From the very first time I read this rule I was incensed. Remember, NHRA technically began as an organization designed to provide a safe environment (both facilities and vehicle standards) for racers to run their increasingly quick and fast race cars. Somehow, they've morphed into an organization that dictates everything from safety to where a sticker must be placed in order to collect points. I fully understand the need for a separate entity, besides the racers themselves, whose responsibility it is to provide a means of ensuring safety, for the racers and fans, and I accept that. But when that organization tells racers what they can and can't do with their personally owned equipment, something has to change.
What makes it even funnier is the fact that this rule was supposed to save the "little guy" money, but Terry points out that it actually hurt him because he had previous commitments that he wasn't willing to break. God forbid somebody has the morals to do what they agreed to do, regardless of the consequences. In my mind he's not whining, he's making a valid point that he was willing to follow the spirit of the rule, as written, rather than try to manipulate it to meet his personal needs.
And to those who say he's not really chasing the points in NHRA, I say you haven't been paying attention. Everyone knew that with the new Clowndown system, racers could take races off and still make it in to the coundown - there was discussion on this very board that, among others, Kalitta might try to do that. Connelly did do it. Haddock was racing his equipment the way he wanted too - or at least that's what he was trying to do until NHRA cut him off at the knees.
My recommended soultion? Let the folks who have money run their cars whenever and wherever they want too. This is a Capitalist society - even in racing. If they've figured out how to do it and they have the money, then they should have the right.
P.S. Heck of a first post after such an extended absence, huh?
