Now, I give Fenn credit for soliciting opinions before a ruling is made, but I can’t help feel he’d be better off making decisions in a less public arena. As it is, alongside commentary from racers with legitimate points and concerns, he’s invited diatribes from slighted fans, some of whom have gone so far as to suggest that they should vote before ORSCA allows any car appearance changes.
I’ve got news for them; they do get to vote; it’s called a ticket and that’s how they’ve voted since drag racing or any other form of sports entertainment was organized and sanctioned. If putting sponsors on the quarter panel or trunk lid of a 10-wide car truly is a deal breaker for many fans, well, ORSCA will sell a lot less tickets and no Internet poll will ever come close to matching that for voting influence.
I’m not saying the fans shouldn’t express their points of view, though. Not at all. In fact, I think it’s great that ORSCA has people passionate enough to weigh in on the issues and I commend it for providing them a forum to do so. I just think Fenn makes a mistake by publicly sparring with message board users, whether they’re ORSCA members or not. You don’t see Tom Compton at NHRA or Aaron Polburn at IHRA or Brian France at NASCAR or any of their officials going online to takes sides with or against racers and fans about potential rule changes and I don’t think you should see Johnny Fenn or his staff doing it, either.
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I also can’t agree with Fenn’s suggestion that “ORSCA will not decide this one for you so you can then hold it responsible. For once you as a group will decide this by being registered members of ORSCA. You will have one vote; if you are not a registered member of ORSCA you will have no vote. Step your backsides up to the plate and for once control your own destiny.”
That, to me, is a cop out. ORSCA should be mapping out its members’ destinies. ORSCA is responsible for the route it follows. If ORSCA makes correct decisions, its membership and popularity will thrive; if not, they will dwindle. And that’s where the member vote should occur.
If you want ORSCA to be run like a mom-and-pop organization where every racer’s voice is heard and counted equally, then please, give up the pretensions about “taking it to the next level.” If, however, you do want the series to advance, show some faith in your leadership and stop the electronic sniping. Tough decisions have to be made sometimes and despite what some people seem to believe, racing organizations are not democracies—not even a racer-friendly deal like ORSCA—someone eventually has to step up and tell the others how it’ll be, and then live with it, good or bad.
My understanding is that ORSCA has a board of advisors made up of representatives from each of its racing classes and a car builder or two to help Fenn reach rule-making decisions. This braintrust should be used and its recommendations considered before a path is chosen that will bring the greatest good to the greatest number of ORSCA interests. Sometimes that decision may even go against the board’s recommendations, it may alienate certain racers or other ORSCA officials, but at least it would come after reasoned discussions with legitimate sources—not after a bout of demeaning message board bickering. 
Race safe,
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