A/SA First in the 9.80's

[Alan Roehrich]

GM isn't coming with the new Camaro. Not this year, and probably not next year, or the next. They don't even have their production cars in the guide, and they've been on the street for a while. Think about it.

It'll still cost you $65K or better to run 9's in Stock. Blown CJ or Drag Pack Challengers or not.

You don't get to "work on the blower" in Stock. At least not legally right now. And my stock Buick turbo was on a fairly fast TType stocker a few years ago, you couldn't do a lot to them, either, at least legally.

Changing the character of Stock, so that it becomes "working on computers, blowers, and turbos" doesn't "save" Stock. It makes Stock into something else entirely.

The 10.5 Outlaw guys are using the same piece of asphalt, doing something entirely different than guys racing Stock. I know guys who run that style of racing. They don't "like the kind of rules you guys have". I've got both kinds of guys in the shop. One group likes the challenge of serious rules and restrictions. The other group hates all the rules, and loves bigger blowers, more overdrive, bigger turbos, and more nitrous, they just want to go fast, the cheaper and easier, the better. I don't see the second group being the slightest bit interested in running Stock, ever, even with the blown CJ's.

I don't have any problem at all with either group, I like the guys in both groups. But knowing both groups, I can tell you that you aren't going to get them to "meet in the middle". They just aren't going to run in the same class. And you can't force them to. The one group isn't coming to Stock, and you can't drag the Stock guys to the other group. For the life of me, I can't figure out why anyone would want to try.

You either like the challenge that the rules and restrictions of Stock Eliminator provides, or you don't. Adding purpose built race cars, power adders or not, won't change that. When the "new" wears off, and it isn't "easy" to get another tenth, the people that do not LIVE for that challenge will go somewhere else for the thrill. When you've diluted the class, and run a lot of the people who do live for the challenge off, where will the class be then?

It's not just about right here, and right now. It's about the future of the class. When the people who don't live for the challenge can't go out and buy a really fast (AA, A, or B) car with 3 tenths on the rest of the field and 3 tenths in their pocket, what do you think will happen? I'm not talking about Jeff Teuton, or Irv Johns, or the Howells. Those people are long time class racers, they'll stick with it because they already love Stock and they understand it. I'm talking about all these "new class racers" these cars are supposed to bring. What do you really think they'll do when it tightens up?

If you want the new cars, why is it so important that they be in classes where they have such a huge advantage over other cars? Seriously, why is it necessary to just absolutely kill cars already racing? Why CAN'T they be in their own class? They'll go just as fast as they are now, with the exact same parts, and the exact same cash outlay. Why is it necessary to punish current combinations to add new cars? There would be little or no argument about any of this if the new cars had their own classes. Is it really necessary to give them 3 tenths to show, and 3 tenths to hold, over other racers, just to get them to race? Is it some sort of secret requirement that they be so dominant, just to get people to buy them and race them? Is that what we need to draw "new participants"? Do we REALLY need to do this just to get people to race? If we do, there's no hope for class racing, period. Not if this is what it will be reduced to.

Stock is something different, very different, from most other racing. Only people who love that type of racing understand it, and they'll be the only ones that come to stay. Trying to make Stock into something that it isn't is about 3 times as likely to kill it as it is to save it.

Getting new cars in Stock is great. Getting new people in Stock is even better. But doing it at the expense of the current participants, and at the expense of what makes Stock what it is, doesn't seem to be a good way to do either.