i apologize! i must have read the posts wrong. now that you explained it, i feel exactly the same way! the cars are getting way out of hand and barrie is trying to save them. which is a double edged sword, yes, they can maybe get some real thunders to return but any invitational we wish to go to, we will get killed. in my opinion, they should look after their track and let the other guys ruin theirs. we already have guys wanting to come to barrie but they built their cars to the other tracks rules and would actually have to take too much out of the cars to conform to our rules. therefore they won't come! is it time for a challenger class again or are we way past that? look at fall colours, they had a full field but where was the 20 car consi? we have to stop before we ruin the best class in ontario. jmo

.... the cars are getting way out of hand and barrie is trying to save them. which is a double edged sword, yes, they can maybe get some real thunders to return but any invitational we wish to go to, we will get killed. in my opinion, they should look after their track and let the other guys ruin theirs. we already have guys wanting to come to barrie but they built their cars to the other tracks rules and would actually have to take too much out of the cars to conform to our rules. therefore they won't come! is it time for a challenger class again or are we way past that? look at fall colours, they had a full field but where was the 20 car consi? we have to stop before we ruin the best class in ontario. jmo

I'm not sure if they are trying to save them Jim, Barrie always goes thru a "cycle"  with the divisions. I started at Barrie the first year of JYD's and when I stopped racing back then they kept pushing all the classes up. Your car now is exactly what the Challenger class was then. They hope that when you go so far with your car that you make the jump to the next level. The next step for thunder cars will be front load bolts and the year after will be LLM. That's always the way, then they will make a major shake up and put the thunder cars back 10 years like they were before.

When I decided to get back into to this I looked at a few Barrie LM's because it costs the same to get a good thunder car on the track as an average LM. The only thing that stopped me was the cost to "repair" the car.

It would be a great idea to split the thunder cars into 2 classes with the challengers but the question will still remain, will there be enough cars for all divisions and can the tech department follow the rules.

And you are also right about invitationals, Barrie cars would get there asses kicked.

gimme 500 dollars (u already have to be running QA1's) and a metric TC and I could make it turn decent and even with a shitty motor you will be decent...at barrie. Try shit..go to practise and try shit....I picked up 4 tenths at pracy in the middle of the year. Learned that I should have trusted myself from the beginning. Look how we ran at the end...

at the end of the day you have to be a driver...this year...jim was the best driver.---these cars are so even that the man behind the wheel matters in this class, unlike 4 cyl where u (usually) pass guys by pushing the loud pedal.

thanks for the comp thayne!