NASCAR - Centurion Boats at the Glenn

I caught some of the Nextel race on Sunday and was surprised to see Centurion Boats was the main sponsor of the race at Watkins Glenn in NY.

Coming from the marketing field, I would guess this is not a cheap sponsorship. I understand the rationale and attraction of reaching a large audience, but at some point I would think Centurion would have to consider the question, "Are we reaching the right target audience with this sponsorship?"

If you were Centurion Boats and had limited marketing dollars, would you be sponsoring Nextel Cup or something else?

It has a good effect here in the Southeast , I personally don't want my boat to have a big #8 on the side Dale Junior also has his own special edition wakeboard as well.

It's all about credibility (aka stroke). If you're a wakeboard boat mfg and somebody mentions your name in the same breath as NASCAR - that's some stroke. It will take a few more races but why not? NASCAR fans are boaters - it's a good move.

I feel Centurion got shafted, I used to be a huge Nascar fan, still follow it regularly. How come they never mentioned the title sponser. When it's the Sharpie 500 or Coca Cola 600 you hear about it every time they come back from a commercial. You had to look for the Centurion signs around the track or I wouldn't have known who the sponser was. Granted I missed the start of the race so I'm not sure if they talked about it then or not.

A few pictures

I dropped by the local Centurion dealership to see if they would cut me a deal on the #8 boat that they had sitting outside, since it is now obsolete, they weren't interested. They have stepped it up recently in my opinion.

I can tell you that google traffic to my site today coming from search terms "Centurion Boats" is higher by a LOT than it ever has been before so there are defintely a lot of people who saw it and searching for the boats online today.

There is no doubt this is out of the box thinking, but time will tell if the increased traffic that onlyinboards and many others are seeing will translate into increased boat sales

Looks like they're driving the WRONG way on the track. Isnt Nascar Left turns??? If so, very out of the box thinking...(driving the wrong way). haha, wha ev

its a road course so there is right turns

I actually thought it was pretty cool. My cousin is a huge Nascar fan (who frequents the lake with us) called me excited that my boat brand was the title sponsor. The Nascar boats don't really push my buttons, however I am a Nascar fan (#24 Matter of Fact). It is really time Centurion get their name out there especially on the east coast. The product they are putting out these days really deserves some recognition. I agree with the move. I guess this means their price is going up, but with what they are putting out it is justified IMO. I just wish they would do a better a job on their webpage. It seems to always be out dated.

Hey Lance, have you checked out their web-site recently? They just re-did it. What does everyone think?

Can't they get updated model images? I don't think this is a big improvement for their site at all. It doesn't look professional IMO, esp using basic arial font for nav buttons... Looks like they are using some sort of web page management application which is fine but they need a really good .css file to make it look a lot cleaner and professional.

In NJ i saw two wakeboats from far that were painted like nascar cars with numbers and everything. I couldn't tell what kind of boats they were though.

Don, I haven't noticed that. I was just there yesterday and it was there old site. The new one does look better. I do agree with Onlyinboards it could look more professional. I hope they put the 08 models on there before half the year is over. I don't want to get on Centurion to much becasue I like the company, but you know the truth hurts. It is time to step up the website. I think Malibu has the best looking website out there.

Since we are discussing Centurions I was looking at possibly ordering the new Enzo 216. Can anyone here post some pics of the wake with ballast full. I know KB has one. Kevin spill the beans on any 08 upgrades. Any new hulls or anything?

Yeah, i wasn't knocking the boats or anything at all. It just seems odd to spend a lot on a nascar type campaign but then not have the professional website to support the interest (esp when the website part is so much less expensive!).

Lance, I haven't been behind Kevin's 216 but my demo boat is the 230 which has an awesome wake. (As a matter of fact, that boat happens to be posted in the for sale discussion board!!) When I was at centurion's business meeting a couple weeks ago, they had their new model there which is a direct drive version of the 216. Really nice boat, and was impressed on the test drive. Obviously, not the ultimate wakeboarding machine, but a very good crossover boat.

Don thanks for info. Have you heard anything reagarding interior changes?

I just noticed that the 216 had flatter hull bottom which had to produce a cleaner wake. Is the 230 wake sensitive? } My Avalanche is a pain to get the port side wake clean.

