[Dallas Kelly]

First,I understand, that given I haven't raced in a long time, my creditability is suspect but I believe there could be a reasonable upturn in national event entries "if" NHRA would abandon what I refer to as "racer blackmail" or the grade point system. Historically, that system was implemented during the high flying years of drag racing when there were multiple venues competing for racer attendance and NHRA used the racer's desire to attend prestigious events to coerce them into attending their, often lower paying and consequently poorer attended, divisional races. They always stood behind the cloak of creating support for their member tracks. When it began it only applied to U.S. Nationals entries but within a short time was expanded to include all national events. This corresponded to a rapid growth period in the number and location of national events to cover the entire US and even some in Canada. At the time it served NHRA well to get the racer's unflagging support for the whole NHRA package but I'm merely suggesting that in today's circumstances that it has out lived it's usefulness. I think that review of S & S/S car counts at opens and divisional races, especially in divisions 1, 2, 3 and 4, support an argument that the grade point system is no longer viable and is ,in fact, reducing car counts at national events. Let the flames begin.