San Diego Bay Fair is making an attempt to lure back the roaring unlimited hydroplanes \u2014 a tradition of speed and excitement \u2014 for September\u2019s annual World Series of Powerboat Racing. Brett Seber, a member of the fair\u2019s board of governors, said he was optimistic about the possibilities. So, the group will reserve some space along busy Mission Bay for Sept. 17-19. “Although a final contract hasn\u2019t been signed, H1 Unlimited is expected to return to San Diego after a one-year absence,” Seber reported on Bay\u00a0Fair\u2019s website.\u00a0“The (contract) numbers (were) worked out, so I feel very comfortable\u00a0 that it\u2019s going to happen.”\u00a0 In addition to the unlimiteds, Bay Fair is expected to have tunnel boats, unlimited light boats, drag racing and offshore racing.\u00a0Other contract “teasers” are in the mail. Meanwhile, H1 Unlimited chairman Sam Cole said: “Obviously, nothing would make us happier than to return to Mission Bay and be part of Bay Fair once again in 2010.\u00a0 However, we want to\u00a0make it perfectly clear that there is\u00a0no agreement in place.” Seber and returning board member Jim Kidrick head the vital marketing team for the nonprofit charity event.\u00a0 “It\u2019s a big challenge to come up with sponsor money,” said race chairman Bob Davies. “We\u2019re trying to woo people back.\u00a0 Gone are the days of the \u2018beer wars\u2019 when Coors, Millers and Budweiser were sponsors.”\u00a0 Budweiser pulled out after the 2007 event and Bay Fair officials had to go it alone last year. Discussions were under way with the Lucas Oil Drag Boat Racing Series for the drag racing competition off Crown Point. The sticking point, though, is the price\u00a0 tag. According to Davies, it costs $180,000 for the boats to come down and between $75,000 and $100,000 for infrastructural needs. He puts a different spin on his views about the unlimiteds. The H1 Hydro series\u00a0 (currently with six race locations) begins with 12 boats, but Davies questions how many really are working at the end of the year. \u00a0 “We\u2019ve seen this in San Diego over the years, that by the time they\u2019ve run five,\u00a0 six or seven events during the summer and arrive in San Diego, they\u2019re all beat up, come in limping and bandaged,” Davies said.\u00a0 Still, he agreed that the race boats do have the luster and a tradition.\u00a0 “We\u2019re never going to make a profit but we finished in a lot better shape last year than we ever have,” Davies said.\u00a0“We filled in with different classes of boats and tried to give everybody something to look at.\u00a0 “We had the unlimited lights and they put on one of the best shows I\u2019ve seen,” he said.\u00a0 “They enjoyed it because they were the stars.\u00a0 Probably had more boats in our pits than we ever had. It\u2019s the end of summer, the tourist have gone home and the locals come out one more time to be entertained and maybe camp in Mission Bay Park.” \u00a0 With 27 classes\u00a0of boats, Davies seems like a racing maestro. “It\u2019s always a challenge to find how much water time is available, particularly when the drag boats need still water,” he said. \u00a0 Scheduling of the event continues to be a major priority, Davies said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
San Diego Bay Fair is making an attempt to lure back the roaring unlimited hydroplanes \u2014 a tradition of speed and excitement \u2014 for September\u2019s annual World Series of Powerboat Racing. Brett Seber, a member of the fair\u2019s board of governors, said he was optimistic about the possibilities. So, the group will reserve some space […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":271948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Bay Fair steps up powerboat appeal","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}