[Jason Oldfield]

Sure it makes a difference John, especially for those of us that have 6 hour tows to every single race. At some point, if contingency were to go away completely, you'd basically be saying that I would be competing for:

1. $1,000
2. A nice shiny trophy
3. Sometimes a grade point (if it is a division, open, or Sportsnationals)

I certainly like Wallys, and I can't get that anywhere but racing at NHRA events. But, if I can race locally for the same $1,000 every single week (and sometimes more), and then you factor in the cost to get to an NHRA race, without the contingency money there is little to no incentive to travel to these races.

That said, even as the contingency stood last year, LODRS events were questionable at best, but unfortunately if you want to go to National events (and go for the potential big payout), they're a necessary evil. So, I will most likely go to 3 LODRS / opens to get a decent grade point, and then I'll be out (unless by some miracle I'm leading the division at that point, where I might be tempted to chase the gold card, but even that's unlikely as the cost doesn't justify it for a guy that would only go to a total of 5 or 6 NHRA races).

Now, if I lived in southeastern PA or NJ, it would be a different story. If I had 5 LODRS events (of 7) and 4 opens (of 5) within a couple hours of my house, I'd attend all of them regardless. But I don't, nor do the majority of the racers D1.

This is a different topic, but it seems to me that NHRA could use some presence outside the southeastern PA / NJ area...

And no offense taken Tony!