[Chris Williams]

As long as sportsman racers are considered "filler" for national events, this will continue to happen. NHRA's focus is on the pros, and they'll tell you this quite directly. "People are there to see the nitro cars."

And you know, that's true, as long as that's all NHRA promotes. If NHRA really put some energy into promotion of the sportsman classes, taught people how those classes work, promoted the idea of a huge car show, gave the sportsman racers some respect, and got people pumped up about the 500+ cool cars at the race, we'd see something different.

But as it stands, sportsman racers are just the rodeo clowns. Little difference between us and "Ed the Outlaw Jones and his Jelly Belly Wheelstanding Stage Coach", the jet cars, the Geico Clowns, and the T-Shirt Canon. Keep things happening, keep the noise going, and don't cause any trouble. Guess that'd be OK if we didn't PAY to be there...

This is an attitude problem. Wally's roots were in the sportsman classes. He's gone, and now those roots are being left to die -- at least as part of the national traveling circus.