Andy - regarding your question as to "what rule caused costs to go up?" , my $.02 is: the original engine rules. The "original sin" of this class was in allowing "sort of" racerized engines originally. Stock 5.0s, 305s, and associated drive trains could not handle the resulting 50% initial increase in HP and torque. Every rule change since then has been trying to fix that original mistake.
I decided to send this as a PM, in order not to start a flaming Sh_t storm over it. No matter. I will continue to enjoy messing with my slow fox-chassis car.
Sorry you lost a wheel at the Runoffs, that really sucks. Any idea why that happened?