Joe,
I respect and understand your opinion. Unfortunately, I believe there would have been NO class racing a long time ago if the handicap system wasn't put into place. If more emphasis was put on HP and the money to get it, it would just be a different group of the same names in a different order from year-to-year than what we have now. The low budget person still has a good opportunity to be competitive, even if he/she has to "hide" in a different class to get away from any "killer cars". But there is still the compromise of an occasional heads-up race in eliminations and the bragging rights of class eliminations at some events, not to mention qualifying position.
Better rewards for class winners could help. But even that has been getting worse with the economy. Right now I'm really worried that Mopar may not have a contingency program for 2009, especially for IHRA class where it was the best sponsor and the only one I benefitted from.
So basically, for years the economy has been forcing less emphasis on being the fastest in order to keep the car counts and classes alive. As long as people can still be competitive without having to "keep up with the Joneses", there will be some cars built and raced. That helps participation, manufacturers, etc. The interest is there to go fast, just not the money. Personally, it kinda seems like the Pro teams, which obviously are all heads-up, are having more problems than Sportsman racers in keeping their "heads up"
above he water.