When Billy Meyer bought the IHRA, he had the foresight to realize that spectators did not like the staggered start of bracket racing. So in addition to Q/R S/R and H/R, Billy also tried a bunch of other index classes to get the bracket guys part of the National event scene, but the racers screamed bloody murder and it was not well recieved and was soon dropped. Another example of Billy Meyer being way ahead of his time. Lets face it, bracket racing is a major snore as a spectator sport and the staggered start is confusing to many. It would be helpful if the cars left together. The huge popularity of NSS, the 5.0 6.0 and 7.0 series in ORSCA, should be a clear sign that this method would be much more accepted by the spectators. Allow all the electronics, what does that matter, just keep a cap on the down track stutter and other things that make the cars look like they died for a couple seconds. It would also help if the bracket racers as a whole were not so against any kind of change. Sooner or later, they must realize that they alone won't keep the local track open and something will have to be done. Some of the best, full tree, bracket racers I have ever seen, have tried the Pro/Tree heads up index stuff at ORSCA and love it and now don't bracket race anymore. Here locally, we have 5k, 6.0 and 7.0 races on the pro tree all the time. Buy backs are allowed, it is basically a bracket race, except on a pro tree, with an index. The major difference between this and a regular bracket race....the stands are full.

Monte