I have said this before, and I will say it again, Loretta Lynn's is the carrot that gets all of these people chasing the dream of making there are winning a National Championship, when 99.9% of the time it's never going to happen. The fact of the matter is, that no matter how they make the class list, what rules they impose for advancement, and what bikes / mods are legal at any given time......... more than 80% of the riders are the same guys from year to year. My first time to Loretta's was way back in 1995 and my last time was last year....... and lots of the same guys are still racing those same classes all these years later, sure the names have changed, but I see the same guys at the same events year after year after year and get to know those guys because it's fun to race with them. The guys that were faster than I was when I was 25, are still faster than me when I'm 49 this year. It's still fun, I still love those long motos and battling to the end, and my goal is to get a top 10 again either this year in +45 or next year in +45 and +50, but that takes a lot of work, dedication, and luck to happen for me. I'm just happy to have this event to look forward to and strive to ride in each year that I decide to go after Loretta Lynns. The money side of it has gotten bigger over the years, but so has the prestige and amount of work that they put into the event.
There are mistakes made in advancement all the time, and it's nice to see that somebody like SlowOldGuy knows how things happen and tries to make them right.