As the father of a young DH racer, and new to the bike race scene, I have minimal experience with this whole USAC deal. So, an outsiders and newbies point of view: It was more than apparent at last years US Nats (and a bit at the previous year) that the gravity scene is simply an annoyance to USAC, and to some of the xc crowd. There seems to be an overall lack of respect from USAC, and some xc'ers, toward the gravity scene. Yes, there are many individual exceptions. But there is certainly an overall disdain toward DH. For example: It was announced "DH and XC awards will be held at whatever time". Everyone gathered around, DHers and XCers, family and friends, many assuming that DH awards would be up first. Not the case, xc first. OK, so the DH crowd hangs out and cheers for the xc winners, giving them their due respect. xc awards completed, another announcement "DH awards will begin in ?xx? minutes". I guess someone figured the xc folks needed some time to clear out, and they did. OK, not a big deal some might say. Probably not, but this smacks of disrespect. Not only for the DH racers that endured, and cheered during, the hour-long xc awards, but more importantly to the parents, family and friends, waiting to cheer on their DHers. There were lots of folks in the crowd wondering and saying "WTF?". I was saying "what the fuck?" When I heard that the xc and DH Nats would not be combined this year I thought "hell yes!, why not?" Again, before someone tears me a new one, this is an outsiders view of this deal. I'm not saying this disrespect is coming from the xc racers themselves, but it is there and it is coming form somewhere. Maybe the two disciplines are different enough that they both deserve their own venues and their own organizations.