Jon,
I am all for letting Erik make his yeoman's effort to try turning Enterprises around. So far, he's done a good job, considering the circumstances. Forgive me, but I'm not going to dance in the streets because things are better - the fact is that things are not good yet. And folks like me will continue pushing and prodding for further improvement until that milestone is reached. Some folks on the FSCCA forum seem to react to that like we're pissing in their porridge, which I find endlessly fascinating because it's misplaced.
To wit: most of us have no problems with FSCCA as a class, or spec classes in general. It's not my thing, but I understand that it fits the bill for a lot of folks out there, especially if you are just starting out or feel that you lack the technical expertise (or cash outlay) to tackle the big FA fish. What we do have problems with, is Enterprises in particular. The fact that Enterprises produces and sells the FSCCA is a matter of circumstance, and you FSCCA competitors are caught up in it like kids in a bad divorce. You guys want a National Class all to yourselves, fine. I don't agree with it philosophically, but I'm not about to be butt hurt about it despite any ignorant suggestions to the contrary.
In his inaugural missive to the F/SRSCCA community, Erik states that 'SCCA Enterprises is subject to the same SCCA rules making process as any class and any manufacturer' - and yet no other manufacturer has such hegemonistic control over classes in SCCA as Enterprises does. To address your vision that Enterprises will have 3 more products by 2010: in the spirit of making the most of a bad situation I say that would be brilliant! But if we're really treating Enterprises like any other manufacturer, then we need to start expecting them to build and sell cars that will be competitive to existing rule sets, and not give them their own private class to sell into every time they introduce a new car. Otherwise, we have no rationale to say "NO" to creating a new class for every Tom, Dick & Harry race car manufacturer that comes along and want their own private sand box to play in. Where does it stop?
In many ways SCCA is a patient dying on the gurney. But in our rush to infuse new blood into the patient in the form of new classes and competitors, we're utterly failing to stop the hemmoraging of existing participants because we haven't taken steps to address their tenuousness with continued involvement with the club. You know this rule better than I: first, take care of the people who have supported you over the years, then worry about the newcomers. One in the hand is worth two in the bush. One is silver, one is gold... you get the point.
Cheers,
Rennie