[Alan Roehrich]

If you talk to the import fans, they're no more interested in Stock Eliminator or Super Stock than the other guys. They don't like the rules.

We don't need to "expand". You can't please everyone, you can't be all things to all people.

What we need to do is concentrate on making and keeping the current participants happy and keeping them racing. Getting them to race more is the real goal.

People keep trying to go outside the current group and "recruit" participants by "expanding" the class guide or liberalizing the rules. It does not work that way.

The best "recruiting" tool is a satisfied happy participant. It's just like running a business. It's cheaper, easier, and better to retain a customer than it is to replace him. That happy customer is the best tool you can ever hope to have for getting new customers. It's the same with racing. If you want class racing to survive, or more to the point, recover and thrive, treat the current racers better. Give them every reason to race more. Because that racer wanting to race more is the best possible "advertisement" to draw new racers. New people are going to be interested in class racing, because they're wanting to find out why that guy can't wait to spend his time and money on a class car and going racing.

Continually altering Stock Eliminator and Super Stock in an effort to "include" or "recruit" people who not only don't race the cars already in the class, but more to the point don't like the style of racing or the rules, is pointless and futile. You do that, and at best, you risk alienating the current participants while maybe drawing 1 in 1000 possible new participants, for a short time. At worst, you start driving away the core racers, and get nothing from those you hope to attract.

If you're selling grilled beef hamburgers and fries, and have a decent number of customers, you don't switch to tofu and turkey burgers with celery sticks, hoping to gain new business. It does not make sense. It just puts you right out of business, because those customers who came for a great burger and fries are not coming back, they're going somewhere else to get what they wanted, or they go for fried chicken or pizza. You end up with a lot of tofu, turkey, and celery. And fairly good sized helping of egg on your face.