I was looking at the results of the "supplemental classes" (STX, SM2, F125)
and thought just how ridiculous this "supplemental" concept is. So I just
sent the following letter to the SEB.
--Rocky Entriken
To the SEB:
I would like to recommend the SEB end the practice of "supplemental classes"
at the Solo II Nationals. It seems, in retrospect, to be a silly and
non-productive practice that serves only to deny a few individuals the
accord of a championship they won just as surely as anyone else who drove
the same courses to the same end - many of them in classes smaller than the
"supplementals."
A practice such as this year, SM2 running as part of EM and STX running as
part of SM, then promised they would break out to their own class if they
exceeded a specified entry limit, is a far better solution. The class then
has a chance to "make" itself. If it succeeds in doing so, as both SM2 and
STX did -- and F125 had good numbers too, then it should be accorded the
same status and awards as their parent classes. SM2 ended up bigger than its
parent EM this year, but is demeaned as "not a real class" by being ignored
in the list of champions in the Solo II rules and its winners refused the
champion's jacket.
How much trouble is it really to give a couple more jackets and a couple
more lines of type in the book? The cost of the jackets is easily covered by
the minimum size of a class entry that would warrant the award, and we
already give the trophies.
These people pay the same entry fee, come with the same commitment, do the
same work duties, drive with the same intensity, and are as much a part of
our event as A Modified or H Stock.
If a class struggles, if it lasts only one year, so be it. But we gain
nothing, and perhaps lose some veracity, by denying those "supplemental"
winners the mantle of champion. None of the supplementals have yet failed in
such a manner.
Thus I would propose that the definition of "supplemental class" would now
be "a class within a larger class." The one group that would currently fit
that definition would be Formula SAE within A Modified. If any class ever is
so included, and then makes numbers to warrant being broken out to its own
class, it would then no longer be "supplemental" but would become a
championship class in its own right.
This may also be the good method of handling classes on the edge of
viability (even ladies' classes). If, to take a now-unlikely example, H
Stock was making poor numbers then it would be assimilated into G Stock for
Nationals (and Tours? Divisionals?) but its cars would still retain their HS
identity. And if the HS drivers raised a groundswell of support to produce
the needed numbers at Nationals, then it would break out again. Similarly,
you could establish a Ladies Class minimum of, say, 5 cars. Fewer, and the
class runs with its open. I am not proposing this, just illustrating the
possibility.
I would also propose that those "supplementals" of the recent past - Formula
125, FM of 1995, STS of 1999-2000, and SM of 2000-2001, retroactively be
recognized as championship classes by inclusion of their winners in the back
of the Solo II Rules. It seems to demonstrate how silly this exclusion is
when STS, supplemental just two years ago, was the fourth-largest class this
year out of 32.
Such recognition does not mean a class could not still be "on probation" and
disappear in future years. It only means the efforts of those who drove in
them would be recognized on an equal level with the efforts of everyone
else. That is the real issue.
Rocky Entriken
#19814
Salina Region
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