For success in the drag-racing world, reaction time—as measured by the time between when the last yellow light on the “Christmas tree” turns green and the car leaves the starting line—is crucial. That much I learned from years of reading Hot Rod magazine in my misspent youth. I was a magazine junkie from an early age, and Hot Rod, Sports Illustrated, National Geographic and (much later) Rolling Stone were my favorite fixes.
With the International Hot Rod Association’s dramatic entry into the offshore powerboat racing world, I’ve been thinking a lot about reaction time.
Is IHRA involvement in a motorsport that borders on cannibalistic the sport’s salvation? Will that involvement unify offshore racing and “take it to the next level,” whatever that popular cliché means?
Or is it all some nefarious take-over, an insidious money-driven land-grab for some ill-gotten gain?
The only thing we know right now? Neither is an inappropriate reaction to what’s happened so far. It’s far too early to tell. Still, the mix of reactions continues to come in fast and furious.
And understandably so. In just the past week and change, the IHRA announced it is pouring $250,000 into prize money at the upcoming Race World Offshore Key West World Championships, plans to pump in $1 million in 2026 and purchased Powerboat P1 USA/P1 Offshore last week. Big news, for sure, impressive even.
But these developments feed either narrative. Are you an optimist or a pessimist, a student of history or a bold futurist?
As a fan and publisher invested in covering the sport, my solution is to slow my reaction time. I see no advantage beyond the self-serving kind in being quick off the line.
Like my fellow fans, I have hope—a lot of it—for IHRA involvement, especially after the most dysfunctional, dismal season I’ve seen in the sport since I began covering high-performance powerboating in the early 1990s.
But to temper and balance that hope, I’m slowing my reaction time.