THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2012 - The 2012 powerboating season for most racers is still a handful of months down the road, but a small group of southern-based and other racers who have the racing bug don't have to wait much longer to get an early season preview of 2012's action.  The annual March race in Lakeland, FL has been announced by APBA.  The Orange Cup Regatta historically draws 4-5 boats in each racing class to Central Florida the first weekend of March each year, mostly made up of racers from Florida and surrounding states.  If you are a racer or a fan and are interested in making the trip south then you can find the information regarding the APBA's sanction of the event here: http://www.apba-racing.com/internal/show_sanction.php?EditID=11035.

While I would love to get a little time on the water in the middle of what we call winter in the north, I just can't justify the mileage required to get to a club race such as this.  I know the feeling of driving a tractor trailer to Daytona and I am in no way interested in adding another four of five hours to that trip.  If it were closer I would be game, but Florida is a long way for a hillbilly to pull a boat for a weekend of fun.

If you are looking for some boating action a little closer to home then the ABPA's annual driving school is set for May 18-20 on the lake near Dayton, OH.  I attended this school a couple years when I got bit by the tunnel boat racing bug.  If you plan to race in APBA-sanctioned boats in the future then this is a good way to get a feel for the boats and spend some time of other new and veteran racers.  The school is three days, includes some classroom and seat time on the lake, as well as capsule training in the pool at Wright State University.  Cost is $350 per person.  If you're interested, here's a link to the application: http://www.apba-racing.com/sites/all/files/documents/012DRIVING-APP.pdf.  Hurry though.  They only take about 30 people and last word was that they were already about half full.  It is a very popular event, and they haven't had the school since 2010 so I am sure there will be more than enough applicants to fill the class.  One thing to remember is that you have to sign a wreck clause.  That's right, you flip it you buy it!

Back this weekend with some more news.  If you haven't had a chance to welcome our new oil sponsor, E.A. Shaeffer Oil Company, I hope you can drop Elmer an email or post on his Facebook page and let him know we appreciate him coming aboard.  You can link to his Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/ZoilRacing. I'm looking forward to using that AMSOIL product this coming summer!

Dana Tomes

MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 2012 - Gaining product support in the racing world is important and part of Herd Racing's efforts over the past several months has been focused on gaining support from companies and organizations which can help us cut our race weekend expenses.  Those of you in the racing family know the volumes of gear lubes and two-cycle oil mix you can run through in a race weekend, especially when you change your gearcase oils every time the boats come out of the water and when you run two boats every weekend opposed to just one that most teams field.

That makes today's announcement that the E.A. Schaeffer Oil Company of Troy, Ohio has joined our team as an associate sponsor that much enjoyable.  The company's decision to come aboard as a supporter of our program will not only meet our team's product needs, but it will allow us to associate with a longstanding and reputable company and be able to open Schaeffer's opportunities to pursue additional business in the marine environment.

Elmer Schaeffer, owner of E.A. Schaeffer Oil and a 20-plus year distributor of AMSOIL products, will join our team at several race events in 2012 and will serve as a resource for other teams who may need a reliable source to get their own AMSOIL products.

Our team is very happy to announce our newly forged friendship with Shaeffer and his long line of AMSOIL products.  As is our goal with every Herd Racing sponsor, we hope to be able to assist Schaeffer with growing his business to include a new segment of the racing world - boat racing.  So, be watching our website over the next several days as we add a permanent advertisement that will allow you click your way right to E.A. Schaeffer's retail site so you can order your AMSOIL product online.  Welcome aboard Elmer!  I think you will see that Herd Racing will work very hard to continue our relationship for many years to come.

Dana Tomes

SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2012 - While scanning the internet this weekend and coming upon the American Power Boat Association's new website I began to think to myself how far behind the sport of racing is compared to other sports and business in general.  Boat racing teams, especially, have put forth very little, if any, investment in web-based technologies over the past two decades as it has become available.

As I have admitted on many occassions, I am very much a novice when it comes to technology, but as a business owner I communicate with probably 50 percent of my clients now days via email and the web.  Our company emails invoices, receives payments electronically, provides bids via the web and receives business regularly through our corporate website.  Unfortunately, the sport of boat racing has been left far behind in the quest for technology, and until this week when the APBA uploaded it's new website at www.apba-racing.com, the sanctioning body of our sport has been unwilling to change with the times.  Hopefully, it isn't too late for the sport to make a come back, but my personal opinion is that boat racing will continue to fade away over the next few decades as leagues, clubs and racers themselves lose the interest of fans and financial supporters.

