[Alan Roehrich]

Fletcher, Biondo, and Bertozzi have all been running a fair amount of Comp this year. Biondo has not really been traveling as much, I think Bertozzi has as eased up some as well. I haven't kept up with Fletcher. I think Biondo has won a couple of national events this year, and been runner up once or twice. I'd say they've all done fairly well, and they all probably need about a year or so to adjust. The odds of them continuing to be dominant constantly for an extended period of time are not really all that good, so a rough year or two is to be expected every so often. I would not say the "button rule" by itself is the controlling factor. It's likely to be a smaller contributing factor. And I was a major proponent of the "button rule" as it stands, except there are a couple of safety issues that require changes.

Some years, the breaks just don't go your way. All it takes is some bad luck to make a huge difference. Some years the qualifying strategy just doesn't work out as well at a couple more races than it did the year before. Some years you get by with more bad lights than you do others. Even guys like the ones we mentioned usually have at least one less than stellar light in most races. Whether or not some one is there to take advantage of that with a good light is mostly luck.

A better statistical sample would be average reaction times and the deviations from that average. Maybe Nitro Joe will jump in, or maybe someone will pony up and pay him to. It would be interesting to know, but I've got other things I rather concentrate on.