Detroit's Gold Cup will move to August in 2015 to avoid July holiday

[Serious News]

The Detroit APBA Gold Cup on the Detroit River will be moved to Aug. 21-23 in 2015 in a bid to attract more spectators.

The switch from the traditional July date has been made to avoid clashing with the Fourth of July holiday period, which sees many folks leave town for summer vacations, said the Detroit River Regatta Association in making the announcement before Gold Cup heats today.

“We have been hoping for the opportunity to move the event because so many people travel around the Fourth of July holiday,” said Tom Bertolini, president of the DRRA, which runs the races on the river. “When the third weekend in August opened up, we jumped at the chance. Now even more people will have the opportunity to participate in this Detroit tradition.”

Additionally, the DRRA and the American Canadian Hydroplane Association jointly announced that the 2015 Gold Cup weekend will see the return of the Grand Prix class boats to Detroit. The GP boats use blown engines and generate lots of noise.

Next summer marks the 99th anniversary of the first Gold Cup race in Detroit.

H1 Unlimited, which is the sanctioning body of unlimited hydroplane racing worldwide, said it a statement it supported the date change in the Motor City for next year.

“Our priority is to ensure that this move benefits fans, supporters and our teams in a manner that provides a positive impact upon our series,” said H1 Unlimited chairman Sam Cole. “H1 is committed to assisting the DRRA and help ensure the long term viability of the Detroit event and the APBA Gold Cup race. ... We will be proactive in our efforts and are committed to ensuring continued success for Detroit and the entire series.”

■ Perkins impresses: Brian Perkins has emerged as a dark horse for Sunday’s APBA Gold Cup.

The 29-year-old driver drove to victory in Heat 1 B today, impressing in the U-21 GoFastTurnLeftRacing boat. He should have no difficulty advancing in to Sunday’s final after finishing second to J. Michael Kelly in Heat 2 A later today.

Perkins did it with local sponsorship when Al Deeby Dodge of Clarkston joined up with his team.

“We picked up Al Deeby and he’s been a great person, and he’s been down to the pits,” said Perkins, who is from North Bend, Wash. “It’s nice to have hometown support. A lot of people here know who he is and where he is.”

Perkins, who has been on the unlimited hydroplane podium several times, hasn’t been at the Detroit River for a couple years. But he believes he will be in the hunt for the win Sunday.

“We are a small team, but we have been working hard,” said Perkins. “I think we have as good a chance in the Gold Cup final as anyone.”

[Serious News]

Gold Cup: Despite low turnout, hydroplane racing a spectacle worth keeping

The boats have left the Gold Cup pits — some in pieces.

Jimmy Shane (U-6 Oberto) is headed home to the West Coast knowing his name will be inscribed on the oldest active motor sports trophy in the world after his popular victory on the Detroit River on Sunday.

■ Related: More on Shane’s win at Detroit River

But J. Michael Kelly (U-1 Graham Trucking), a truly fine unlimited hydroplane driver and a gracious man, will have to wait another year for a chance to win the most prestigious race on the H1 Unlimited Series calendar after being penalized a lap for a start infraction in the final.

That will be Aug. 21-23, 2015, after the Detroit River Regatta Association, in conjunction with H1, announced Saturday it was moving the race to a date later in summer in hopes it will attract more fans.

The DRRA believes many folks go on vacation around the Fourth of July and are out of town when the Gold Cup is here. The association might be right, because the pits Sunday were not overwhelmed.

Personally, I like the new date for the APBA Gold Cup. I think the river and the weather might be a little kinder in late August, but many Detroiters and suburbanites will be back at work and eagerly awaiting the start of high school and college football games.

Will they want to watch boat racing?

And will the unlimited hydroplane teams be willing to come to Detroit later in the H1 schedule?

As the schedule stood, teams would arrive in the Motor City from the season-opening race at Madison, Ind.

Now they’ll have to be prepared to return from the East or West Coast, where many teams are located.

I hope they do, because the H1 Unlimited Series drivers put on such a great show in Detroit, and the Gold Cup has so much historic significance.

The glory days of the Gold Cup — when hundreds of thousands watched the race from the banks of the Detroit River in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s — are over.

