[bill dedman]

Originally Posted by Mike Carr

Bill, we've been over this before, but I will repeat it. Again. There is NO good, logical, legitimate reson for the current system, in the picture of fairness. BUT...

The current redlight rule, in the big picture of the present and (possible) future of Class Racing, is 'small potatoes' compared to the many, more pressing issues we face. If I were making a list of the Top 10 complaints felt by many racers (or, at least by myself), this issue would not make it. In no particular order:
1) We run on sometimes suspect track conditions, and sometimes on a cold, dewy evening track.
2) Contigency money has dwindled significantly.
3) Class Eliminations as we know it has all but ceased to exist.
4) The major sanctioning bodies are 'enhancing' us right out of the sport, with rules changes, added costs for pit bikes, etc.
5) The AHFS is broken. See early season qualifying sheets.
6) We have many new cars, many of whom would deem them to be 'not in the spirit of a true Stock Eliminator car'.
7) Current rules on tech that are not uniformly enforced.
8) The current payouts are not much more than the payouts were many years ago.
9) Getting pushed back for a day or two at a Nat'l event due to weather, oildowns, etc.

And on and on. If the MAJOR issues are resolved, than I would be more inclined to talk about the redlight issue. I think that is the reason why many don't support your cause as much. We realize that this issue (first/worst redlight) is a misdemeanor in the world filled with felonies in regard to modern NHRA/IHRA Class Racing.

Also, like I stated to you before (probably last year or whenever the last time this annual topic comes up), if you feel so strongly about this issue: Take up a petition, get everyone who supports a worst redlight scenario to sign, and mail, e-mail, fax, whatever, to everyone at NHRA, IHRA, local tracks, etc etc. But please, stop beating this dead horse, and actually DO something about it, instead of contantly harping about it on here annually. Please? I don't beg very often, but I'm begging you now. And yes, I would probably sign the petition if/when you started one.

I didn't bring this subject up; somebody else did.

You raise some very good points about :what needs to be fixed in "NHRA Sportsman racing" and I agree with all of them, but regardless of the hierarchy of the problems at hand, I don't agree that you can't work on THIS problem as long as the others still exist. Can NHRA only do one thing at a time?

This is an "easy fix" compared with a lot of that other stuff, and what small amount of time/money that is involved in resolving it would certainly not preclude dealing with the other problems,should they ever atempt to fix any of THEM.

My opinion? That is a pretty weak argument against buying some software and installing it. That's all that needs to be done, and that doesn't sound very time-consuming to me.