[gmonde]

great letter!!!! i have been racing for 20 years (not professionaly ,mostly local stuff) i am planning to race stock elimanator for 2009 and have been going thru the political bull of putting together a legal engine and i have to tell you i am having second thoughts of even entering my first race just from the talk of what's going on,my engine machinist is still waiting clearfication on the heads that he had emailed the nhra technical group two weeks ago(to many grey areas to bounce you from an event ,i had started this quest for the few reasons that i want to be part of a sport that it takes craftyness and inginuty to make these cars go the numbers that they go,there are people who have the money to pay for the best and there are people who dont have have the money but have the" mechanical common sense" to put it all together a combo from the resources that they have and those are the guys/gals that get the most satisfaction out of racing and will beat some of the high dollar racers ,i always say to my self if i had money i would be dangerous, but like most of us we have a real life (house,car loans,kids,payments),i would like to attend a few divisionals and may be get enough credits to race in a national event,just to be a part of it,but i have to tell you,it sounds like gloom and doom,i have attended several national events as a spectator and i have to admit that from what i saw, sportsman racing is a huge part of the show,the pro class is just cubic money that is not obtainable from the average joe,maybe the 2009 season is the year that a sanctioning body will come to grips and say "we need the sportsman racer" but just like wall street and the housing industry it will be to late and it will crash ""greed takes away from the fun"" just from my side of the fence gmonde