Man-I feel as bad for George + Jackie as I do for Chip
- I'm sure it was not an easy discission)-but the writing has been on the wall for at least a 1/2 season. Third would be a great finish-for a newcomer like Peggy L.-and a championship is great for someone with a few years under his belt like Matt--but Chip has close to 20 years on both of them-and helped build their bikes.
Having Drag Specialties on the bike means its pretty much self-sponsored. If you have the #1 plate, you have something to go out+ try to sell to a sponsor. Its hard to sell "we had the fastest bike at most races-but no wins to show for it." As long as there has been P/SB, its been Star vs. V+H. And I can remember (many) years ago other riders that had Star motors complaining their motors werent as good as the house bike--and now Star has a winless season while their bikes picked up Wallys + a championship.
Note: this post was in no way meant to bash Chip (I've been a fan since the Riceburner F/b) Nor to the Smith family for their tuning skills--bashers will now have to read something else into it to make it a 10 pager.