[Alan Roehrich]

Billy,
I never said you had anything but respect for the tech guys in the field. That was not the point. The point was that NHRA often does not allow them to do their job, regardless of the "tools" they have at hand. I never questioned your respect for them. I only questioned their superiors, and I don't mean guys like Bob Lang either. I'm talking about Glendora.

Yes, I know you are competitive. Never doubted that. That wasn't being debated at all.

The point is that for 2008 deeper and more radical valve jobs became legal, and necked down valves with a back cut were already legal. And for 2008 heads were not poured in Stock for the purpose of determining legality. Now, in 2009, a year after racers were told it was legal to do those modifications, and it was obvious to anyone that those modifications would affect runner volume, heads are being poured in Stock for the purpose of determining legality. The point being that NHRA told racers their expensive valves were legal, and they could modify their heads (some of which are difficult, if not nearly impossible to find). Then after allowing things with one rule, they make those same things illegal with another. That's an NHRA problem they created for the racers.

I do not condone cheating either, I don't like it, never have, never will.

However, I do not think you are being fair when you claim the loose rules are the fault of the racers. Len Imbrogno worked for NHRA, and wasn't able to do much. After he left, the SRAC was formed, and already, less than a year later, at least Woodro and Greg have resigned, citing a lack of respect and a lack of real input despite all of their efforts. If NHRA refused to listen to them, what makes you think the average racers have any more truly effective input. NHRA apparently pays little attention to the average racers, and likely even less now than in the past. They take what they want from what little actual racer input they actually pay any attention to or acknowledge. So the perversion and looseness is a whole lot more a result of NHRA than of racers.

I do not agree that things (other than the racers themselves) have been ignored. Much has been made of many problems, and many suggestions and solutions have been offered. The vast majority of it has not necessarily ignored by the average racer. By NHRA maybe, but not always the average racer. And after a while, the average guy, doing this for fun, gets tired of banging his head against the wall, and coming away with nothing except a bloody forehead, a headache, and an empty wallet. So he carries on as best he can.

I suppose we could all be blamed for not just parking the cars and the rigs and staying home until we got our way. I guess we can be blamed for lacking unity and being able to act in the interest of the entire group, that probably is a valid point.