you're all right in my book, Tom! I just wish you'd come up here more often, we miss having you around.

If your point is that competitors running Nationals/Majors consider it "more serious bizness" you'll have no disagreement from me. But I've seen and experienced some, such as yourself and me at times, that spent just as much effort on a Regional program. I guess in the end it's all about an individual's goal, and if the Runoffs is their goal, then you have to do Majors. In mid-00s the ARRC was my goal, so I did Regionals.

But is it the chicken or the egg? Which causes what? I disagree that we do, or should, consider Regional racing to be a stepping-stone, or that Majors/National drivers are necessarily more experience or better drivers, though they tend to gravitate that way. Me, I went STL because I liked the ruleset, I wanted a good excuse to drive Road America, and I wanted a strong event to do it in (the Runoffs). But I'm thinking that after I check Daytona off my list in 2015 I may be looking at dialing back the traveling and doing more Regionals (dude, Palmer is going to kick ass, you need to come up here and drive it). We'll see where the Club goes for the Runoffs in 2017 onward.

There's strong competition in Regionals, and there's weak competition in the Majors. It's all about what your personal goals are...

GA

P.S., yeah if your SSA run was in '89 you tanned me pretty good; I think I finished 25th? I wasn't aware of where the strategic resistor had to be soldered in to keep the car from going into low-boost limp mode from high IATs. But I figured it out for '90 and finished 7th and 5th the two years after that... That CSX is for sale, if anyone's looking for a project car...