Why will this happen?  Because the sport hasn't looked for new ways to involve its fans, to increase its sponsorships and to broaden its appeal to new audiences.  The sanctioning body has failed to lead and the leagues, clubs and 99 percent of the racers have followed right along this path of unknowingly dooming themselves and their sport to a sideline event on a local town's summer festival schedule.  I have heard more than one league official and sanctioning body leader tell me that boat racing will never be NASCAR.  They are right.  It won't.  And the reason is because NASCAR is led by innovators who know how to brand itself, brand its products and cater to what the public wants.

Coming from that NASCAR mentality, it is a lot of fun to build fan excitement around our team, our outreach mission, and our new sport of tunnel boat racing.  Getting sponsorship, keeping sponsorship and growing the sport isn't rocket science.  It just requires some leadership and the willingness to change. 

If you don't have a working website, a way to communicate with your fans, and most importantly - an outlet and audience where your sponsors can see that they are getting something in return for their investment then the chances of growth for the sport, league, club or team is pretty much a pipe dream.  I hope the ABPA's recent new website, new Propeller magazine and new effort to embrace it's fans and racers is something that the sanctioning body's leagues, clubs and racers will also attempt.

If they don't the sunset is all that remains for the sport!

Dana Tomes

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2011 - Powerboat pilots, crews and league officials from across the U.S. are gathering this week near Chicago for the 2012 annual meetings of the American Power Boat Association.  The near week-long event draws hundreds annually to update safety and competition rules, vote on officers for the new year and consider changes to the sport.  This year's meetings are being conducted in Hoffman Estates, IL, a northwest suburb of the Windy City.

There are a lot of items on the agenda this week, including a complete makeover of the sanctioning body's points system which I am all for.  The APBA scoring system is one I can't even image anyone would have thought was ever a good idea, needs some revamping, and there are some good proposals this year to finally, hopefully get something done.  The current system rewards the race winner with way too many points compared to the others in the field.  A guy who wins two club races and then sits out the remainder of the season would beat a guy who runs 5th every weekend all summer long under the current setup.  NASCAR was on to something when it began awarding drivers one point per position in each race, a proposition that I hope the APBA considers as well.

Back at home you have probably noticed some changes to the front of our website at www.herdracing.com.  The logo you see above has been added to the lower left corner of our home page.  You can click on the link to download our mobile app through your desk or lap top computer or you can snap the QR code with your mobile device to download the app right to your smart phone.  Our mobile app is still being worked on and some more stuff will be added as time goes on, but the main idea is up and running.  Soon you will be able to sign up and receive text messages directly to your phone.  This will allow you to follow the race action this coming summer without ever having to log on to your computer.  We'll let you know how the Herd Racing teams qualify and race in real time and will send those messages right to your phone from the race course every race weekend!

And, we'll have another 2012 sponsorship announcement coming soon!  We got the signed contract in the mail today and will now begin working on getting the press release and logos ready for publication.  Keep checking back.  Hopefully, we'll have something to report in a week or so.  Lot's of fun in the office this off season.

Dana Tomes

MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2012 - If the long winter off-season has you missing the summer boat racing excitement then Romesburg Media has a little treat they have recently posted online for you.  Jarred Romesburg, who along with Mike Tilton, call most APR Superleague races from the shoreline for the league's public address/radio broadcasts of the races.  Jarred has posted his call of both the Formula 2 and Formula 3 Finals from Marietta, OH from last July 10.

Herd Racing has downloaded the audio tracts and posted them in our website's "On the Air" page so the race audio will be available for our fans to listen to at their leisure.  If you want to download the tracts or just listen to them on your computer you can find both audio files on our website at http://www.herdracing.com/ontheair.php.

Being in the boat and involved in the racing the past two years I had never heard the full race P.A. call from Jarred or Mike so I thought hearing the broadcast recording was pretty exciting.  It brought back my NASCAR memories of the MRN crew calling the action at Bristol.

I have encouraged Jarred to post more of the audio files from the races.  I hope if you like what you hear that you will email him and let him know you appreciate his work as well.  To make it easy for you, you can find Jarred Romesburg online at jarred@romesburgmedia.com.

