Pro Sportsman Racers

[442OLDS]

Originally Posted by Kevin Panzino

Couldn't agree more.

Agree about what?

[Ken Miele]

Yes, agree about what?

This guy is all over the map, he cant make up his mind on the so called pro sportsman. He has respect for them, but then he is jealous, he says there doing nothing wrong, yet he thinks..... his word ....

"But I see a couple faults to this "professional sportsman racing". One is that it kills a lot of regional or local racers ever having much of a chance to win a big race."

The are so many great local racers that do very well in NHRA and do not travel all over the country. They don't have big rigs and multiple cars. Jok needs to do a little more research. I think many of these racers would disagree with there chances being killed by a so called pro sportsman. I could go on, but this guy has one agenda, and judging by the ceo of the online magazine I can see why.

I just looked at the top ten in all sportsman categories, there is one racer that travels all over the country, and maybe 5 that hit more then most racers. So out of 40 racers in the top ten, 6 of them or destroying
sportsman racing, yeah right.

I think articles such as Jok's does more harm to sportsman racing by turning racers against each other than any so called pro sportsman.

[billy leber]

Whiny non-sense ....

[Just A Fan]

Originally Posted by Ken Miele

Yes, agree about what?

This guy is all over the map, he cant make up his mind on the so called pro sportsman. He has respect for them, but then he is jealous, he says there doing nothing wrong, yet he thinks..... his word ....

"But I see a couple faults to this "professional sportsman racing". One is that it kills a lot of regional or local racers ever having much of a chance to win a big race."

The are so many great local racers that do very well in NHRA and do not travel all over the country. They don't have big rigs and multiple cars. Jok needs to do a little more research. I think many of these racers would disagree with there chances being killed by a so called pro sportsman. I could go on, but this guy has one agenda, and judging by the ceo of the online magazine I can see why.

I just looked at the top ten in all sportsman categories, there is one racer that travels all over the country, and maybe 5 that hit more then most racers. So out of 40 racers in the top ten, 6 of them or destroying
sportsman racing, yeah right.

I think articles such as Jok's does more harm to sportsman racing by turning racers against each other than any so called pro sportsman.

I read this last week, and have been anxiously waiting to see the reaction here on CR.
Ken, your observations are spot on. As my name suggests, I don't have a dog in this fight. I'm also not a journalist. However, that was possibly one of the worst, most passive aggressive, pieces of published words I have ever read.

[442OLDS]

I will agree with this comment from the article:

"They work hard prepping the cars, they drive the starting line and finish line like their wages depended on it and it shows."

[Bill Grubbs]

Lets just give everyone a participation Wally...like they do in T-ball.

We need to relearn there are winners and losers in life. It is up to you to decide which you want to be.

[Casey Miles]

If you compete for money, you are a professional racer. Just because NHRA calls you sportsman, in reality you are a pro. If you race for grins, now you are talking sportsman.
Back in the day, the prize to win a race was a tool box or something of that nature. I think that is where NHRA got sportsman.

Casey Miles
248H "F" NHRA Stock

[Kevin Panzino]

I just am not a fan of the concept of a 'professional sportsman racer'. thats all.

I feel ideally sportsman classes are intended to be a hobby to us, not a source of livelihood. The very nature of having so many professional racers in the sportsman ranks makes it that much more difficult for hobby racers to compete in classes that are inteded for them. Thats just an unfortunate fact.

That being said, I am not suggesting anything can or should be done about it. The races are open for anyone to enter, and they should be.

And there is no class in the Professional categories aymore for anyone other than mega funded teams, or extremely wealthy folks, so I do understand that as well.

Finally, I do also agree with you folks, that the article was very poorly written.

[Ken Miele]

Originally Posted by Kevin Panzino

The very nature of having so many professional racers in the sportsman ranks makes it that much more difficult for hobby racers to compete in classes that are inteded for them. Thats just an unfortunate fact.

Kevin, with all due respect, how many so called pro sportsman racers do you think are out there. There are close 4000 sportsman racers competing on a national level this year. What would you say is the percentage of so called pro sportsman. I would say is less then a 1/2 percent, and I am being generous. How could anyone possible think that such few could be hurting our sport. And even if it was half of the racers competing, does it really matter? Everyone that races can hit there local track to stay sharp, they don't have to travel to be good.

They are racers just like all of us, there good at what they do, and it makes us better drivers. Hurt our sport, on the contrary, it brings it to the highest level possible.

[Michael Beard]

I'm trying to figure out if I'm a "Professional Sportsman Racer" because I tow a lot of miles and have won a bunch of championships and big money races, or if I'm the low-buck kid trying to 'make it' someday and be able to play with the big boys. I'm also not sure where these $15,000 national event paydays are.

That being said, the new magazine needs controversial stories to gain attention and build a reader base.