[Doug Hoven]

Personally, I don't think drag racing will ever completely die out, at least not for quite a long time. Class racing, specifically Stock and Super Stock, are definitely in trouble. While the numbers look good now, the elephant in the room is that I would say more than half of the racers in these classes are over 55. The issue at hand is not only that young people aren't getting into cars, but the cars they are getting into are not very friendly to these classes. Predictably, us young stock/super stock racers communicate regularly through texting, social media, etc. One of the things brought up by multiple fellow racers is the alienization of import cars in class racing. The import car following is huge, especially here in New Jersey. We hear the stories our parents tell about project cars, and most realize the prices are way too high on the sought after muscle cars someone like myself would dream of owning. Instead, they go out and buy something like a Mazda miata, Rx-7, Honda S-2000, Infinity G35,etc. and they "Hot Rod' it. I'm not talking about the typical Atco Dragway Tuesday night "rice burner" crowd with 25 year old civics they put mom's hair dryer on top of, but it would be interesting to see someone be able to build a more modern import street car for stock eliminator, and run against something like a 396 375hp Camaro. I've been told by many adults to just "save my money" and "you'll have plenty of time to go racing when you have a good job 10 years or so from now." The time to go Stock and Super Stock racing is now, so for the past 2 years I've nickled and dimed and begged and pleaded my way into doing as much racing as I can now, before it's too late. Just some food for thought.