Final Spoke in the Wheel of 2007

.......I seem to find renewal in little things every ten years on the button. '67, when I opened my wide eyes to the sport....'77, the death of Drag News--yet, when Quick Rod began the fast bracket march to todays independent promotions....'87....ah, '87. Dejected at the blatent commercialization and cultural pillaging of my sport, I found renewal, passion and.....especially, humor with Gromer, DeFeo and the Brunt Bros. in CARS mag.- encouraging me to return, once again, to bracket, grudge and *other* straight-line participation. '97 found me in the midst of morphing from chronic pain in the letters to the editor within SS and DI into a Full Throttle News and NR 'Varmit' celebrating the retro-fitting and pomo renewal of independent thought on paper....and shooting the curl within the first 'net venue for the sport. Cole Coonce became our generations' Terry Cook.

2007 has been a plain search for a truth that could 'resonate' (how's THAT for a 2007 term? Ranks right up there with 'Boogie'!) with a needful decentalizing and return of focus to small town strips and neighborhood 'stars' who could work their way to prominance without a marketing firm molding them (----yuk! .....and they wonder why I can't take the commercial sport seriously, anymore.....) .
A year-long prediction that 2007 would find house-mortgaged racing operations sounding a death-rattle is coming to pass--of course, those same marketing geniuses are being paid to paper over this situation, as well. Word from the other end of the coast is the new car construction we are accustomed to during the 'silly season' has crawled to more of a mud wallow.
Dissent is limited to those like me who don't try to make a living at racing. Dissenters are labeled "trolls" on the internet, today. Evidence we are, indeed, headed for a corporatist republic. But some of the biggest names in commercial media have been open-minded and willing to have another viewpoint within their walls. I feel as welcome on boards as I ever have. We have been throwing the term 'fellowship' around rather liberally, lately, to describe this net-friendship phenom.
As dire as 'things' appear, wonderful racers filled with passion and more sense than money are rebuilding old S/P cars, giving pro streeters new life, looking for ways to run Q8 while breaking even, and finding something of interest often even commercial enough for Speed-esque TV. Bracket bashers are rediscovering home-finished race cars. Nostalgia racers are, once again, taking their legacy into their own hands...a dearth of Cali strips to celebrate upon seems to be just a speedbump in the NE ranks and their march into the land of fulfillment and friendly events.
I've left this year behind with a desire to leap onto asphalt and concrete on the first dry weekend the temps hit the 50 degree mark. That's called taking my emotional barometer. The forcast is for long-term storm damage with smiles in the short-term.