Gary,
No need to apologize. I love the input from everyone. The frustration stems from the fact that we have to "indoctrinate" all the rookies every year as well.

Most of us have grown up with the NHRA,IHRA, NMCA, PSCA, NSRA, UDRA and a dozen more alphabet soup and local sanctioning bodies throwing rules in front of us. Most of those rules regarding classes are designed to try and present a level playing field for all competitors, and it's tough to do, but paramount to building successful classes with solid car counts. In drag racing, if one popular combination is 2 tenths slow or another one dominates, the class quickly falls into disarray, and the rules must be adjusted. We grow up trained to pick the rules apart and look between the lines for any advantage or slight infraction.

This is exactly what David Freiburger was tired of in 2004 when he and a couple of close colleagues dreamed up Drag Week. "No Rules...let the road miles sort them out!"

It's about proving you have a legitimate street car, first and foremost. Then showing the world how fast your street car can run on the track. It's what he wanted with the "Fastest Street Car" format of the late eighties, early nineties but that quickly spun into just another race series and lost his interest.

He knew that if Drag Week were to ever work it needed a strong leadership, someone to handle the day to day operations and someone to police it with a gentle but firm approach. He turned to his land speed racing partners and East Coast Timing Association veterans Keith and Tonya Turk for the help he knew it would take to get this off the ground.

Keith would only sign on if the event took on characteristics that more closely resembled LSR racing. The classes have NOTHING to do with a level playing field, and were NEVER intended to have cars built specifically to the rules, they are only there to divide the field up and give more people a shot at a plaque or jacket. KEITH TURK is the reason Hot Rod Drag Week doesn't have payouts! He told DF from the beginning that he would be out if that happened. IT IS AN ADVENTURE, it's supposed to be fun, it isn't about winning and losing!

On this next statement, let me be as clear and precise as I can. KEITH and TONYA TURK ARE HOT ROD DRAG WEEK! Without their involvement and guidance this event would have ceased to exist years ago. Regardless of the sponsor money, regardless of the magazine and participant support, regardless of the contributions of another dozen or so very talented and dedicated people, they are the glue, and the energy that has drove this event to the popularity it now enjoys.

Now, if David Freiburger doesn't like rules, and Keith Turk or Lonnie Grimm aren't comfortable with beating people over the head with them, why does DF talk about them so much on the live feed?
Legitimate question.
David's "precious", that thing he clings to the most from Drag Week, is that it is the ultimate test, the crucible, the true mark of a real street car to survive it. So any rumors that they are lax on the rules of the drives, or that some competitors have large pit crews, or take short cuts and circumvent that "test" in any way, drives him absolutely crazy!
If you look at DF's career in it's totality, through Fastest Street Car, to Power Tour, to Pump Gas Drags, to Drag Week, and now Road Kill, the one principal he has always promoted and stuck to is this: Get those cars out of the garages and museums, off the show fields, and private collections, and DRIVE them, use them as they were intended and let the next generation see them out on the road! The interaction between the people we meet in small town America as we cruise from track to track is easily the most rewarding and memorable part of this deal, and something the live feed doesn't convey.

Sorry I rambled, I'll get off my soapbox now...