Original Message

I don't know if anything ruined racing, (I still find some enjoyment in it) but if we're going to look at if the the Weld Batmobile had a negative effect on racing in this area, I would say that it was the lack of having a more restrictive rules package going into the 1980 Syracuse event that would have in all likelyhood kept Weld and others from ever building it, or certainly, building it as it became.

Once the toothpaste was out of the tube, the only thing to do then was to take a stand on what would be allowed/not allowed going forward.

The second area to put blame is on the inability of those that were in a position of influence/power, to come up with a rules package at what was a critical time as teams were moving away from factory bodies and fabricating the bodies however they wanted, and then winking as they told the tech inspectors what factory car body it was supposed to represent.  Kind of like how the Batmobile was a Continental...  

Those with whom the responsibility fell, could have slowed the change, but nothing would have stopped it.

Take a look now (42 years later) at what is happening to the Outlaw Stock/Factory Stock classes across the country.  Other than Wall Stadium that still manages to get 20+ G bodied cars for their Factory Stock class (almost all Monte Carlos), every other track has the biggest collection of "Flatmobiles", where just about every panel on Factory Stock/Bomber Class/etc., is sheet metal flat.... with some kind of rear spoiler that too has nothing to do with anything that ever came out of Detroit.

And amazingly, in another 2 years or so, they'll all look exactly the same Flatmobile ugly, as real bodies get harder to find, and are much harder to work with.

You can't stop it, and I don't see the need to blame a team that according to those I have spoke to, showed up to a Syracuse Guy Fight in 1980, with a gun, while most others showed up with their 1979 sharpened knives.