A call from Patrick Mel.

I spoke with Patrick Mel of the APBA he is working on the APBA,s new rule book.

The phone rang last evening. As I checked the caller I.D. I was suprized to see that it was Patrick. It would seem that he had seen my article about the story in PWI about the no shows at the World Finals in Lake Havasu and our need for some changes. I was quite impressed that he had read my article. He is after all a very busy man. We talked mainly about hulls and motors and mostly about amature freestyle. He feels that rider numbers are way down in competitions and that this is mainly this way in the USA. It would seem that in places like Brazil and Japan that there are an average of 40 to 60 competetors for freestyle alone. He is trying to find a way to attract new riders. We talked about two classes for anature freestyle. one class for OEM hulls with limited options like after market hoods and footwells the other class would allow complete after market hulls and top decks both amature classes would be limited to 800cc’s. Pro Freestyle would be open to any hulls and modifications engine limits would be 1200cc’s. Though I think we will need to break even Pros into a few classes and we still need a judging system with a piont value for tricks and deductions for mistakes. The fact that Patrick and the APBA realized that there is a need for change is a step in the right direction. Remeber ” every journey starts with a single step”. Patrick is working on these rules now I am sure he would appreciate any thoughts riders might have. I encourage you to drop him a line.

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