I really dont think the bashing has been as bad as everyone is saying it is. Every drag racing fan knows how important Evan has been to our sport and really appreciates it. I just dont understand why some of you cant seem to think it should piss some people off. I think Evan's great, he's been a saviour to alot of teams and some of them wouldnt have even been racing if it werent for him but the timing of this decision affects alot of people and there jobs/career/life/finances etc. I feel for those people. And for whatever reason it happened which is none of our business, its just a bad deal and I hope Evan gets better and does come back full force. But I think you should ease up on the people who are questioning it, most of them have legitmate questions and concerns and I'm sure the teams are very upset about it, just smart enough not to bite the hand that feeds them persay.
I am going to agree with Justin.
1. EVERYBODY, without reservation hopes Evan gets healthy. ABSOLUTELY priority number one as far as everyone is concerned.
2. Whether or not Evan/TORCO come back to drag racing in the future, EVERYONE is grateful for what he has done over the last couple of years.
3. Of course teams are not going to come out and bad mouth this decision no matter how bad the timing is. Most of the teams are smart enough and classy enough to know that they wouldn't have been out there without Evan in the first place. Secondly, it's bad business ... who is going to want to sponsor someone who bad mouths any past sponsors?
4. To blame this message board or others like it for any fallout from this decision is WEAK. Evan was more than happy to come on here in the good times, he has to be smart enough to know that this decision was going to cause some bad times. He has explained his decision and announced his intentions to come back in the future, I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he has to know that this isn't anything that we haven't heard before from sponsors who are long gone. If (god forbid) MAC Tools left the Kalittas and some people made some negative posts on here about it, do you think Conrad would post an open letter blaming the fans and the interwebs? OF COURSE NOT.
5. Are we as fans supposed to just sit back and not question anything that happens? 20-25% of the Nitro field just evaporated a month before the season starts and we are not allowed to ask questions? THAT DOG DON'T HUNT.
6. There are 2 sides to every story and we have heard Evan's but are we not supposed to consider the other side? We are not supposed to feel for the crews/parts suppliers/drivers? Who gets left holding the bag for chassis, pistons, blowers, paychecks, etc is a legitimate question. I am sorry if it offends the sensibilities of some in the community.
7. On the face of it, a man's health is at stake. But you don't have to look very deep in the pages of some websites to see Evan rave about how great his company people are, how he couldn't do it without Latrell, etc. Why TORCO suddenly can't do it without Evan is also a legitimate question. Again, I am sorry if it offends the sensibilities of some in the community.
8. TORCO made a hard decision that has HUGE ramifications for this sport. They honestly cannot expect to NOT have to answer hard questions.
9. A valuable lesson was learned ... get it in writing.
10. I don't think anyone is telling Evan how to spend his money. People are just trying to make sense of this decision.
11. Since someone brought up ticket prices, is my ticket price going to go down even though I am going to see significantly less cars? Didn't think so. But I am still expected to pay that price, whether I deem it fair or not, without question? WEAK. I understand I have the power whether or not to go, but as a "real" fan who attends 4-6 National Events per year plus pre-season testing, I don't think my questions are out of line nor are most of the ones being asked on this board.
12. No one likes to see personal attacks on anyone, but just because there have been a few of them on here, I don't think you can readily dismiss everyone's opinions or questions.
I do hope Evan gets better. I do hope he comes back better than ever and this is just some anomaly. Everyone agrees we need more people like Evan, not fewer.
EDIT: Just saw where Evan posted in the other thread re-affirming he will be back. Get yourself better first Evan!!
