[Mike Pearson]

NHRA has been steadily reducing the number of sportsman racers at the national event level for the past 5-6 years. I am not sure what level they want to get the final number down to. I am only able to go to 1 or two national events per year due to my work schedule so I guess that means I probably wont be able to get in from here on. I don't know the underlying reasoning for reducing the sportsman competitors. By the looks of the recent event car counts stock and super stock have been filling up their quotas. The super categories, comp, gas have not been filling up at some of the events. It looks like they may be loosing some of their interest in the national events. Most of the super gas and comp guys are bracket racers as well. Top sportsman and Top Dragster number are down too. Comp eliminator is slowly dwindling in numbers. Comp does not have a quota for their class. NHRA should look at those numbers and see who is supporting the program and reward those classes with more entries. I also believe the racers in the home division should get the first chance to enter the nationals in their home division. Champion and other provisional entries should never be counted against the quota no matter when the actually enter. Just my .02