brett-
i dont agree with you on that one.. when we went to our first pres cup my son was not on a team at that time but he was on team nj… it was exciting and everyone from nj was going. the team thing was big back then( and yes phil went too even the years he wasnt a shoe in for 1st place points..lol) i think the reason people back then got into the state series so much was looking foward to making top 10/state( of couse there were at least 10 in each class back then) and going to the pres cup. now i am looking at it from a 7-8 yr olds eyes now- looking back. jeff used to go and bring noisemakers and everyone in the stands had one ( yikes it was loud) and everytime a nj rider went by you heard us! this was back when like the state series had t-shirts from every qualifier plus the championship…a raffle at every state qualifier that would compare to the iron man prizes…. there was excitement. riders at 7-8 dont just ride for the fun of their bike.. they race. theydo it for pure excitement and being on a team( nj) makes it even more exciting… and they want to race to win something. that cup was a big deal weather it meant something to the adults or not…
that is what the team nj was all about bitd as you say. that is only 10 yrs ago i know you older guys are from a way back different era… the giving money to nbl thing had nothing to do with it. there was no political agenda back then just race for the race( maybe we were just blind to it but it was fun)
actually i have pictures of team nj with over 70 kids in ohio i think cj has some too… take a loook at the kids. danny just mentioned to me that back then the older really fast riders who were 13x and up dont even race/ ride any more…where are they? maybe they left when the excitement was gone..