[Rory McNeil]

Last year they cleared out a bunch of trees, and paved one of the few decent spots that the Stock & S/S guys used to pit that was reasonably close to the staging lanes. However instead of letting the Sportsman racers pit there again, it basically became an "overflow" big rig parking area, I noticed the semi trucks that transport the rent a golf carts were parked there for the weekend, as were some of the "little guy" Nitro teams. A couple of years ago, they parked some of us waaaay past the finish line, in front of the old free spectator parking lot, which was turned into a gravel pit. By the time I got my car to the staging lanes for Tech, my engine temp was already approaching 200 degrees. And this was on Thursday! Add several thousand nitro fans slowly strolling thru the pits and access roads, you would be hard pressed to get into staging on Sat or Sun without boiling over! Hopefully when they eventually get the track re configured, there may be some decent Sportsman pit spots, but with most Nitro teams having 2 or 3 semi trucks per race car, I won`t be holding my breath. Between the current 50 car cut off in Stock, and the dismal pit parking, it is quite frustrating to be unable to attend the only NHRA National Event within 1200 miles from home.