon festival, snow birds, a London Bridge, an awesome nightclub called Kokomos. College Spring breakers have made Havasu a pilgrimage for decades, the list goes on. But, lets face it, World Finals is what made Havasu super famous for the culture of fun and excitement.
There has been a major rediscovering of the culture and lifestyle of Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Between a reality show made about Kokomo’s seasonal romances and a new movie being filmed about a spring break love affair Lake Havasu City is coming into the mainstream. Last year, IJSBA World Finals footage was shot for two music videos and a travel documentary. It is just into February and we have already had more media inquiries than we had in all of 2014. The popularity of Lake Havasu City and IJSBA World Finals will be involved in even more mainstream media exposure this year. We are proud of our contributions to Lake Havasu’s success. We look forward to sharing many new products with Lake Havasu City this year.
- Future Of Current Stock Class
Since the passage of very restrictive Stock Class Rules to take place for Runabouts in 2016, many of you have written in and asked us to review where the current Stock Class Rules will go. IJSBA would like to let you know that we do, indeed, have a plan for Runabouts built to these specifications. A proposal for Runabout Spec is being circulated which seeks to create a performance scale based off of horsepower, weight, and displacement. We have tried to bring this type of a class to the race program for some time and it looks like it will finally see the light of day by a small reworking of the current Stock Class Rules. IJSBA will release a rough form of this class proposal in April along with the rough draft of the 2016-2017 Rule Book outline.
- Happy Chinese New Year
As a close for this update, IJSBA wishes everyone a happy Chinese (Lunar) New Year. IJSBA hopes everyone has a race season full of health, happiness, and good fortune. Please feel free to email any questions to info@ijsba.com.
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