: The World Street Nationals is acknowledged as the premiere "Street Car" race. What do you attribute that to?

CW: Longevity, not giving in to the guys that want us to write rules to fit their particular car and knowing the criticism is coming from guys that want to be us.  And, just to clear this up, we have the word "street" in the name of  the event and in the name of a couple of the classes.  "Street" is our roots so I have no plan to change the name of the event.  After this year we might make some adjustment to do away with the word "street" in any of the classes.  At this point "doorslammer" is the term I prefer when promoting the event.

: How do you feel about promoters who are putting on "Street Legal" races of their own at tracks like Englishtown NJ, Bradenton FL, and Las Vegas NV that basically are copying your race exactly or do you not pay attention to them?

CW: I would say the majority of the other tracks similar events may have been "inspired" by the World Street Nationals, but not necessarily copied.  There is one exception to that and it is Bradenton.  It is fair to say in 2004 someone, on their behalf, simply copied the entire World Street Nationals program from our web site, pasted it to theirs and changed the word "World" to "U.S.".  In some cases it is flattering to be emulated.  Other times it becomes pretty obvious the intent is to suckle off someone else's hard work.  Whether it is copying another tracks event to a "T" or scheduling a very similar event a week or two in advance of a nearby tracks longstanding successful event, those tactics can be considered either smart business or cheap shots.  I guess it could be both.  I've talked to both Alan and Todd about this and they know how I feel.  And, it's possible an overzealous former employee started things with the "Street Nationals" deal.  While the name has remained a virtual copy, Bradenton's event has actually morphed away from our all heads up, no break out format. At this point the major players in the once a year events are David Hance with the Shakedown at E-Town, Mel Roth with the Street Car Super Nationals and our own World Street Nationals.  It's almost like a "Triple Crown".  Of course, with almost two decades of the World Street Nationals at Orlando Speed World Dragway we feel ours is the crown jewel. There's only one original of anything.  World Series, Stanley Cup, Indy 500, Super Bowl, NHRA U.S. Nationals, Daytona 500, Wimbledon, The Masters, The World Street Nationals.  One can't simply buy the jackets and trophies for ANY of these classics, including ours.  They have to be earned.