[Mike Carr]

I will agree with the big name racers taking too long to get to the lanes. Nitro Joe had the right idea. After third call (or whatever the "final call" is), wait five minutes, and put the chain up. After that, too bad, you miss the run, whether you are Joey Bagadonuts or the World Champion. The only way I would waive this is if, IF, a racer had an honest mechanical problem that he/she was trying to repair. This is if one were to want the rule changed, or if NHRA felt stragglers were holding up the show.

As far as the touring Pros winning all the World Championships over the past ten years, this is false. Ricky Decker won last years S/S title, and is a single car racer. So is Larry Stewart, who won the 2003 or '04 title. Both single car, non touring racers. Edmond Richardson won this years Stock title, and only attended the allowable races to claim for points (6 Nat'l/8 Divisional). So did second place Anthony Fetch. Dusty Lowell finished fifth and still had THREE Nat'ls to claim. So there were three non-touring, non Professional Sportsman racers in the top five this year, while many other touring racers were further down the list. There are other non-touring sportsman racers that have won world championships also in the past 10-15 years. I had a list of all the Sportsman World Champs from 1965 to 2008, that I misplaced. If I can find it, I'll look them up for you. You don't have to be a touring, Professional Sportsman racer to win a World Championship, or even to do well. Fact.

I've raced two cars at one event twice before, in 2003. One at a Divisional race, one at a local bracket race the week after. I swore I would never do it again, it was a pain in the *** trying to race two different types of cars in one day. It may help some, and hurt others. The advantage gained by racing two cars helps BEST if the two cars have the same driving style. Take Bill Koski for example. Super Comp dragster: .400 Pro Tree, transbrake, delay box, air shifter. U/S '67 Belvedere: .500 Sportsman Tree, clutch car, manual shift. What he can apply from one car to the other is very minimal. Air conditions, track preperation, wind and other factors will affect one car more than the other, and to what extent is unknown, without a lot of time to figure it out. What slows a S/C car down by a hundreth will likely slow a lower-classed Stocker like that .03 or possibly more. So in cases like these, you can't apply what you learn with one car towards the other. Fact.

Your statement about pro sportsman racers "they are used to doing what they want to take you out of your game plan" is a crock of ****. A REAL racer can (or should) stay in the zone no matter what the circumstances. I'll give you a personal example. My rookie season in Stock, 2002, Dutch Classic at Maple Grove. I'm in the third round, ready to go to the water box. As I was putting my dial in on the first window, the tip of the shoe polish bottle broke and the whole bottle ran down the windshield. As I grabbed a towel to wipe it up and attempt to finger paint a dial-in on the windows and flag down an official to have him relay my dial to the tower in case it was not legible, my opponent is firing up to go the waterbox. I got in, went and made my run, was .012 on the tree and +.01 and won the round. I'm not posting this to make myself look good. I'm saying it to prove a point. Moral of the story is, a lesser racer would have been rattled and made a mistake. A good racer can, and will, continue to focus on the task at hand, the next round. Fact.

As far as your "level playing field" idea, it's a good one. But no matter what you do, in any given sport, the best will rise to the top. Fact. In recent memory in Class Racing, deep staging was banned because "all the good racers are doing it and winning". It was banned, and the good racers are still winning. Fact. A few years ago, it was a good idea to have a Pro Ladder. After a while, it was a bad idea because "the good racers are qualifying at the bottom and "stealing" the bye runs. We can't have this". Pro Ladder or Sportsman Ladder, the great racers still won, and will still win. Fact. We got rid of two-step buttons on the steering wheel because "all the good racers have them and they are winning". Now, buttons must be pedal mounted only, and guess what? The good racers are still winning. Fact.

For the hell of it, I went back and looked through this past seasons' events, and winners. Two car and/or Touring Pro Sportsmen races won 13 of 27 National events (48%) and 15 of 45 Divisional races (33%). In Stock, they won 7 out of 27 Nat'l events (25%) and and 13 out of 45 Divisional races (28%). Now, if these racers had this huge advantage you constantly talk about, shouldn't those numbers be higher? Seriously. You make it sound like it is impossible to beat these types of racers, and they win all the time. Fact is, the numbers don't lie, and certainly do not back up your wild theories. Fact.

Take your car out once in a while, practice, learn what makes it tick, get (or use) a practice tree, you will become a better racer. Without having to change the whole face of Class Racing for everyone to better fit your inadequacies. It worked for me. The second year I raced Billy Nees' stocker (2003), I raced seventeen weekends at NHRA, IHRA and S/SS Combo races. Not counting the Wednesday night and weekend bracket races and test and tune nights. That year and the next, I finished in the Top 10 in IHRA Division 1 points. I made myself better, I think you can too. It just takes a little time and effort.

So, I've shown you in multiple instances where you are wrong. Now, prove me wrong.