[Adger Smith]

Dale,
All is well and good here, but just like you everywhere it is getting more expensive. I could afford to build another track and run it, but NHRA's policies are not even conducive to a track owner making the profit he should for the investment. Over a decade ago I did exactly what you suggested. I chose to run only IHRA. Then I got the ego rush to run some NHRA races. It didn't take long for me to remember why I had made the decision to let my membership and drivers license expire. In may 2008 I decided they were not getting any more money or support from me until they changed some of their policies toward sportsman racing. I have not seen any good significant changes despite a lot of their rhetoric of doing so. The oil down enhancement was one of those policies that was a tipping point for me. I also sat back and looked at the big picture. NHRA management doesn't want but enough sportsman racers at a National event to make for good filler. They are now having trouble selling their divisional events and need to move Sportsman participation from National events to participating at Divisional. Why, can't they just come out and say that instead of hiding their intentions behind rules and quotas. Without going into the difference of how the National events and the Divisional races pay NHRA I'll just say they have milked the track owners that hold Divisional races just like they have Sportsman racers. The medium size track cannot afford NHRA. If they changed a few policies and cut some of the heavy overhead out they could probably make things more affordable and grow the sport instead of just squeezing a dollar out of it. Point: just look at how their policies have run the contingency sponsors away. Sportsman racers depended on them for money and support.
As far as writing on class Racer, I will probably continue to voice my opinion, esp on the subject of where NHRA is taking the Sportsman program. If you don't appreciate my humor or opinions or even like or agree you can see my name clearly displayed (not hidden in a Screen name avatar or alias) and move on to something more suitable to your reading habits.