At 12:56 PM 5/14/2003, Charles wrote:
>Randy, that's the scenario that is more problematic than solved by the point
>system as it now stands IMHO. Take this year's GS class for example. It is a
>HIGHLY contested class here in the SE, 5 of the top 10 pax at Ft Myers were
>GS cars!
Geography is part of racing. Everyone is free to travel out of their
region, and many top competitors will indeed cross the country to get what
they think are easy points or a better shot at it anyhow. Softer classes
often will attract those that see opportunity. Yes, it's not perfect, but
all-in-all, the winner reflects someone that has done enough events
correctly, and did well in the Finale. Nationals to me reflects that a
person can have one very good run and wins it all (nothing wrong with that,
that is autocross). Though that can be true in a ProSolo, it's much more
likely that the person has driven well for 3-4 events.
-snip- The same top of the
>field is entered @ Peru, so it's likely that none of them will come to
>Topeka with 40 points.
You don't need 40 points to go to Topeka. If you are making a run at a
championship, all you need are 36 points since if you win at Topeka, you
will win it all. This is why I don't agree with the bonus points. Ignoring
the bonus points for a minute, if Mr. ButtHeat arrives in Topeka with 40
points, it will require someone else in GS arriving with 36 points and
beating Joe. I have to believe that of all the events possible, a serious
GS driver that is that good, should be able to get a 1st and a 2nd in 3 events.
But even if they can't. That is part of the series. On the west coast, we
have the situation in CS where the top 3 drivers are beating each other up.
It's possible that Uyeda and Motonishi could end up with 32 and 33 points,
not enough to win 1st. However, the more likely scenario is that we will
have about 9 CS drivers all with 36-40 points and whoever wins at Topeka,
wins it all. Should be fun. ;)
Now when you do consider the bonus point system, I agree with you that the
person with 36 points will need to win have Joe do no better than 3rd. The
bonus system serves to reward those in softer classes, not only to stop
sandbagging.
> On the West coast, Joe Goeke already has 22 points in
>his bag in two events even though he paxed well down in the field, due to
>very weak competition.
???? Joe was paxed at 7th in Fontana. How is "way down in the field?" Joe
paxed 55th in Atwater, but then I paxed 49th in what was NOT a soft class.
I believe some of that may be course related. IMO, Joe has two 1sts because
Joe picked which class he wanted to enter, which events to enter, and then
drove well enough at those events.
>It's now likely that Joe will not need a great finish
>against the strong field at Topeka to win the Championship. I'm not saying
>Joe doesn't serve a Championship it's just that it's likely to be handed to
>him by the other strong drivers eliminating each other before they get to
>Topeka. That's kinda like Kyle Petty winning the Daytona 500 because all the
>top drivers wrecked each other out of the race.
Winning because the others wrecked is part of racing. Just like winning
because the other guy forgot to arrive in grid on time, or had mechanical
problems, or whatever. There are normally many factors in a championship
run, some of which reflect more what the opponents did or did not do, not
just how well you drove.
Can the system be tweaked to make it work better? Sure, but don't throw out
the series basis that makes ProSolo what it is. My 2 cents and more.. :)
Randy Chase
http://www.conecam.com/
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