It's a familiar story: A group of racers unhappy with the direction of an offshore tour, break away and form their own group. You might think it sounds similar to what happened in 1990 or even as recently as 2003.

Nope, this story is taking place in 2007 with a group of Super Cat racers leading the way. Just as the famous baseball manager Yogi Berra once said, "It's déjà vu all over again."

As the Offshore Super Series (OSS) and Super Boat International (SBI) tours were about to kick off their seasons, a group of owners dropped a racing bombshell of sorts—they are free agents.

No longer tied to a single offshore tour, 12 teams have picked nine stops from California to Florida to race. It doesn't matter whether the races are produced by SBI or OSS, they are going to show up and compete. (Teams can run additional events on other tours if they want.)

The group, which is calling its schedule the Pro-Series Tour, is made up of some familiar teams. AMF Offshore/Miss GEICO, Motley Crew, Reliable Carriers, CMS Castaway, JD Byrider and Peppers are along for the ride in this unique experiment. And more teams may follow.

For Tom Abrams, owner of the Super Cat and Super Cat Lite teams that run under the Reliable Carriers banner, it's ironic that he's part of the Pro-Series Tour. Abrams, after all, was instrumental in forming the OSS tour after it broke away from APBA Offshore in 2003.

Abrams said there were several factors for him in deciding not to remain solely with OSS. The main one came after OSS released its schedule in January. Abrams noticed that some of the joint events OSS ran last year with Offshore Performance Association (OPA) and Pacific Offshore Powerboat Racing Association (POPRA) were not planned for this year.

"We sat down and looked at it and thought things had gone backward," Abrams said. "We thought we could support all of the organizations. Banding together we're supporting all of them."

Looking at the Pro-Series Tour, it's an interesting mix of OSS, SBI and regional races. The group is even considering events outside the offshore community. Think Unlimited hydroplane racing.

So far the group is committed to this schedule: St. Cloud, Fla., March 30-April 4 (SBI divisional); Ocean City, Md., June 15-17 (OPA); Sarasota, Fla., June 29-July 1 (SBI); St. Clair, Mich., July 27-29 (OPA); Orange Beach, Ala., Aug. 17-19 (OSS); Pittsburg, Calif., Sept. 7-9 (POPRA); Lake of the Ozarks, Mo., Sept. 28-30 (OSS); Deerfield Beach, Fla., Oct. 5-7 (SBI); and the world championships in Key West, Fla., Nov. 4-11.

When the owners announced the series, Abrams said that a fellow driver mentioned the group was "cherry-picking the best events." (It's not unlike what Powerboat does with its offshore coverage.) Abrams just laughed.

"Racing is supposed to be fun, why not go to the best races?" he said. "It's not like we're making money at this."

The Pro-Series Tour still has some logistics to work out, mainly who will serve as the group's technical inspector. Abrams said they plan to hire someone and will rely on the respective tour's tech inspectors.

There also are persistent rumors that a group of V-bottom racers may follow. If that happens, it could dramatically change the face of offshore racing this season.

There is one constant with offshore racing and it always seems to be the upheaval in the sport. I've seen offshore tours run by dictators and by democracy, and neither one seems to work. If the sport can't get its act together, offshore racing will eventually be something we read about in the history books.