How Many Wallys?

[Dick Butler]

When ever I discuss Heads up Class racing there are lots of "boos" from the crowd on this site. Maybe I just discovered why it happens. It has been 19 Years since I won Class at indy in GT/AA.
1) Many races have occurred, many races having no real "Class" heads up racing.
2)Many years of limited entries to events causing essentially no possibility of Heads up racing even in eliminator.
3) Winning a Wally for being fastest in class becomes less and less important. No major money to win class. Sponsor money for products due to so many classes to pay.
4)Every year many thousands of new combinations arrive with less and less HP oversight when they first are raced. Result Instant Super Combination. Buy one or be second best in class or become encouraged to only support the dial in racing where your excellent car for last season has a way to win by racing someone other than class.
5) People still understand the concept of being a closely factored class as seen with the excitement over the many A/SA cars closely qualified at Vegas.
6) Using the factoring and lb/hp always has been a form of crutch to take advantage in Stk and SS. Only the mod classes are level in class. The no tear down is slowly making them more popular but costs still are high.
7)Change of mental programming is hard to accomplish when we have a car, trailer, MH and vacation time planned. The organization has its own reasons for diluting the numbers of racers per class by offering more classes. Entry money available by full fields.
Question might be asked of the negative people as to "How many Wallys have you earned by beating a 7 or 8 car class of cars. Without that history it is easy to see the negative responses to Heads Up class racing. Us Old guys lived to beat someone for class trophy, NHRA money, Sponsor money for all our products and decals for class win.
Many times when class is run very minimal rewards are there to be earned...

Thanks for reading...