Back in 1981, a group of cars at the U.S. Nationals at Indy held a peaceful demonstration because it was the last NHRA event their beloved stick-shift category, Modified Eliminator, would exist as an individual NHRA category. There were nearly 100 MP cars in attendance, and yet the category was being phased out supposedly due to low car counts.
Today I looked at the pre-entry list for the upcoming Northwest Nationals coming this weekend to Pacific Raceways. I was stunned by the low car counts. Super Stock at this writing had 21 and Comp Eliminator only 17.
It is truly a sad day when the Sportsman ranks have shrunk to such low numbers and it is certainly a barometer of the future of our beloved sport. – Roger Young, Edwards & Young Racing
Related articles:
The Day the Sportsmen Fought Back – CompetitionPlus – Jan 2007
I think what is more concerning to me is that the Comp eliminator class has been struggling somewhat over the last few years with the car counts but yet they almost have as much entered as Super Stock which is a wildly popular class, doesn’t make much sense to me.
Indeed the Super Stock car count is very disturbing. And 4 of the 17 cars entered in Comp Eliminator can trace their roots back to the old MP class running in Super Modified.