People talk about the NHRA "circus" and how great you are treated at IHRA, well it would seem to me that IHRA IS THE CIRCUS now. Run by the same people and has the same format.

Steve, I understand your comment about the sportsman racers....but...you overlook the very point you made. Yeah, there may have been a ton on cars at INDY in 67, but there were 4 races a year. Of course you went to INDY, everybody went to INDY. Now, with 20+ big races and all the divisional races spread all over the country, sportsman racers have way more opportunity to run at more races, closer to home and for more money. I fail to see where this is a bad thing for the sportsman guys. Total numbers of racers now, at both national and divisional races, over the course of a year, will blow the 60s numbers away. So again, I just don't get where the sportsman guys are suffering. Must be doing something right, if they had to incorporate the grade point system, to keep the number of sportsman racers in check at some events.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not an NHRA lover. They do plenty I don't agree with, but I am not going to bash them. It is pretty easy for all of us to sit behind a keyboard and say what they should do, what we want them to do, or what we would do if we were in charge, but bottom line is, we are not in charge and it is never as easy as everyone thinks it is.

As far as slowing fuel cars down...sure, one pump and one mag will slow em down, but if you think it will be any cheaper, or allow any lower budget teams to be more competitive, you are sadly mistaken. Less fuel and less spark, just means they will use more compression, more boost and more lead. Motors will still be on the edge and burned up on a regular basis, probably more so. Sure, you could limit boost and compression, but then you have a spec motor, that everybody is screaming they don't want. You can't have it both ways. I have a good friend, who is the crew chief on a current, top 3 fuel car. We have had this discussion many times. If it was as easy as everyone thinks, it would have already been done.

Monte