[Michael Beard]

Schaechter is dead-on.

All sides should be trying to figure out how they increase the value of the contingency sponsor. You'd think they could at least list the contingency claims along with the Class winners, so people would actually know who's using what products. At least in IHRA, you can look that stuff up on the website. Yes, cars have the requisite decals on them, but realistically, most Class winners in NHRA don't get photos in the magazine. (All of them do in IHRA, albeit small) A sponsor should get that recognition without having to take out a "congrats" ad in the magazine. It is in the sanctioning body's interest to do whatever it can for the sponsor, since the sponsor is paying for one of the biggest carrots for Nat'l/Div'l level racing. If no sponsors posted contingency, car counts would drop off a cliff.

That being said, I'm afraid Terry's right, too -- there are too many classes to make Class financial viable (particularly with the lack of coverage the sponsors get for it). But, we're back to the majority of racers not wanting to consolidate classes in any way shape or form ('course they just did it anyway for the FWD cars)... so instead of getting something you didn't want that might make sense (even if we don't like it), you're going to get blindsided by something that you also don't like.

While I understand they had to do something, one of my issues with the new Class system is that you have half the field running Comp-style, and half the field running "regular" Class Eliminations against people in their own class, which should theoretically be more apples to apples. In my opinion, either run everybody in their regular Class, or run all class Comp-style. One thing's for sure: we're likely to see disparities in ratings and indexes a lot easier than with just Qualifying. Don't want to become Comp? Then perhaps some more consideration needs to be given to combining of classes in a thoughtful and reasonable manner.