Jim (Nash),
Jim (Schings) has ID'd some of the technical issues, but I think it's more than just that. Just as Bob pointed out, the idea of racing Nationals and the Runoffs has a huge draw to many. I understand that some are thinking in the sense of Regionals being considered a lower competitive grade of racing. I think where we fall down is to get everyone to see/understand that the competition level in our races is seriously tough.
At Blackhawk, 4 of the 5 drivers have been former Runoffs contenders. I think about how many times we get officials and workers that make an effort post race to come to impound and tell us "that was the best racing we've seen in a long time" (happend again at BFR).
I'm a little miffed with SCCA that we have made multiple attempts to get something into SportsCar (both Phillip Royle and Eric Prill) about announcing our class (brand new GCR class from 1/1/09) and the only thing that has been printed to date was a 20 words and a small photo from the ARRC. I think we got a great thing going. It is proven, rules are stable and it makes sense for an entry level, low budget, open wheel race car.
I really don't have an answer for "why not?" Makes no sense to me either, as I've already made the jump. I know we've got a good thing and slowly but surely, we keep growing .
Maybe a guy like Matt King could shed some light on this.
OK, off the soapbox.