[bill dedman]

Thanks for the responses; looks like I'm not the only one who thinks that there needs to be some kind of change to the Pro Stock program to freshen it up and generate some new excitement.

I do think that if they're going to call it Pro Stock (and, I can't imagine that they'd change the name after nearly 40 years), that it should remain a Professional category, and as such, must retain the mechanical excellence that it now enjoys, which will mean it will continue to be a class that requires money in large amounts to be competitive in. Carbon fiber this and Titanum that will continue to be "de rigueur" on the better cars, and it will be hard to build a competitive car without such materials.

Engine choices will depend on the rules, and the rules right now are restrictive to the point that it's cookie cutter all the way. Boring, to me. Those engines all put out an incredible amount of power for what they are, but since they are all alike and equally powerful within a few HP of each other, it's a driver's race.... and that's the boring part, for me. It gets down to who can cut a light, and I don't find a good guess on the tree as exciting as watching two very different engines, with very different specs, race each other, heads-up.

Instead of two basic engine designs competing for Pro Stock money, they could have ten different combinations, from multi-valve turbocharged engines to supercharged hemis, to unblown mountain motors, not unlike what the IHRA Pro Stockers are famous for. Fuel injection should be a "no penalty" option.

But, what do I know??? It just seems that Pro Stock as it exists today, is not a very exciting program, at least, to me. Not much is going to happen until the economy picks up, probably... if then.

Too bad; we need it now.