Look
up the word “offshore” in the dictionary and the
definition is what you’d expect. “Off or away
from shore,” says Random House for the first reference.
Second is “at a distance from the shore.”
“It doesn’t say lake or river,” said Kevin
Cooper, president of the Pacific Offshore Power Boat Racing
Association. “I’m looking at these organizations
fighting for the rivers and fighting for the lakes. We have
a beautiful venue here in Long Beach. Let’s go back
to the original venue.”
Cooper stubbornly spearheaded the effort to stage an old-school-style
endurance race in the Pacific Ocean off Long Beach, Calif.,
last year and the event drew a lot of attention within the
ranks of offshore racing. For this year’s version of
the Rum Run, Cooper and POPRA have better financial backing
and more interest from some of the major players in the sport.
“We’ve got guys racing this race from SBI, OPA,
they’re coming from all over the place,” said
Cooper.
A lot of what makes the event so intriguing is its history.
In 1911, the first official “offshore” race was
recorded as taking place in Long Beach, Calif. Decades later
the late Bob Nordskog, former publisher of Powerboat Magazine,
founded POPBRA. “He changed history,” said Cooper.
“He left his mark permanently on the offshore environment.
Nordskog established the Rum Run race off Long Beach and it
became a mainstay of the offshore racing circuit. After the
success of last year’s event, Cooper talked with Jerry
Nordskog, who had succeeded his father at Powerboat and had
changed the Rum Run Trophy to the Bob Nordskog Memorial Trophy
for sportsmanship after his dad’s passing. He convinced
the Nordskog family to let him make copies of the original
trophy so there would be two new awards, one for the winner
of the Rum Run and one for the Nordskog Memorial, which would
recognize outstanding sportsmanship. Additionally, Powerboat
magazine is a major sponsor of this year’s event.
After the success of the JumboTron screen and streaming live
coverage on the internet at last year’s Las Vegas and
Destin races, Cooper will have the same viewing opportunities
available at Long Beach.
In addition to Long Beach, which was scheduled for July 20,
POPRA has events scheduled for Pittsburg, Calif., a longstanding
event for the organization and for San Diego. There are discussions
for possible joint events with OSS and OPA, but Cooper said
nothing was set in stone.
Like OPA, POPRA has classes based on boat speed so that owners
of non-canopied craft can still compete. The organization
has the identical rules to OPA as well as categories that
let in the big cats of the Pro Series. Cooper said the organization
plans to stay neutral politically and that safety and old-school
racing will be the group’s priorities.
“It’s about the camaraderie between the racers
and making safety No. 1,” said Cooper. “We want
people to realize that we’re a constant and that we’re
reliable.” If you want to find the guys in POPRA, they’ll
be racing offshore. |
