[CMcAllister]

Random observations-

As I remember history, Compton and those folks were looking to sell the Pro classes off to Bruton, a group of NHRA pro racers, or whomever, and keep the sportsman side for itself. Maybe they saw the decline coming and wanted to cash out. Who knows what would have happened had that occurred.

NHRA wants and needs the Sportsman's money; membership, license, cert, entry, contingency sponsors, advertisers, divisional support, etc. and not have to work or spend anymore than they need to keep it coming in. I suppose they may be afraid a national event will seem to be less of an event without all of those cars. They need something going on between pro sessions and rounds. Shooting t-shirts into the stands gets old.

NHRA is all about TV because big sponsors are all about TV. And the TV stars are who the casual fans pay to come see. Even Pro Stock is treated like an afterthought.

Sportsman classes are populated by an aging group and are becoming less relevant to younger people. We are our own biggest fans. People I talk to who don't follow it, or the NHRA in general, are no more concerned or knowledgeable of classes, indexes, rules, what all those letters mean, etc., than they are about what throttle stop racing is. But they can tell you about turbos, nitrous, X275, Ultra and RVW.

The alternative to the Pro circus now is the no prep, boosted, radial, small tire, heads up, Lights Out/No Mercy, outlaw door car scene. I'm surprised NHRA hasn't tried to become more of a player after seeing the popularity and the amount of money involved.

High dollar bracket racing is the new domain of the traveling non-heads up Pro-Sportsman with large fields, sponsors who's customers are the racers and very little walk in spectator support.