Enders to sit 2/3 of the Western Swing

[PJ]

I would argue against that as the reason Frank. WJ and Glidden spent the better part of a decade with a tenth on on the field and yet there were many other cars. Wayne County boys dominated for a few years and that didn't hurt numbers.

I'm going by memory here but wasn't it 79-83 where only WJ, Sheppard, Glidden and Iaconio were able to win a race. Then Leal and Allen replaced Iaconio and Shepperd on that list.

Force won everything in FC for awhile and yet nitro still had good numbers.

Money is the holding people back. Between the cost to race, less from sponsors and not enough in purse winnings.

 

[Nunz]

This is a sport that for 60 years has been about going quicker and faster. The first 2-3 decades were the "low hanging fruit", ingenuity drove progress. Then more money came into the sport, and it became harder and more expensive to win, or even keep up, and that is still the case. It's way easier to find ways to spend money on racing than it is to actually find the money to pay for it. It's also impossible for prize money to ratchet up at the same rate as budgets. Never going to happen. Throw in an economic meltdown and crazy travel costs, and I'm actually surprised that for the most part, we have full fields in all the pro classes. How many threads have we had on this topic? It's very simple, really. Simple, but no easy fix.

 

[Dave]

I would argue against that as the reason Frank. WJ and Glidden spent the better part of a decade with a tenth on on the field and yet there were many other cars. Wayne County boys dominated for a few years and that didn't hurt numbers.

I'm going by memory here but wasn't it 79-83 where only WJ, Sheppard, Glidden and Iaconio were able to win a race. Then Leal and Allen replaced Iaconio and Shepperd on that list.

Force won everything in FC for awhile and yet nitro still had good numbers.

Money is the holding people back. Between the cost to race, less from sponsors and not enough in purse winnings.

And I would argue that reason because even though you were racing for 5th back, it didn't cost as much to do it, comparatively speaking to todays costs. Also it goes back to, they were taking swings at it and making large gains in horsepower. Now you're pretty much maxed out with the potential that you have to spend more and more and more to find that last little 1 to 2 horsepower. The more recent barriers breakers back to about the 7.20s show roughly .1 of a second gained every 2 or 3 years til you got to 6.40, that took 5.
7.20 - 1988
7.10 - 1990
7.00 - 1992
6.90 - 1994
6.80 - 1997
6.70 - 2001
6.60 - 2003
6.50 - 2006
6.40 - 2011

The 6.40's were broken a little over 3 years ago, and so far we've only seen as low as 6.46. This time, it may take another 3 years before we get to see a 6.30. Maybe longer, maybe shorter (pending awesome weather.)

Back in 1985 someone running sportsman, or someone who had a good paying job, came from a rich family, or just plain begged, borrowed, and stole to get say, 200k, could probably have run a full season of Pro Stock. Now? 200k would get you a car and a motor, and a few spare pieces and that's it. 200k is 442k in todays money. 2.2 million is 995k in 1985 money. Do you think Reher-Morrison, Glidden, WJ, Iaconio, etc spent nearly a million dollars to do this 30 years ago? If they did it's news to me.

 

[Bob K.]

After first round at Denver Erica is number One! I'm not a fan, but she sure can drive!!