People now have so many other activities to choose from, and many are still afraid to give Detroit a chance and come watch the races.

But we must improve on promoting, marketing and embracing this wonderful event.

Where are the sponsors? Where are the VIPs? Where are those well-positioned city, business, sports and entertainment types who made their careers and fortunes in southeast Michigan? I didn’t see them at the river this past weekend.

The DRRA, the Detroit Yacht Club and the same few power-boat enthusiasts are propping up the Gold Cup.

It’s about time the rest of us realized we have an event, a remarkable one, still with us in the Motor City.

It’s time to step up and be counted before this race goes west, south or east.

Once it is gone, it won’t return.

http://www.freep.com/article/20140715/SPORTS16/307150045/gold-cup-races-low-turnout

[Serious News]

Detroit Gold Cup date change will yield ‘great show,’ Jimmy Shane says

DETROIT >> Count the newest Gold Cup champion among those glad about the date change for the annual unlimited hydroplane race on the Detroit River.

“We’ll be back; I’m excited,” Jimmy Shane, whose U-6 Oberto won the APBA Gold Cup on Sunday, said of the move to late August 2015.

“There’s going to be some fantastic racing coming in. It’s going to be an exciting time.”

One feature of the move from the weekend following the Fourth of July holiday, race director Mark Weber said, will be the addition of Grand Prix boats to the racing program.

That’s fine with Shane, who went undefeated in qualifying, heat races and the Gold Cup final last weekend.

“Those Grand Prix boats are going to rock your world,” Shane said. “Those guys put on a great show. Crazy drivers. Crazy boats.”

“You guys are going to be really happy that they changed the date for the Gold Cup, because it’s going to be a great show next year.”

The Detroit River Regatta Association, which puts on the Gold Cup, is considering changing the event from three days to two, Weber said.

But, for the time being, the Gold Cup is scheduled for Aug. 21-23.

“We’re saying it’s three days right now, because those are our traditional dates,” Weber, a Washington Township resident, said.

The DRRA sought a date change because many fans are on vacation and out of town the first two weeks in July due to widespread automotive industry shut-downs, Weber said.

“That was a big part of the problem,” Weber said. “The holiday draws people out of town.”

June weekends were not good, Weber said, because of events like the open-wheel automobile race on Belle Isle and the annual Detroit fireworks show, the latter of which compels the City of Detroit to maximize police overtime expenses.

With July comes the city’s new fiscal year, Weber pointed out.

The weekend of Aug. 21-23 will not interfere with events like NASCAR racing at Michigan International Speedway and the Woodward Dream Cruise.

“Making a major event change is not something you take lightly at all,” Weber said. “That weighed very heavily on our decision. It’s a little scary.

“But we’ve got to embrace this thing the best way we can.”

A casualty of the change will likely be the loss of 5-liter boats racing during Gold Cup weekend, Weber said.

The 5-liters are scheduled to race in Ohio on the new Gold Cup weekend.

“It’s a business decision, nothing against them whatsoever” Weber said. “They will be fine.”

In recent years, unlimited hydroplane teams have traveled to Detroit after racing at Madison, Ind.

Unless the H1 Unlimited order of events changes, Detroit will be fourth on the 2015 schedule, following Madison, Tri-Cities (Washington state) and Seattle.

“There’s a level of concern (about travel),” Weber said. “At the end of the day, we needed to make what we feel is the best decision for this association.”

H1 Unlimited, which sanctions the Gold Cup and other unlimited hydroplane events, is “supportive” of the date change, chairman Sam Cole said.

“H1,” Cole said in a statement, “is committed to assisting the DRRA and (ensuring) the long-term viability of the Detroit event and the APBA Gold Cup race. H1 leadership will work to integrate the new dates into the 2015 schedule and coordinate changes with any events which might be impacted.”

Grand Prix hydroplanes look similar to unlimiteds and use supercharged engines. The 2014 ACHA schedule includes stops at Valleyfield, Quebec, and Brockville, Ontario.

“They make gobs of noise,” Weber said.

http://www.theoaklandpress.com/sports/20140714/detroit-gold-cup-date-change-will-yield-great-show-jimmy-shane-says