Photo shoot for 2008 boats and team are this week and next, not sure how long before they will be on the site and in print catalogues, hopefully by surf expo where the boats are on display.

I ride at 70 ft. and 22.5mph and haven't had any problems keeping the wake clean. I've pulled the INT tournaments with the 230 and the only time the riders have to deal with a wake that isn't clean is when they want me to go at 14 or 15 mph, so basically for the really little ones. I haven't gotten into wakesurfing myself, but I've had people behind the boat who do it, and they say the 230 and 240 are great for it.
I've ridden behind the Avalanche too and I think there's a pretty big difference between the two wakes. If you're just riding with stock ballast, the Avalanche is going to have a much steeper wake whereas the enzo will have more of a ramp wake. For comparison, I feel that the Avalanche has more of a "Nautique" type wake and the enzo has more of a "Mastercraft" type wake (just trying to give you an idea of the wake differences, not trying to get into a brand comparison discussion).

Ok this is my wake with stock ballast full and 2 people in the boat. The 216 is VERY VERY easy to clean up and is not near as sensitive to weight distribution. Last night I was teaching some beginners to wakeboard and could get a clean wake all the way down to 15 mph

This is the wake surf wake with stock ballast filled plus 300 lbs up front and 500 lbs on the passenger side of the engine. 9 mph






This is the Stock ballast and 2 people in the boat 21 mph 60' line I am 6' tall looks smaller than it is

More picture from the Glen

Kevin,

Any idea on the price tag on this? I wonder if Robert Thayer got the ball rolling on this before he left the Centurion marketing department, I know he's a huge Nascar fan.

lots of money!

Nascar is Rick Lee's baby

more pictures

Great pictures Kevin.

Do they make a 16?

well I have not seen a 16 boat but it would not surprise me

When did Thayer leave Nick? He was a great guy for the company and supporting the underground of the sport. I personally think this is flat out silly, but to each his own. Spend mega dollars to put even more wally's on the lake in nice boats, which in my opinion is only damaging their reputation in the "core wakeboarder" market. Those dollars could be spent to host a few other Surf Championships, or something else that could actually support the sport of wakeboarding. People are always on here saying how you should or shouldn't do things to help out the sport, to me this did nothing. I do get how is will gather a few new interested customers, but don't know if it's worth the potential reputation damage.

(Message edited by behindtheboat on August 15, 2007)

Thayer left sometime last year. I think he moved back to Wisco to work with his dad, not quite sure. He did do great things, especially at the college level and he was always pumped up about it.

I knod of agree on the Nascar deal. It's cool to see a wakeboat company out there, but to me they will not come near breaking even, though this won't be the first time that IMO Rick Lee has done something more in his best interest than the best interest of the company. Remember the 28' Tsunami? Didn't really do much for Centurion, but Rick had a nice big water boat. IMO Centurion is growing at a good pace and putting those dollars right back into the company could help them become the next Malibu, but spending them on marketing gimmicks like this are just throwing the proceeds out the window. I could be totally wrong though.

Here is a Greg Biffle boat.
http://www.boattraderonline.com/caddetail.html?/ad-cache/6/4/0/89624240.htm

I think the NASCAR relationship is a great tool to get Centurion some high exposure. The big time NASCAR fans are loyal to their sport meaning they only purchase products that sponsor NASCAR, so I would be willing to bet alot of boat sales for Centurion. There is no question Centurion is heading in the right direction. When I look at my 2002 Centurion compared to my 2006, good greif there is no comparison mainly on presentation. I would like to see Centurion get more involved with the "wake" side of things. Maybe pulling more tournaments or something.


I like the Nascar boats. But I could never see myself buying only because of resale. Just like I love log homes, but I wouldn't buy one because of resale.

KB the wake on that boat looks a lot better. It must handle more like a DD with that flatter hull.

The handling and the better all around performance is what sold us on the boat.
It drives like a much smaller dd

Lance, I don't think the SV230 is very sensitive. We've not had any issues with that, and if a little, I just ask someone to switch seats in the boat and that evens up the sides. After replacing the 215# hard tanks a couple of weeks ago, I'm now running 750# sacs in the rear lockers (though I need to add some weight up front, I'm told). Totally awesome wake. Always have been told it resembles more of the ramp of an X-star. Whatever...it is smooth, and fun to shred!