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Thinking about the coming racing year, it was all making
sense. The old adage of “win on Sunday - sell on Monday”
doesn’t really work in drag racing anymore, after all
NHRA doesn’t allow the usage of electronic fuel injection
in Pro Stock. When was the last time any production-line vehicle
from any car builder ran a carburetor?
We commonly see turbos on many production-line cars, yet
we won’t see them much in Competition eliminator. EFI
is OK, but turbos are only allowed in altereds. Turbos are
only allowed in Super Stock/DX. My point is, we are racing
dinosaurs that bear no resemblance to anything coming out
of Detroit, Korea, Europe or Japan.
Take a look at sport compact racing, yeah, very few are sitting
in the grandstands, but there’s the high-end Pro Rear
Wheel drive, the Pro Front Wheel drive and Hot Rod…
turbos, EFI and a lot of that stuff is rolling off of the
world’s automotive assembly lines - everything today’s
automotive consumer should respond to. As much as the supporters
and participants in sport compact racing work and perform,
it just hasn’t caught on universally with spectators
of any age. So why aren’t these cars part of the 23
POWERade big shows instead of being relegated to a carnival
sideshow?
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With their recent supremacy of the Pro Rear Wheel Drive and
Hot Rod categories, even GM has changed their strategy for
the future in sport compact racing. No longer will there be
any “GM factory teams” as the one built and maintained
by Roush Racing that dominated over the past season. There’ll
be “factory assistance” as they do with NHRA POWERade
Pro Stock, but these racers will need to survive on their
own with their own sponsorship. Another development is that
in addition to a Pro Front Wheel Drive car for owners Nelson
and Marla Hoyos, they’ll provide the Pro Rear racecar
for Lisa Kubo utilizing Ecotec power. Through their “Driven2win”
performance school they’ll also bring Ecotec power into
Super Comp with a lightweight S&W Chassis and turbo 4-bangers
that can be rented for competition with a team in place.
GM sport compact racers have also been given the encouragement
to go where the spectators are-- NOPI / NDRA, IDRC, Battle
of the Imports or NHRA. One of the reasons for the change
is that NHRA has not been delivering the butts in the seats
the way NOPI has. And NOPI's TV show is a lot better! There
are way too many sanctioning bodies for so few racecars. 
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