Jon Myers

I am one of those dozen or so racers that hold a NORBA Semi-Pro

licence in Oregon. I did not get the upgrade from Expert to Semi-Pro by

racing in my home state. NORBA wants racers to do well at larger races

with deep and strong fields before they allow you to upgrade. These

deep and strong fields are at NORBA nationals, Sea Otter, and few other

select races around the country. If a racers wants to get an upgrade in

the NORBA system, they must travel and do well at National races.

   The strong NORBA Pro's in our state like Carl Decker, Barry Wicks,

and Erik Tonkin all earned their Pro upgrades by racing at NORBA

national races and doing well. They did a lot of traveling to Big Bear,

Durango, Snowshoe, etc.

   Racing in Oregon is very good preparation for national class racing.

For such a small state, we have many competitive racers. If a racer

does well here, they can do well at any race in the country.

Personally, if I wanted to try to upgrade to Pro I would try to go to

every NORBA national and try to place in the top 5. I'm too old to do

that now, but that would be the way to go.

I would eventually like to see NORBA come back to Oregon, but at this

point, I don't see any benefit from the added cost. In Washington, if

you do a NORBA race in the Round and Round state series, it costs $35 to

preregister and $45 day of race. Ouch!

   NORBA's ranking system is a joke. The Oregon BAR has much more

meaning to me.

   -Jon