[Mike Carr]

Car counts might look down from years past on the surface. But, a few facts to consider:

~Quotas. 1996, I went to the Keystone Nationals at Maple Grove. 126 S/S showed up. 1999 (the Hurricane year), 132 or so Stockers were on the sheet (a few DNQ's). But now, with NHRA setting the quota for some races at 60-80 cars, you can't just look at that and say "Oh my, car counts are down..." NHRA makes it appear that way but cutting the car count (quotas) in half from 15 or so years ago.

~Some people are picking and choosing events. They may not go to certain LODRS or National events, for a variety of reasons (too many races in close proximity, in both distance from home and many races within a short time frame, plus alternative events like S/SS Associations, IHRA, bigger money bracket events, etc). Look at Division 1 the past few weeks. Memorial Day was Maple Grove LODRS, next weekend E-Town National, two weeks later Lebanon Valley NY LODRS, the next week Epping Nat'l. Week before Maple Grove was the Norwalk LODRS (many D-1 racers attend). Memorial Day I also had two S/SS races at Quaker City in Ohio (just over the PA line) and the week of E-town was the IHRA races at Pittsburgh. One or more races may have had a slightly lesser car count because some can not afford (in money or time off work) to attend all. Some people elect not to go to certain tracks because of conditions (pit area, race surface, other reason or combination of the above). Lebanon Valley had over 100 Stockers. Maple Grove always gets over 100 on Memorial Day.

Just a few things to consider. I wouldn't say Class Racing is dying. Certain events/tracks may suffer a bit for varying reasons. But dying? Not sure I would use that term. And, yes, there are some newer/younger talent coming into Class Racing (would still be one more if NHRA/IHRA hadn't ran him off). Hopefully the next few years will see an equal number coming in as racers leave... become older, start cutting back, retiring, or worse.