Sanctioning Body, Race Producer Or Both? Defining The Terms

Yesterday’s news story about the Offshore Powerboat Racing Association’s involvement with the International Hot Rod Association initiatives in the sport raised lots of questions among speedonthewater.com readers. The puzzlement was not so much about the inner workings of the partnership itself, but of the fundamental difference between a sanctioning body and a race producer.

The confusion is understandable given the proliferation of organizational “alphabet soup” in the sport.

There are signifiant differences between traditional race producers and sanctioning bodies in offshore powerboat racing. Photo by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

Here’s a brief primer to clarify the terms:

• A sanctioning body—also known as a “governing body”—is defined as an organization that regulates, creates rules and enforces standards of the sport it ostensibly oversees. By definition, the American Power Boat Association, for example, is a sanctioning body.

• A race producer handles the production and often the marketing of the event itself. Some races such as Thunder On Cocoa Beach in Cocoa Beach, Fla., and the St. Clair  River Classic in St. Clair, Mich., also have local producers that typically work with larger event-producers such as Powerboat P1/P1 Offshore, Race World Offshore the Offshore Powerboat Association.

• Both Powerboat P1/P1 Offshore and Race World Offshore are race producers, not sanctioning bodies.

Does any organization do both? Yes, and the most recent example is the Offshore Powerboat Association, now working in an operational mode with—as reported yesterday—the International Hot Rod Association. After breaking away from the American Power Boat Association several years ago, the New Jersey-based Offshore Powerboat Association, which long-produced its own events began sanctioning them itself.

The International Hot Rod Association is following a similar model, but on a far-larger scale. As a would-be, yet-to-be-named offshore racing sanctioning body, the Ohio-based organization currently is developing a rulebook. In the meantime, the organization has acquired the assets of race producer and marketer Powerboat P1/P1 Offshore so it can produce races next year.

The crucial assets purchased were not pieces of equipment. They were not social media portals or marketing initiatives. They were contracts with race venues and at least one crucial sponsorship, that of Monster Energy. The International Hot Rod Association essentially—but not literally—”bought” race sites so it could produce what will be internally sanctioned events.

That gives the organization total control of events that happen under its umbrella.

Race World Offshore remains a separate race producer. As such, it will run its 2026 regular-season races under the sanction of the American Power Boat Association. In 2025, Race World Offshore ran events under the World Powerboat Racing Association sanction, a first-year that reportedly will not return next year.

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