How about severely limiting "Super" class entries?

[Bruce Noland]

Originally Posted by SS/GSI

All you guys really need to stop complaining and understand that we have simply become field fillers for the Pro Show/ Live TV and background noise while the fans are buying their $12 Hamburger & $10 Soda. The reason the entry counts are so low is so that: 1. NHRA can minimize costs(ie. no tech, no stacking, no early parking, no tear down, shrinking Nationals to 3 days for majority of races +++) 2. With smaller sportsman fields it allows NHRA not to worry about running into Live TV issues should there be oil downs, accidents, unforeseen delays, etc...3. NHRA has been eroding the sportsman involvement in Nationals since the late 2000's and have no reason to reverse their train of thought. They are not racers, they are bean counters and we are just $$$ to them, not people.

So to answer your question, NO we should not limit super class entries. Not because I wouldn't want to see more STK/SS entries(I really would) but because it would be buying into exactly what NHRA wants, which is the sportsman to turn against themselves, fight, bicker, demean each other and deflect the attention from the real problem which is the sanctioning body itself. So shut up and enjoy what you can, while you can. We are just noise to NHRA and can be easily replaced with index classes, bracket cars, jet cars, Corolla Shootouts, Nostalgia cars +++

You're all over the place in this post. You rant about bickering between the racers and then tell everyone to shut up. Well, that ain't gonna work. Not out here and not at the race track.

Just a brief recap: Wally left Hot Rod Magazine and formed the NHRA in 1955 with the expressed intention of getting racers off the street and onto the drag strip - he also wanted to become rich and famous, which he did. Although he was already a multi millionaire, in 1982 he and a group of cronies decided to highjack the association from its membership and in a successful attemp to become even richer and more famous, which he did again. His group claimed the organization was losing money and to date nhra has never produced the ballots that it says were cast in favor of the highjacking. No they have not been required to provide proof of the vote by a court yet. And many folks say it is too late now to litigate this issue. But is it really too late? There are supposedly many open statutes at the state and federal level that may help shed some light on what they did to take over the sport and if it was legal. Commonwealth states can be real sticklers about this sort of thing.

Later Wally decided to hang it up and brought in Compton from Purnia. Wally would eventually die in 2007 of pneumonia, however he had been suffering from mental disorders for several years. According to Forbes and other groups, Wally's net worth at the time of his death was 50 million dollars - he was 94 years old.

At the time Tom Compton was brought in, the Sportsman racers were making 4 qualifying rounds at each National Event and most National Events were 4 day races. Compton's salary was about $700,000.00 a year plus many very nice perks. Like jet $4,000.00 private jet rentals and five star hotels. Nothing new for not for profit outfits. They all abuse the tax code. Well, right off the bat, Tom cut out one of our qualifiers and used that time to bring in circus acts like putting washed up wrestlers in a huge shopping cart with a blown big block in it. They would drive this contraption up and down the track while the wrestlers faux wrestled. And there were other entertainment acts plus some guy with a tee shirt shooter walking up and down the track launching tee shirts into the crowd. Needless to say none of this lasted and Tom got busted and eventaully fired from nhra. But his legacy of reduced qualifying rounds and shorter races lives on.

Then Peter Clifford shows up and continues where Compton left off. But now we are down to 50 - 60 spots at National Events. And with no certainty that he will stop there. I haven't checked his salary recently but he was making about $700,000.00 a year with generous perks, a few years ago. He has overseen, if not directed, the decline of Sportsman racing.

Contrary to what many believe, nhra is not infallible. nhra has it's weak spots and it can be subject Government Agency and Corporate reviews with little more than an email or letter. I suspect there will be a few letters written if it does not change course soon.