Following yesterday’s news story on the Race World Offshore and Union Internationale Motonautique deal, I gently sparred online with my longtime friend and sometimes speedonthewater.com supplier colleague Tyler Kaddatz of TK Motorsports. Our discussion reminded me how unclear things have become in the offshore racing world with the entry of the International Hot Rod Association, so far embraced by the majority of offshore racers at least if record-setting turnouts at the first two IHRA race this season—the St. Petersburg Grand Prix and New Orleans Grand Prix—are anything to go by.
A definition of two often-misunderstood terms is in order.
Offshore racers have more event options than usual this season thanks to a pair of competing entities. Photo from the 2025 Race World Offshore Key West World Championships by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
Greatly simplified, motorsports sanctioning bodies set and enforce racing rules, as well as technical standards and safety protocols, and keep records. Also greatly simplified, race producers handle the work—from planning and permitting to securing tourism board funding—that goes into making events happen. Race World Offshore is a race producer.
The IHRA is taking on both roles—sanctioning body and event producer— in this its inaugural season. The Union Internationale Motonautique is a sanctioning body. A member of the UIM, the American Power Boat Association, is a sanctioning body on the sport’s domestic front. As a member-organization of APBA this season, RWO runs under its sanction.
In addition to its dual-role, the IHRA is offering prize money tow-money for all its events for classes that meet its established fleet-count threshold.
Neither APBA nor UIM offer prize money in offshore racing. In the traditional offshore racing “business model,” that role—if filled at all—falls to the race producer.
At this juncture, Race World Offshore is not offering a prize-purse for any of its events this season. But RWO is an APBA member-organization, which ostensibly brings the longstanding history, legitimacy and credibility of both APBA and UIM to the sport.
So greatly simplified yet again, the choice between running with either the IHRA and RWO/APBA-UIM camp boils down to one of “cash or credibility.”
That’s not to suggest IHRA cannot establish credibility or has none already. Nor does it suggest that RWO/APBA-UIM has cornered the credibility market, or that RWO will never offer a purse for competitors.
But IHRA’s immediate appeal is cash, for whatever that may be worth, The lure of RWO/APBA-UIM is credibility from long-established sanctioning bodies and a proven race producer, for whatever that may be worth.
For now, at least, that is their defining difference.