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Dan Bennett · 06-26-2023, 10:05 PM

Interesting you mentioned PST. I was thinking of that situation the entire time I was writing my post.

I've stayed silent for a long time about how I felt about the class. Life is strange. I got assigned to write an intro article about them for Super Stock and the next thing I knew I was doing color commentary on them in the tower.

So, spilling the beans, I always thought it was the answer to a question the racers never asked. Not once did I ever hear it brought up.

It was the start, or at least a major jump, in the "money gets you anything" programs we've seen rise up through the years. Truck sales were getting hot, and the factories were on board and willing to throw some money at them. NASCAR had already done the same and back then it was monkey see, monkey do with NHRA brass following and adopting their programs as quickly as they could.

But other than the piles of money from the various makes, a tremendous amount of lobbying was being done by nonracers in the industry. Chassis builders led the pack, followed closely by anyone who made parts that would go on the things. I can't count the number of racers who made plans due to being told "It's a cheaper way to go Pro Stock/It's small block Pro Stock/you'll be racing in prime time/lots of sponsors wanting to jump in."

So people bought into that, most of the sales pitches didn't pan out, and it wasn't long before the stands would empty when the sessions started.

I think that situation is 180 degrees away from the new A/FX. I'm pretty sure people will once again like seeing production cars that they can buy (yes, in some cases it will have to be used for now) using highly developed production engines that will take an immense amount of talent to drive well.

06-26-2023, 10:05 PM	#7
Dan Bennett Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 439 Likes: 853 Liked 595 Times in 136 Posts	Re: new A/FX CLASS Interesting you mentioned PST. I was thinking of that situation the entire time I was writing my post. I've stayed silent for a long time about how I felt about the class. Life is strange. I got assigned to write an intro article about them for Super Stock and the next thing I knew I was doing color commentary on them in the tower. So, spilling the beans, I always thought it was the answer to a question the racers never asked. Not once did I ever hear it brought up. It was the start, or at least a major jump, in the "money gets you anything" programs we've seen rise up through the years. Truck sales were getting hot, and the factories were on board and willing to throw some money at them. NASCAR had already done the same and back then it was monkey see, monkey do with NHRA brass following and adopting their programs as quickly as they could. But other than the piles of money from the various makes, a tremendous amount of lobbying was being done by nonracers in the industry. Chassis builders led the pack, followed closely by anyone who made parts that would go on the things. I can't count the number of racers who made plans due to being told "It's a cheaper way to go Pro Stock/It's small block Pro Stock/you'll be racing in prime time/lots of sponsors wanting to jump in." So people bought into that, most of the sales pitches didn't pan out, and it wasn't long before the stands would empty when the sessions started. I think that situation is 180 degrees away from the new A/FX. I'm pretty sure people will once again like seeing production cars that they can buy (yes, in some cases it will have to be used for now) using highly developed production engines that will take an immense amount of talent to drive well.