Oh, this is gonna be fun...
Bomber class merely means entry level like in circle track.
...with all the disparaging sentiment associated with most references to circle-track.
This club is difficult enough to navigate without having to spend 30k on a front row build. And unfortunately that is what IT has become.
Then your perspective is, well, lacking perspective. 30k may be necessary for some IT classes. Not all. There's also the question of buying, for $0.50 on the dollar. Oh, and don't forget that front-row means different things, depending on where you go. Front row IT cars in the NW are, I'm guessing, a lot cheaper, given smaller turnout.
Furthermore, as surely you should be able to appreciate with all your experience, buying a "front row car" by no means guarantees a front row seat... the driver's by far the more important part of that package, at least in the slower classes of club racing.
The club created the ST classes just for those that want more than what IT as a regional only class has to offer.
Hmmm... I never got that impression, in all these years of watching ST reinvent itself. Seems more like they just picked up on current IT cars as a great way to pad their numbers till dedicated cars are built/bought. Nothing wrong with that, I've done it myself before (growing a series).
The argument that IT is better competition are another place where I disagree. You race in say a 20 car ITA car field. In that race you only go toe to toe with 1 or 2 other guys the entire race if at the pointy end of field. Everyone else is a field filler. Now that would only not be true if you qualified poorly for some reason.
I race in FP and at limerock there are 6 FP cars. I still have 2 of the 5 that I go toe to toe with. I bet I have as much fun as any IT guy.
Funny... you disregard everyone behind you as "field filler" and not really any sort of competition. I once had a similar lament, as I was finishing up driving my ITB car, that there wasn't really any competition out there. My father-in-law, with decades of experience in professional and college-level sports, pointed out kindly that those behind me wouldn't agree with that assessment.
Short of a spec series, when does one actually get to go toe-to-toe with more than 2-3 other cars at a given time? That is as good as it really ever gets; if you're getting that in FP, you're lucky, and that's by no mean the norm. Even getting 5-6 cars out there in one Prod class seems to be an aberration, given a brief perusal of results sheets around town. IT may not be the only place to get that experience, but it's most consistently so, in the widest geographical area, among the SCCA classes.
The "IT problem" I have heard compared to the movie Failure to Launch. You all want to stay at home because its what you know and are comfy there. ...From my point of view its the IT guys who want it to go national that are the self centered ones. It just depends where you stand.
Chris
?? I have trouble defining a response to this, because it seems contradictory; on the one hand, you mock us for supposedly wanting to stay big fish in a small pond... OTOH, you complain that we should not want to take our jalopies to the National arena?
That doesn't gibe with the regular, significant turnout of IT drivers at the IT-Fest and ARRC every year, all those who are looking for the big race turnout and fields to see how they measure up. I've BTDT, there's many here who have also.
It's not a matter of trying to "game" the system to ensure our individual cars have an advantage over everyone else in the class, and making sure that no new cars are allowed in class with the chance of "upsetting the existing balance" aka competitiveness out of the box. This is the selfishness we've come to despise in so many National drivers.
Rather, the push for National recognition is just that; the push for recognition of all the hard work and effort put in to create a Nationally-competitive racing program, represented by our cars, our teams, and our development. Maybe this is just a good example of how effective the club's development program is, in creating such successful examples (Ruck being the shining beacon for all of us, as of late). But having to practically throw everything in the trash and start over to change classes, learn new cars, etc? Does that really make sense?
For the record, I'm not one of those who's rabid about taking IT National. I'm more supportive of elimination the National/Regional distinction, though I do see that it may have some good reasons for existing (particularly relating to phasing out under-subscribed classes).
But I take issue with your characterization and blanket dismissal of IT drivers and cars. That's what we call prejudice, and it's ugly no matter if it's based on skin color, religion, region, or simply the car you drive.
Do we act like we have a chip on our shoulders? Yes, and posts like yours exemplify just why. It's hard to feel a welcome and valuable member of the club when you're relegated to the other side of the tracks...
I'd have just said, what a schmuk. 
