[Mark Yacavone]

Some good points here so far.
No doubt the entry fees are sky high. The Nat'l event fee is up 10 times what it was when I started racing them. Fuel is 8-10 times higher too.
Are the payouts up ten times? I don't think so!

I also agree ,there's nothing wrong with the current Sportsman classes, if you can afford to participate.
What I, and a few others are advocating is some kind of entry level class for the Divisionals...
Pump gas, reduced entry fee, no add ons } numbers, points fees etc.
Stock appearing, but minimal tech.

As it stands now, we have no minor league, farm team, or call it what you will...
I don't see where more participation in the brackets is the answer. We have plenty of local racers...In fact,that's all we've got on a weekly basis. Most have little or no interest or knowledge in our type of racing. I don't see where that's necessarily their fault either.

But so far, no one has touched on, what I see as a major problem>>>>
Drag racing is now fragmented into a myriad of associations and formats.

When I started racing , a beginner would go to a local track and be put into a class, whether it was Stock, Gas, Stock Sports and so on . This is where the current incarnation of Stock Eliminator evolved from. There were no ET brackets, not even a time only lane back then
Nowadays, you have ADRL, America's Fastest Street Car, Mustang Drags, Super Chevy Series, Pump Gas drag series, T&T nights, Import Drags,
Nostalgia events, NHRA Hot Rod Reunions (where NHRA competes with itself, I guess)
Nostalgia Super Stock events, where there are a bunch of old Max Wedge and Hemi cars that have drifted away from NHRA Stock....Diesel Drags , Motorcycle Drags, Jr. Dragster Nat'l events, Summit Series Bracket Racing, HAMB old time drags, where there are no handicaps, no payouts, no winners,..just a buch of retro guys burning rubber all day long....I know I'm forgetting a few hundred more.

The point is , I think we may have reached the Humpty Dumpty accident scene...and nobody's ever going to put it all back together again.