Guess what? I'm as guilty of the rules interpretation game as the next guy. Way back when (when the late, great Super Stock & Drag Illustrated was still around), I constructed a late model Firebird for Stock Eliminator. It wasn't the first EFI car built, but it was definitely in the first "wave" of electronic fuel injected cars. It was also plenty trick, thanks in part to chassis builder Alf Wiebe. That car was constructed with the existing rulebook in one hand and bits and pieces of the Cyber Bird in the other. At the time, the car was on the leading edge, and I think it can still hold its own today (I think Tim B. is still pretty happy with it). As some of you know, that car was sold. I went off to work for the empire in Glendora (where I was told it was against the rules for employees to own a racecar or even talk about personal cars. The trouble was I wasn't an employee. I was a contractor, but that's another story).

There's something else that gray beards like me can relate to. Plenty of people my age have no desire to pound a keyboard at a race track, and God knows, many of us have enough trouble figuring out how to set the correct time on a VCR or DVD player, let alone program the thing. In contrast, you can pretty much tune and field strip something like my Nova with nothing more than a 9/16 wrench and a Phillips screwdriver. Now that might be taking it to the extreme, but those old Chevys were definitely dirt simple. And by my way of thinking, simple is good when it comes to racecars.

Fast forward to today. When I pore over the qualifying sheets for National events, one thing is pretty clear: Good old fashioned B and C/Stock Automatic (and to a lesser degree, stick) cars are pretty popular. After all, Kevin Helms has won a World Championship or two with a natural "B" car ('course, Kevin is a natural talent too - the guy really is good). Is the reason "B" and "C" cars are popular all due to Kevin?

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With all due respect to Mr. Helms (and wow, for his accomplishments, he certainly does deserve the respect), I don't think so. In a conversation about this very same topic, Alf Wiebe pretty much summed it up: "B cars in particular are almost as quick as A cars, but because they're slightly less potent, they have less trouble hooking at marginal tracks. At the same time, a good B car chases everything except a good A car at most events, and that's definitely an advantage."

Keep in mind too that a very good B car is probably quicker than many average A cars, so with shoe polish racing, there's quite often a good chance a stout B car will chase down the entire field at something like a divisional event. Another issue is Top Stock, where natural B cars pretty much were the basis for the program. Unfortunately, it looks like Top Stock is going the way of the Dodo bird. That's too bad because it really was a good idea. Can Top Stock be saved or resurrected? Who knows? I hope so.

So what's the point of this entire exercise? To me at least, that old Nova sitting on my shop floor is starting to look more and more like a B/SA car. Alf, if you're reading this, you better make some room on the chassis jig. I think fate (along with the NHRA's "enhanced racing experience") has intervened.