I bet some vendors wouldn’t be in business if there weren’t 1st year novices spending 4 years race budget in one season. I think Dave points out that the vendor business culture doesn’t work well for retaining new novice racers. I have no beef with any of the vendors, you’re providing parts and services that racers (me included) need and it’s not your position to say no to a novice who wants to max out their credit cards thinking they’ll drop a few seconds (and get that plastic trophy). But, the Amway like culture encourages (and pressures) racers looking to improve their abilities to spend money with X vendor for this and Y vendor for that. It can be a bit overwhelming and I can see how quickly and easily it can spiral out of control for some people (i.e. Well, I’m already in it for X dollars, why not spend a little more… every weekend). Thus very quickly, you’re not able to race anymore and have to sell everything to pay off credit cards. I know we’ve all seen this and unfortunately seen some real talent come and go.