I agree with a lot of what you said bill, but i dont think that they should keep people from racing though. That will never happen, they are not going to piss off their customer base. Plus I dont really think that it would create a problem by them being there, just put them in their own class. You really wouldnt want to turn people away anyways, the more people that are there the better. I would like to see a program like this:
Street Stick
Street Auto
Quick 8 Street - only if they have a large turnout
Modified - only class restriction is that you cant run a delay box
Test & Tune
*330' 30mph Ricer Roll* - only if enough interest
Entry fee - $15
To keep entry fee down = No payouts (this is a huge deal), all class winners and runner ups get trophies. I mean trophies dont cost that much, especially if you buy a fuckload of them... like on a busy night you would need 8 trophies... thats probably like $30 for decent ones. Thats 2 entries, and people love trophies.
As Bill said earlier, people also love stickers especially the 100 mph club ones. Have qualifing runs for the stickers, if you enter and break 100mph you pay 2 bucks for the sticker. I think its magnolia that does it like this, or dragway 42....
T-shirts are also a winner, people LOVE free t-shirts, everyone who races give them a t-shirt, if you buy ones that arent too fancy and buy like a thousand at a time, you could probably get them for a couple bucks. Plus it would be a great way to get the word out about the event. It would cut into the margin a little bit, but if thats a problem only do the free t-shirt thing like for the first event, then once a month after that.