Close friends and colleagues can respectfully disagree on substantive issues and still remain close friends and respected colleagues. In fact, I would contend that if they cannot agree to disagree they were neither close nor respected to begin with, and they need to move on.
And so it is with my close friends and respected colleagues who are annoyed with offshore racing’s Super Stock class owners group for setting its own competition schedule each year.
For the record, Super Stock is not the only spec class that has made this standard practice during the past three seasons. Class 1, Pro Class 1, Super Cat and Mod V owners group all do it.
Also for the record? I don’t love it either as a fan or a guy who pays another guy and a photographer to cover the sport. From a fan perspective, the practice is confusing. From a publisher perspective, it adds expense to content production that isn’t tied to any revenue stream.
But Super Stock isn’t the only class setting its own schedule. So why then all the snark and grumbling behind the scenes from those outside the Super Stock group?
Because with 15-plus teams, Super Stock is offshore racing’s largest class. If the Super Stock category is exclusive to you as—let’s say just for fun—a race-sanctioning body or promoter, you have significant numeric power.
Like the motive, the math here isn’t difficult to grasp.
Class owners began making their own class schedules when race supply began outstripping racer demand. To hold Super Stock to a different standard based on its own success is more than silly, inconsistent and transparently motivated.
It’s intellectually and ethically dishonest.
Super Stock is not the problem.