[Ron Middleton]

ygbsm,
Just because you see a lot of grumbling here on this board doesn't mean that it's that way at the races. I've stock car raced, road raced and drag raced and I find more people willing to help and more friends in drag racing than I ever did in the other types of racing. Look at the qualifying sheets at most races and then look who post here. The forum doesn't have a lot of the regular racers posting here.
To be honest with you I've been working for several years on getting my Malibu compettitve for Stock Eliminator but haven't enetered a race yet(although I should later this year) and it's not a combo I would have searched and chosen but it was my son's first car we started building and after his death it just seemed like the thing to do. The 305 combo has been worked to death and it will fast(or I won't race it) but I like the newer FI cars and combos and my other stocker will probably be much faster(index wise) for far less money.
It's still fun and a bigger challenge than bracket racing(although you can still hone your driving skills at it with a stocker) and to me more fun than throttle stop racing. Road racing and stock car racing are by far more fun to drive(to me) but it is so much easier to drag race with a 1 man crew. Build your car and have fun racing, take all this with a grain of salt. Things have a way of working out in the end.