Attention RTR boaters! BIG NEWS!

[Ron Olson]

Those of you that own small RTR or RTF boats, great news coming! The IMPBA is now working on revising the ABS class rules to include the Miss Bud's, Nitro Hammers and other boats in these sizes! The new IMPBA Prez, Bill zuber has been in touch with me concerning the updates to this class. About the only thing which you will need to change is to a metal prop, no plastic props can be used any more in the IMPBA with the exception of Fast Electric and Scale ships. I haven't gotten an exact copy of the proposed criteria yet but FINALLY you will have a chance to run them in a class. Once the new rules are set in place, start bugging your local IMPBA boat club about starting the class at their races.
My guess is that you will have to run the boat pretty much as it comes off the asembly line with no mods except for metal props and I would assume a better radio system if you choose to upgrade. Other than that, if it comes with a pull-start you'll have to use it, no hand-held starters. Onboard starters like those from Traxxas I don't know about yet so hold tight. There will probably be no restrictions on fuel percentage but don't take my word on that either.
Keep in mind, this class will be only for those boats under .18 sized motors, possibly still using the .165 cu. in. displacement but we'll see what they come up with.
For a guy who just became President at the first of the month, Bill sure is making a lot of changes for the good. My hat is off to him!

[CFRACR]

Well thats good news, but not for me. :( My Hammer is modded so that counts me out. No one would want to go against it anyway. :rolleyes:

[BurnZ]

Are they scared of you or the Hammer CF? :D

[ejp]

I'll race anyone who wants to. (Nitro hammers that is):D

[Ron Olson]

The good thing for the new boater that would like to try racing and is on a budget would now have a class to run their boat(s). If you are under 18, you only have to join the IMPBA as a Junior member and only have to pay $20.00 for your membership. Anyone over 18 has to pay full price.
More news as it becomes available.

[BoatDoc]

i think it would be funny to see a bunch of people with miss buds show up and try to keep track of their boat with 5 others just like it on the water :D of course EJP and CF and I could just smoke 'em with our hammers anyway :D

[Ron Olson]

Yes, that was something that I brought up in my conversations with Bill. That would be a mess with 6 new racers all running Miss Bud's trying to figure how who's boat is who's. Now people will be shopping to find the fastest, best handling RTR boat on the market. Whether a mass-producer would have to build a minimum numbers of boats to be considered would be something I'll have to check into The Hyperformance Bruiser (Bruzer?) comes to mind. Right now there doesn't seem like there will be any separate classes like hydro or mono so there should be a good mix of hulls.

[CFRACR]

Ya since Miss Buds are so popular with newbies it would be worth having the camera rolling! :D Better yet just run a Hammer in there and wait a lap or two. You will most likely be the last man running & win! :p

[Ron Olson]

The latest from Bill today. He and John Equi are the main two working on the rules, i'm kind of on the sidelines tossing things at them. Right now they are saying that stock plastic props can be used on the boats. This can be good for the beginners that don't know anything yet about sharpening and balancing props. The .18 sized engines are still being tossed around. I told him that in the production boats there really isn't a big difference in HP and RPM from the .16's so I don't see any big advantage there. In the talks is also the possible idea of having a lower membership cost for those that run in this class only. If you decide later that you want to run a larger boat or in the other classes you'd have to pay the full membership price.
Keep in mind that this is still in the planning stages, there is a lot of things yet to be worked out so don't hold your breath waiting. It probably won't happen this year but who knows?