The Blue Water Offshore Racing Association’s 28th annual St. Clair River Classic, presented by Magna, will bring racing boats from all over to St. Clair the last weekend of July.
“This is the 28th year of the St. Clair River Classic,” said Bob Currier, board secretary and treasurer of BWORA. “We are one of the longer-running race sites within the racing community.”
Currier will fill the position of race control for the event and will coordinate everything happening on the water during the race.
The race is part of the American Power Boat Association Offshore National Championship Series and is stop four out of eight stops in a circuit. The race is also produced in cooperation with Offshore Powerboat Association Racing.
The weekend will start on July 27. M-29 through downtown St. Clair along Palmer Park will get closed off at 6 p.m., which will allow organizers to get prepared for the arrival of race teams on July 28 and 29 and set up the race village on North Riverside Road.
One of the boats expected to compete is the Apache Predator, made by Apache Powerboats. The Apache Predator recently won its 26th race, making it the winningest race boat in known powerboat history, a recent news release from Apache Powerboats states. It was constructed in 1986, according to the Apache Powerboats Facebook page.
On July 30, from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., there will be race boat testing on the river.
“Some people refer to that as time trials,” Currier said. “That allows the race teams to actually go out on the river and see what the conditions are like, check the setup of their boat — do they have the right propeller on, do they want to try a different propeller — those kinds of things.”
July 31 is race day. At about 11:15 a.m., there will be an opening ceremony with a parade of flags, and the national anthem will be sung in Palmer Park, and at 11:30 a.m., Clash of the Titans, a vintage powerboat demonstration race, will take place.
“We target the first race to start at noon, and there will be four or five races throughout Sunday afternoon,” Currier said. “The reason I say four or five, that will depend upon the final number of boats that register onsite and once we have that, the officials will determine if we need to have four or five races based upon the final boat count and how many boats are in certain classes.”
He said that there potentially could be 11 different classes or types of boats that will race, and the classes will get spread over the multiple races.
There will also be live entertainment provided in the Riverview Plaza courtyard area throughout the weekend.
“The (St. Clair Chamber of Commerce) is one of our partners and they manage the food vendors that will be on the street throughout the weekend so folks that come up can stop at a food truck or food vendor, grab something to eat,” Currier said. “They also partner and program all of the entertainment, and this is basically the same entertainment schedule that the chamber has throughout the summer in St. Clair for entertainment in the Riverview Plaza courtyard. So they just basically beef up the entertainment schedule over race weekend.”
He said the schedule can be found at stclairchambermi.com.
The website calendar states that boat race entertainment will include performances by Paul & Oates and The Gobies on July 29, performances from the Meldrum Brothers and Dusk til Dawn on July 30 and performances from Alter Ego and Los Gringos on July 31. Additionally, on July 28, Brandon Pavlov will be playing from noon to 4 p.m. and Killer Vibe will be playing from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
From 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on July 31, the awards for the race will be presented on the stage.
“One of the things that I think is very important and it was a very positive change last year for the event, the city of St. Clair adopted an open container ordinance or open container footprint that encompasses all of downtown St. Clair and the race viewing area,” Currier said. “The race village on M-29 where the boats are displayed when they’re not racing all are within that footprint so folks can bring in their own cooler, their own beverages, their own food, and enjoy the day.”
“If they want to purchase a beverage from one of the licensed bar restaurants within the downtown footprint, they can do that, and they just need to let the establishment know that they want it in a to-go cup and they put it in a specially marked cup that allows them to take that out of the bar or restaurant and walk out into the street and Palmer Park and enjoy the event,” he added.
He said organizers expect to see between 10,000 and 15,000 people come out to visit with the teams and see the boats on July 29 and 30 and watch the races on July 31.
Currier said the event takes about a year to plan.
“We will take probably the month of August off … and we’ll start in September or early October working on next year’s event,” he said.
He noted that there are certain permits that the event must receive from the city, the U.S. Coast Guard and Transport Canada.
“We can’t do these events without the participation and cooperation from a number of businesses that are financial supporters,” Currier said, noting that Magna is this year’s presenting sponsor.
For more information, visit oparacing.org/sc, stclairchambermi.com or facebook.com/stclairriverclassic.
