[Chuck Beach]

Hello Greg,
How are you doing? Hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas. Greg you know as well as I do this post was not directed to the 'hard' working people of stock and super stock. Those people that are waiting for the HP gods to take care of them know who they are.

Let me give you some background about my combo. When I started some 35 years ago I got pounded regularly by the 455 Buicks. Then along came the 351 Mustangs which thumped me for years. Then I had to deal with the LT1's, then the LS1's and the 340 low compression motors as well as the 360's. Most of the 350 Chebbies were just as good. As the rules changed over the years some things helped some didn't. After 15 years or so I changed engine shops and things began to come together. I tried different convertors, tried different cams, tried different transmissions (my tranny was probably 3 times what yours cost) and everything else you can think of. I bought headers that I never thought would cost that much. I bought some stuff that I thought I must be out of my mind (which I probably am). But if you don't try new stuff how will you know. Nobody but tells us what combo to build, we as racers decide that. I cannot afford to go out and build a new car (or even a different motor combination) when HP changes. Some racers can. You look at my 340 combo compared to all of the 350 combos out there. Some guys can change heads, cam or intake and change class, I don't have that luxury. But I am the one that chose this combo. Even today it is not that popular, there may be 4 to 5 of us that run this 340 combo. And don't forget about all the paper cars out there.

In my 35+ year career I have a whopping 8 class trophies. Never have won class at Indy and I have been there 30 times. Never won a National event and have only won a couple divisionals. I have never run 1.25 + under in any conditions. Now I am not complaining because it was my own fault for losing many class wins, so to help with my driving I went to a 2-step and blocking. I still have not won anything but I have been more consistant. Now that has been taken away. So part of my original comment was that AHFS was designed to level the playing field when it comes to HP. I used a 2-step and blinder to help level the playing field in driving. I have never been a very good footbrake racer, many racers are. I see no safety issues using a blinder, if there has been instances it has been because of carelessness. My blinder was not in place till I was at the starting line.

I raced for some 25 years with only minor rule changes, now it seems like there are more rule changes than races.