terrible race at fontana

[Ron Ortiz]

I remember several years ago when I attended the first Sportsnationals at Belle Rose LA. It truly was for sportsman racers, everything was great, from the hospitality to the track staff. After that race months later, I began hearing such comments as there should be more Sportsnationals around the country, one for each division. In my head I knew that this would eventually lead to the possible elimination of the sportsman categories at "national events" Well so far that has not happened, but the result that I have heard is that the other 'sportsnationals" are not met very favorable by the racers.

At Belle Rose, Pat Joffrion is in charge and runs the show very well, as he is a racer. NHRA is there to do the teching and rule enforcement. It seems that the races in Ohio and California are run by NHRA and do not have a Pat Joffrion running it. There might be the problem.

At Belle Rose we even got cold bottles of water given to us after time trials and eliminations, we even got goodie bags from the local merchants. Does this happen in OH or CA. Do these tracks really look out for the sportsman? I do not know as I have not been to either of them, but from what I have heard, I do not want to go.

Ron Ortiz
U/SA racing is supposed to be fun, right?