Race World Offshore Holding Meet And Greet In Key West

At present, the fledgling Key West, Fla.-based Race World Offshore organization has two races—May in its hometown and June as part of the Texas Outlaw Challenge near Houston—on its inaugural 2018 schedule. But according to Larry Bleil, the president of the Conch Republic Offshore Powerboat Racing Association and the driving force behind Race World Offshore, that number likely will grow significantly before the 2018 season begins.

On Nov. 9 in Key West, racers and fans will have the opportunity to meet with Larry Bleil and others from the new Race World Offshore organization.

“We are going to be announcing a lot more races for next year—tentatively we’ll have eight races on the schedule,” he said. “I’m looking at Key West as the beginning of our series. I can’t announce the specific venues just yet, but we plan to have two races in Florida, three in the Great Lakes area, one in the Midwest and one in Texas.

During the upcoming Speed Week early next month in Key West when the Super Boat International Offshore World Championships and Florida Powerboat Club Key West Poker Run happen concurrently and attract thousands of fans for what is the biggest economic week of the year for the city, Bleil and other Race World Offshore representatives plan to hold what he called an informal ‘Meet and Greet’ event at Durty Harry’s Bar at Rick’s on Duval Street. Open to the public, the event is tentatively set for Thursday, Nov. 9, at 6 p.m.

“It will be a question-and-answer session where people can ask us what our directions are now and for the future—why we are doing this, classes, rules and our goals,” he said. “We know it’s going to be a monumental feat to get this going and we know we’re not going to make everyone happy. But if we don’t do this, the sport has a problem. Our mission is to bring the sport around, make it professional and get it on television.

“I want to have a true race series, meaning something you’re going to want to watch and something that racers are going to want to be part of,” he continued. “I don’t know that we can do it completely in 2018, but I know we can have good, professionally run races in 2018 so that we can get big sponsors involved.”

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