Welcome, Bruce!
Paul - that's the kind of 'new blood' I'm talking about. Someone that's interested in S/SS racing, and has the desire to learn the rules and play by the rules. If it's not legal, then it ceases to be S/SS. Guys like Bruce want to do it the right way. While there are $100K+ cars out there, there's also a lot of relatively inexpensive ways to get involved. I've got a great starter car for sale, and there's many more out there, or people can build cars to suit their needs and budget.
You expand the S/SS ranks, you're already doing one of the key components, and that is to be open and talk to people, just like the story Bruce related. But to get people into S/SS racing, it's very likely that you have to get people into the simpler levels of the sport first. You need a foundation. I've written extensively about building that foundation, including this old article entitled "The Farm System":
http://www.competitionplus.com/2006_02/farm_system.html Also kind of interesting to look back on this feature on S/SS racing...
http://www.competitionplus.com/2006_...ss_racing.html
Build the foundation, and from the foundation bring up new S/SS racers. And if the long-time NHRA racers won't cross over, then they will get what they have always gotten: "enhanced."
Races are like family reunions out here in the more densely populated areas, too. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, though. If everybody goes to the same race, then everybody is at the same race... regardless of who's running the event.