EMRA was a great sandbox!
Around 1975 I had a hot street Sprite with a roll-bar in it. I had been an avid autocrosser and PHA hill climber in my early twenties, but when SCCA raised the bar on roll-bars (pun unintended) in 71 and we needed tires, the cost forced me to give up.
Then I heard about EMRA and time-trials at Bridgehampton (from Harry Schneider's son). I attended, drove on a full road course, and was hooked!
they said "all you need is a diagonal brace, fire extinguisher, and a kill switch, and you could enter races after you're licensed."
I was there for the next race and school (EMRA has a school at every event, how nice!).
For two years I went to almost every event until I realized I needed a bigger pond.
Then came SCCA.
Without EMRA I would never have gotten here.
There is a lesson here. I was young, avidly followed racing, and had little or no money, but EMRA gave me a vehicle. (pun intended)
And regarding EMRA person pissing on paved paddock-I find that extraordinary. The only paved paddock was a strip behind false grid and a 20' pad behind that for scaling that I always tried to occupy, both front and center/highly visible. The EMRA I knew would never accept that behavior, and, since we used SCCA rules, easily addressed if someone objected.
(unless, of course, this happened late saturday night after the beer party; the culture was a little different 40 years ago)
EDIT: PS: there were many great people in EMRA and some are still my friends. There was very little enmity or elitism there and a great sense of camaraderie, a spirit that if all cooperated in this enterprise, we could do what was not individually possible.