New Race Format

[sfry61]

Hey chaps, just thought id start this off.

Personally im not to keen on it all, it seemed to make everyone in the final drive a little crazy maybe it will calm down over time...i hope. Id prefer the old format with a touch of driver grading.

What are other peoples thoughts??

[Hog]

I think the grid layout worked well - less first corner pileups.

I'm a little confused (which doesn't take much) how the grading system works though. I had a mare in qualifying, then won the B final. So next week I'm pole in the B final and as such "stuck" there with no opportunity to get into the A?

To be honest it doesn't really bother me - just trying to get a grip on it.

I'm just wondering how it works - now I'm in the B am I destined to stay there for the remainder of the 6 week period? Can I bump up into the A and if so, how? And what happens if I can yet an A grade driver who hasn't been able to race for a few weeks makes a return? Do I get bumped back down into the B despite the fact that I've made the effort to race every week to improve my standing?

[crewie]

next week dave your first two races are qualifing which gives everybody the chance to get in the a every week. all the ranking does is sort out the heat listings. the system worked quite well i thought with the top quali heat and a final having 3 or 4 different drivers in it. give it time chaps as any system will be great for you one week and bad the next.

[Hog]

Sorted - thanks Dave. Told you it didn't take much to confuse me.

Just call me Stampy.

[Hairy Spider]

"Wot Crewie said..."

Ranking only affects qualifying. I'll post the rankings on the website later so you can see how it updates from week to week during the trial.

Jon.

[Mutant]

I guess there are a few things to iron out... and i guess it is only a trial.....

I guess we give it a go and see how we get on.

my view at the moment is that the new format sucks.

we seem to have moved from three close heats of RACING to two heats of QUALIFYING and one race..... and not a good race at that.....

The old system averages performance over three races, you can afford to have a bad race and the other two can count. Now if your one race of the evening is a bad one thats it.... poor performance time....

We also do not seem to be able to cater for the younger racers that up until now have been able to go home after their second race....

ftq also seems to advantage the rope skipping types that do not feel that they should be disadvantaged by their own mistakes...


Ultimately i feel heats and finals for 50+ drivers in just over a couple of hours leads to one too many compromises for an enjoyable evening.

i am a fan of the new proposal for rankings however.....

[gav4wd]

last night showed despite being the quickest all night a car failure nearly gave me 97 points instead of 100.
makes it intresting and an open playing field.

[discostu]

i raced for the first time with the trial format last night and left the meeting with the sense ive raced the competion rather than making the numbers up for the last round in the old format as the meeting would have been won by that point.

im liking

stu

[Hog]

It seems that every format has its pros and cons.

For example I raced my arse off the previous week to finish 2nd, only to be bumped down the grid due to a returning driver - namely you Stu . And if Ed had raced, my 2nd then becomes a 4th.

It's a good thing if it frees up Alan from having to decide where everybody goes into a heat, just not sure on the system of deciding on the driver grading. If, for example, the week that was used to create the drivers grading I'd had a mare of a night, how does that fairly create my driver grade?

Would it perhaps not be fairer to have drivers graded on a "rolling" basis - whereas their grade is created over say their last 6 results? This gives 2 options as well:

1 - to include 0 results where a driver hasn't raced - this rewards commitment to the club, or

2 - don't include 0 results - hence not penalising them if they can't attend and still maintaining their last 6 scores that count.

I think the racing has definitely been closer in the last few weeks which is a good thing, but as with any new system there's bumps to be ironed out I feel.

Just my $0.02 worth.......

[jordan1]

i like the system but at the same time is annoying was second in my final car cut out, and ended up 24th ranked when was 17th when the car cut out so now im gunna be in a heat which i shouldnt be in next week

[Hog]

I stand to be corrected Jordan but I think you'll be classified as last in your final hence you will still be in that band of driver ability next week rather than dropping too far down.