OPA is now part of APBA Offshore
February 12, 2014
After more than a dozen years of producing Offshore Racing events, OPA Racing (Offshore Powerboat Association) has joined forces with American Power Boat Association in order to bolster the ranks within APBA’s Offshore Category.
“We see this as a very positive move for our teams and the sport in general” said Ed (Smitty) Smith, President of OPA. “By joining with the APBA, several things happen. Our teams are now eligible for the APBA Hall of Champions, we can now promote joint events with other APBA categories to enhance our product at our race sites, we can establish globally recognized speed runs and we have the exclusive rights to the APBA Offshore sanction within Region one, two, three, four and six. The sport has been so fractioned that it was time to do something to help put it back together.”
APBA Executive Director, Dan Wiener, couldn’t be more excited to build upon the Offshore category. “This has been one of our goals since I joined APBA almost three years ago. To reunite the Offshore Category is very exciting. By bringing OPA under the APBA umbrella it will help us to promote Offshore Racing in the Great Lakes Region and along the East Coast. A few years ago we began working with the Offshore Super Series who’s race sites are located primarily in the central part of the country and along the Gulf Coast, the APBA Offshore Category has life once again. Having two Offshore racing circuits now sanctioning with APBA, plus P1, we can see our way toward a true National Championship and World Champion for some of the biggest and baddest boats in the world.”
Wiener continues, “OPA is a great addition to APBA, they had roughly 60 registered teams in 2013 and a series of eight races, with some really great venues. I’m looking forward to helping them in any way possible and I’m thrilled to have them join APBA.”
OPA Racing’s “Jersey Boyz” give APBA’s Dan Wiener a warm welcome at OPA Racing’s Winter Awards Party held near Atlantic City, NJ. (Left to right. Ed “Smitty” Smith, Augie “The Godfather” Pensa, Dan Wiener and Louie “Da Rigger” Giancontieri.
