If I remember right... at one of the early Lemons races there was a team of experienced mechanics driving terribly and racking up on-track penalties. Finally the race judges pulled them off-track. At the same time there was a newbie team of not-very-experienced mechanics. The starter went out on their Northstar motor, and with it being under the intake manifold, they were struggling. The judges turned to the team of bad drivers and said, "You guys wanna get back on track? Change their starter.", and they got it done fairly quick. They also drove better afterwards.
Thats kind of the difference between "Professional" racing and "Amateur"
racing.
In the Pro world, there is money to be won.
In the Amateaur world, there is money to be spent.
There is a long standing tradition in racing where you help anybody so they can get back in the race.
Winning by default isnt a win.
Anybody who crows about it and doesnt help kinda sucks and will loose respect pretty quick.
Thats also the reason behind ever changing class restrictions and new racing classes.
To try and keep it competitive and accessable to more people.
Any unrestricted class of racing tends to evolve into he who can spend the most money on the newest technology faster than the competition.
So people get priced out of the sport.
Ive seen this a couple of times.
In 1972, we bought a brand spanking new Ron Jones snub nose 7 liter.
State of the art boat.
Tested tuned etc.
Went out in 73 and kicked ass with blown gas 392 hemis. Went to blown gas 426 in 74.
Went to methanol in 75.
Went to Hillborn injected meth 427s in 76.
By 77 the boat was totally obsolete and unsellable.
Couldnt give it away.
It ended up in the backyard as a sandbox for all the neighborhood kids.
Years later, I got into sailboat racing.
Thinking it couldnt possibly be as expensive as hydroplane racing.
I was wrong as hell on that one.
Bought a Soling with all the trimmings.
It was obsolete in a year.
