The State Of Sportsman Racing - Interesting Read

[Mike Pearson]

Originally Posted by Kevin Panzino

Hey guys, the bashing of our beloved sport is getting old....
And enough with the constant ranting over the payouts.
Sub-Single digit percentages of class racers do this for any hope of payout. Literally only a few individuals.

Yes, we want the wally, yes we want the prestige, yes we want the satisfaction of winning in this class. Your damm right we'd rather race at an NHRA national event then some local bracket race, regardless of the payout.

You can go on and on about the big money bracket races. Fine, go ahead get your generic classless bracket car and run against those boys in the high dollar bracket races. Good luck with that. I'm sure its a great plan to make money for retirement. After all, you mention all the time about the big money bracket race payouts, so go ahead and start earning all that money. Let us all know how well that works out.

A great many of us wouldn't even bother to race if all we could do was bracket race generic cars.

Class racing is an entirely different breed and its never been about the money.

Can the never-been-class racers, class racer wannabees, and ex-racers living in an era long gone, please stop beating down what a lot of us are currently have a great time doing. Your on a public forum making our case look far worse than it is!! YOU DON'T SPEAK FOR ME.

I'm inclined to say, you know what guys, if you aren't currently racing in S/SS in NHRA competition, you don't really get to bash the current state of affairs.
Its not 1969, it wont ever be 1969 again, and you know what, that is fine with a great majority of us.

Now all that being said, I must admit, I tend to agree with statements about the amount of "bling", the folks who don't turn a single wrench on their combo just purchase everything, and the need to take several days vacation to attend a divisional race.

I am with Kevin on this one. Well said Kevin. I spend what I am able on my racing. I am just a blue collar working man. I have a 100K big rig. I have a 40 ft trailer. I build my own engines, transmissions rear ends and do my own welding and fabricating. Racing is expensive and the only thing that limits me is how much money I can dedicate to that. I don't count on winnings to finance my racing. Being a working man I can not take days off to go sit at an event to try to get a premium pit space. I go I park and I race. I am one that would probably quit if I had to bracket race. I have always either raced super stock or modified. My car is purpose built for racing super stock and does not make a good bracket car. If I crashed my car or it somehow got destroyed I would probably mover over to Top Sportsman. The sanctioning bodies and the promoters need to do a better job to sell our product to the general public. In my opinion they do little to help themselves and expect the racers to bare the cost of putting on an event. I will keep class racing as long as I am able to.