Dana Tomes

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012 - While I am sure most race teams hate the long off-season their respective race series' bring them, I, for one, seem to like the days away from the race course as much as those at the track.  Racing is a year-round sport and just as much effort needs to be put forth during the time away from racing as does during the season.  While this is only Herd Racing's second full winter season since joining the boat racing ranks, I can say we have been blessed tremendously since we last raced in September 2011.

As you know, we have added BRL Solutions to our fold as a supporting sponsor for 2012, we just announced this week that Mobile Imprint has forged a marketing partnership with our team for the coming season, and just last night I had a long conversation with a major oil company representative about their company joining our team as an official sponsor and product provider.  Unless something changes, our conversation ended with a verbal agreement that the company will come on board for the 2012 race season and that we should have the contracts signed and ready for a public announcement in just a couple weeks.

I have been very excited since our last race of 2011 in Hamilton, Ohio.  We introduced a new boat in the Formula 2 ranks that weekend and it performed very well.  Making subtle improvements on the boat in preparation for 2012 has me excited that we may be able to start right out of the gate a lot more competitive than we have ever been before in boat racing.  We broke in a new SST-60 engine from LaBanco Racing during our final race weekend in Formula 3 at Aurora, Indiana in August and we have been able to secure a purchase agreement for another new Formula 2 engine for 2012.  Going into the new season with a primary and backup boat, as well as a primary and backup engine, in both classes relieves a lot of stress that worrying about tearing up something brings.  With a solid backup you can leave a little less on the table than many of your fellow competitors who may not have the luxury of a second boat or engine.

Other than having an endless supply of money, which probably will never happen in racing, I can say that the 2011-2012 winter has so far been a great one for Herd Racing.  We have been able to make great strides behind the scenes, make improvements to our boats and hauler, improve our marketing efforts and make tremendous gains on the sponsorship front.  Those efforts will continue throughout the winter and upcoming spring in hopes of setting us up for a very successful 2012 tunnel boat racing season.

Now, go download our new Herd Racing app (pictured above) while we work to continue to line up another exciting sponsorship announcement in the coming weeks.  And, if you like what you see we hope you will read more about Mobile Imprint here http://www.herdracing.com/supportingsponsors.php and consider taking your business, school, club or team mobile as well!

Dana Tomes

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012 - We are excited to announce today a 2012 sponsorship agreement with Mobile Imprint.  The Cincinnati-based technology company will allow Herd Racing to cater to a whole new segment of fans who make up the fastest growing segment of our population - the techies.  These days, nearly everyone you see has a smart phone in their hand and are scrolling across their screens almost non-stop.  Thanks to Mobile Imprint, Herd Racing will now be able to market to those people who we formerly didn't have access to.

As many of you probably know, websites are slowly becoming a marketing tool of the past.  Sure, for people my age and older they are still the main way we communicate online, but for the next generation of technology buffs it is all about having access to the world in the palm of their hands.  That's where the high-tech code you see in the attached image comes in.  If you have a smart phone you can photograph our custom QR code and be beemed directly to our team's new mobile application, a mobile version of our team website created especially for those who rely on their phones for communication rather than their desk top computers.

This new QR code will be on our boats, on our hauler and on our marketing materials starting with the 2012 race season so fans sitting in the crowd at our races can see our hauler, boats or hero cards and immediately click their way right into our cyber marketing world.  From that point they can get instant news, photos and other updates sent automatically from our team Twitter and Facebook feeds right to their phones.

If you are a smart phone user and would like to download our app for your mobile device you can log on to our mobile app download portal and enter your phone number.  You can access the app download page by clicking on this link http://mobileimprint.com/herdracing.

There is a lot of technology advances coming our way in the next several weeks, complients of Mobile Imprint.  You will notice some changes to our regular website at www.herdracing.com over the next few weeks and if you are a smart phone user you can now have access to a whole new mobile Herd Racing website by simply downloading our app.  If you like what you see, how about hiring Mobile Imprint to design one for your business or team.  That's part of our goal in this whole teamwork agreement.  Mobile Imprint is going to help Herd Racing expand its reach and Herd Racing's pledge in return is to promote the Mobile Imprint brand to those in our racing world.

Log on to www.mobileimprint.com to get your app and tell them that Herd Racing sent you!  There's lots more to tell you about this new agreement, but first I must learn about it myself.  Back for more in a few days!

Dana Tomes

THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012 - Less than two weeks into the new year things are bustling at Herd Racing.  There are so many little progressions happening almost daily that I really don't know where to start.  Here's a little sampling of the news from the race shop and office so far this week.

