Re: Pro Stock
Pro Stock has been one of my favorite classes for a long time. I even worked for Dempsey Hardy in the mid '80's who ran Pro Stock at the time and got to hang around a lot of the guys at a young age. Up until lately it continued to be one of my favorites. There have been a lot of things that have changed the class for me personally, but few of those carry over to what i think the common fan sees when attending the event.
What i think escapes the common fan is just how impressive it is to do what those guys are doing with that combination. Up until the Fuel injection and RPM change a few years ago that combination had been beat to death for years always looking for an ounce of horsepower and everyone was fighting for that same bit with about an identical combination. True, you could say the same about the class since the changes, but i think the gaps aren't as tight as they were prior but that is only due to the time with this combo, but in time they will get back there.
My personal reasons for the loss in interest in the class has been with the number of teams competing and dwindling car counts. Those two numbers sound similar, but they aren't. We used to get 58 cars attempting to qualify at Gainesville. There were guys fighting to make the show. Some built their own engines and some bought their engines, but they all tuned them and competed against each other and not like "i'm competing against you, but if i lose a team car is advancing", guys hated to lose.
TV hasn't helped. I personally could care less about the fuel cars, but i can't watch the coverage without them interviewing a fuel driver while a Pro Stock car is preparing for a run. Let me have that time to watch my class. 70 % of the coverage is already fuel cars and i don't care about them.
From a fans perspective, i don't think they get what is the most impressive thing about Pro Stock and that is the performance. They simply want to see the visual aspect and watch the car go from A to B. I can't argue the sound of those 500" engines or the mph numbers they are putting up there, but as a fan my vote would be to line up a 32 car field of Factory Stock Showdown Cars and let them run. Those 16 pairs will run in about the same amount of time as 8 pairs of Pro Stock cars by the time they do their burn out and adjust the wheelie bars.
In Factory Stock, you'd get to see all three manufacturers, the fans can identify with them and the runs are unpredictable (wheels up, tire spin, etc) so there are no give me's in the class offering a much greater entertainment value to the fans, and this is coming from a life long Pro Stock fan's point of view.
Just my .02
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