Brian, SC, and Dude all have valid points. I can definitely see adding the brace if you already have a built up stock block as another piece of insurance. The fact remains though that if you are beginning with a stock block after you add up the costs to beef it up with all of the tricks you are getting mighty close to IA2/MR1 territory, and there is still no guarantee as to when/if it'll let go.
For me it's a safety issue. The last thing I want to do is to drive over the crank at the big end of the track while oiling down the slicks. I'm not a big baller so I "get" the point about racing on a shoestring budget. I've been slowly working on putting together my own IA2 combo for a few years now and maybe in the next 18 months or so will have something running. Just need more money
