fatcat
Nitro Member
There are enough cars out there, but you have to spend so much to compete nowadays that they have turned the cars into moneypits. If you track the class history it seems that around 1991-2 is when the decline started. Legitimate team cars (started by WJ with Don Beverly) showed almost immediate returns, so Wayne County pairs Alderman and Geoffrion in 1993. Now there are two teams that are completely dominating.
Now comes Steve Schmidt, who's making awesome power and he decides it may be profitable to lease engines for a million a year...Yates does the same thing in 1994 with a team car (Chuck Harris) and Harris becomes an instant top ten and contending team, even won Columbus!
After that, the guys who were competitive with their own engines were falling behind data and power-wise and some left for that budding Outlaw Street racing or some just retired.
The rest were left with dog motors that were maybe a tenth off the pack and it just kept evolving till today.
The rich spent more and the mid packers fell behind and with so many more classes of racing to choose from for fast door cars, why "waste" the cash.
A buddy of mine drove Pro Stock a few years ago and it was cost him roughly 25K per race (8 races), to lease a team and a testing motor, that was down 15HP. He won two rounds, but for 200K?
"dog motors...a tenth off" been there done that. My partner and I looked around in the staging lanes and were fairly certain we were the only ones there that punched clocks for a living. Don't regret it one bit, at the end of everything I was only out about 15k, and had a great time doing it.
Spec heads just wouldn't work IMHO. The sophistication of the class is pure evolution, there is no going back. Was at a points race last weekend and watched some top sportsman guys running 6.70's at 205 with big motors and nitrous and commented to a friend of having a deeper appreciation for guys that run 6.50s at 210 with 500 cubes, and no juice, really amazing.