Our sponsorship agreement with BRL Solutions continued this week as we got our first shipment of product from the company.  Our job now is to get the product into the hands of potential users and future customers of BRL.  We plan to share a little of the product with each of the racing teams that we will associate with during club and series races in 2012 so that they might try BRL for themselves as well.  The product is really awesome.  It clings to all surfaces and doesn't dissolve or wash off in water so you can lubricate your propeller shaft or other movable racing part and you don't have to worry about contaminating the marine environment or having to reapply the lubricant because it washed off.  I think BRL and boat racing will be a perfect fit.

Our negotiations with the company I told you about during our last blog post over the weekend have progressed almost daily this week.  We are hoping to make a joint announcement of a 2012 sponsorship agreement sometime next week.  This company is going to allow Herd Racing to enjoy a technology that no other team in racing currently has.  I am really excited about this opportunity to represent this exciting company and its services.  The good thing about the whole thing is that they are just as excited on their end as we are on our's.  Same thing goes for BRL.  Neither their team nor our team can wait to showcase their products and get their logos on our boats in 2012!  The sponsorship hunt has been very fruitful over the past several months and all of our hard work is really starting to pay dividends for 2012.

In the race shop this week we began the installation of a very advanced and comprehensive weather system in our primary race hauler.  This new system, which we will use in 2012, will allow our team engineers to know the current outdoor temperature, wind speed and direction, humidity, barometric pressure, weather conditions, forecast, heat index, wind chill and all sorts of stuff which I know nothing about.  The goal is to be able to prepare our engines, adjust our carberators and set our fuel and air jetting based on the weather conditions.  We didn't have this technology in our first two years of racing and from a lot of study and research over the past several months we believe there is a chance for some increased performance by using this technology.  Our hauler may look a lot like a Doppler radar unit or mobile televisoin satellite truck once we get everything plumbed up this off-season, but every tiny advantage we can gain will hopefully lead to a few tenths of a second off our lap times.  Other teams re-jet their engines every time they go on the water.  We didn't do any of that and from what we have learned we feel this technology advancement should help us cut our lap times a little.

Lots going on.  I better get back to work voting for our Search for Champion video and tracking down some more financial support for 2012!  The excitement is back.

Dana Tomes

SATURDAY, JANUARY 07, 2012 - Herd Racing is working on another step toward being a leader in the racing industry when it comes to technology.  I was able to have a lunch meeting with a corporate businessman in Cincinnati on Friday whose company specializes in helping companies make their businesses more appealing to today's tech savy consumers.  I will be the first to admit that I am technologically challenged.  I can surf the web, send an email and do what it takes to survive in the business world, but I will never claim to be up on all of the current trends like my crew mates Eric Himes and Jeramey Wentz.

Part of my goals for Friday's meeting was to inquire about how our team can appeal to a larger audience and provide today's new generation of technology users something they can't currently find with other race teams across the country.  I am excited to say I left the meeting with not only a passel of great ideas, but an agreement in principle that will bring the man's technology company on board as a race sponsor, whose involvement will make our promotional opportunities far greater than we currently enjoy.  I take pride in our team being pretty high tech when it comes to having our own video cameras, website, YouTube channel, Facebook page, Twitter feed and those sorts of things.  Each one of those ways of tapping into the technology that is available in our society helps expand our advertising message to a group of people we may not have otherwise been able to reach.  This new initiative, which we hope to be able to announce in the next couple of weeks, has me really excited about being able to do something that I have not heard of anyone else in the racing world doing.  Stay tuned for an announcement after we get the details and contracts in place over the next couple of weeks.

And, don't forget our entry in the Champion Spark Plugs Search for a Champion video contest.  The winner of the water category gets a $10,000 sponsorship for 2012 so that is our primary goal in entering.  Help us win the fan vote portion of the contest by logging in and voting daily for our entry video at http://contest.alwaysachampion.com/contests/showentry/1011953.  Voting continues through February 5.

Lastly today, we've still got a few more team members to introduce to you in the next several weeks as we continue with feature stories on each Herd Racing team member.  If you didn't get a chance to read about our photographer, Rick Adkins, then you can still see his story here: http://www.herdracing.com/news_detail.php?ID=431.  Rick's story didn't get a full two week run on the front homepage of the website due to the timing of the Search for a Champion contest but his story is still on our Have You Herd news section.

Dana Tomes