[Michael Pliska]

Sorry to resurrect a dead thread, but I am new to the forum and wanted to comment.

As was mentioned before, Super-Gas used to be more of a crowd favorite back in the 1980's. I have photos of me going rounds at the 1988 Seafair Nationals, and even in the early rounds there were plenty of people in the stands. By the later rounds, the stands were packed and I even saw plenty of flashbulbs as I did my burnout and stage. Was it purely because the cars looked more like a decent heads-up race? I think it was, at least in part. The crowds are bigger overall these days, and maybe they could care less, but I think it was cool for people to watch the same cars they see at a weekly bracket race, but at the national event.

As mentioned, all the cars back then were either using a bolt or a Dedenbear-type stop activated in high gear. The quicker the car was capable of running, the slower the trap speed. I think the spectators didn't care because they got to see heads up, wheelstanding launches. I personally liked it because I was able to field a competitive car on a starving college student's budget! Mine was one of the quicker cars (probably could run a 9.20 if I changed the gears), which meant that the other cars were catching up to me all the time, but I always had a heck of an override to use to take the stripe.

I am in the process of rebuilding my car, and am still torn about this whole massive MPH deal. I can probably set it up to run a reasonable mph, but I'm not sure I want to do that. I've been pleased to see that Ted Seipel and others have had reasonable success racing the "old school" way. I guess if I had my way I'd probably institute a speed limit on the .90 classes, but that's my selfish response so I can just set my car up the way I raced it 18-20 years ago!

Regards,